VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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, San Miguel de Allende 4: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, San Miguel de Allende 40: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, San Miguel de Allende 32: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, San Miguel de Allende 48: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, San Miguel de Allende 50: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira and San Miguel de Allende are level on 66.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
Best match
48match

Wins on day trips and nightlife 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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSan Miguel de Allende

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.

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m1,900 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSan Miguel de Allende
City population82,96269,811
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.