VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Siena?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Essaouira leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Siena 62: Siena leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Siena 78: Siena leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Siena 27: Siena leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Siena 65: Siena leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Siena 94: Siena leads by 77 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Siena 38: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Siena 60: Siena leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Siena 35: Essaouira leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Siena 42: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Siena 36: Siena leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Siena 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 Siena.

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.

Siena
Best match
51match

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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSiena

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.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSiena
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightItalian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m322 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSiena
City population82,96252,812
People per km²16,592446
Museums within 10 km230
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Siena 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.