VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Samarkand?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira and Samarkand are level on 14.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Samarkand 40: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Samarkand 30: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Essaouira and Samarkand are level on 58.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Samarkand 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Samarkand 24: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Samarkand 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 Samarkand.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSamarkand

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). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSamarkand
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightUzbek
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCE50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m702 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSamarkand
City population82,962546,303
People per km²16,5925,058
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Samarkand 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.