VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Santa Fe?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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, Santa Fe 5: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Santa Fe 22: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Santa Fe 40: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Santa Fe 30: Essaouira leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Santa Fe 55: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSanta Fe

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.

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Fe
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation11 m2,134 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Fe
City population82,96287,505
People per km²16,592645
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Santa Fe 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.