VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Salvador?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Essaouira for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Essaouira’s own page.

Choose Salvador for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Essaouira 47, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Salvador 52: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Essaouira and Salvador are level on 42.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Salvador 42: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Salvador 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Salvador 70: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Salvador 32: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Salvador.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Essaouira in July

22 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSalvador

Where the figures come from

Essaouira has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSalvador
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightPortuguese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCE50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSalvador
City population82,9622,417,678
People per km²16,5923,489
Museums within 10 km249
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Salvador somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.