VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Santa Marta?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’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 Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira and Santa Marta are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Santa Marta 34: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Santa Marta 40: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Santa Marta 38: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Santa Marta 27: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Santa Marta 17: Essaouira leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Santa Marta 30: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSanta Marta

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). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Marta
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15123
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSanta Marta
City population82,962505,915
People per km²16,5921,723
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Santa Marta 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.