VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Steamboat Springs 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Steamboat Springs 14: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Steamboat Springs 20: Steamboat Springs leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Steamboat Springs 12: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Steamboat Springs 46: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Steamboat Springs 22: Essaouira leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Steamboat Springs 17: Essaouira leads by 57 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira and Steamboat Springs are level on 28.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraSteamboat Springs
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 m2,052 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraSteamboat Springs
City population82,96213,224
People per km²16,592503
Museums within 10 km20
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.