VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Split?

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
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Split for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Split leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Split 57: Split leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Split 66: Split leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Split 52: Split leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Split 77: Split leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Split 78: Split leads by 61 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Split 54: Split leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Split 67: Split leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Split 32: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Split 45: Essaouira leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Split 37: Split leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Split 40: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Split
Best match
57match

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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSplit

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). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSplit
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightCroatian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSplit
City population82,962160,577
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Split 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.