VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Santiago?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Santiago for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Essaouira leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Santiago 58: Essaouira leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Santiago 37: Essaouira leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Santiago.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSantiago
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCE50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation11 m575 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSantiago
City population82,9626,257,516
People per km²16,5927,468
Museums within 10 km254
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 Santiago 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.