VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The minaret and dome of the Zitouna Mosque, Tunis
TunisThe minaret and dome of the Zitouna Mosque

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

Essaouira or Tunis?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Tunis for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tunis’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, Tunis 60: Tunis leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Tunis 60: Tunis leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Tunis 76: Tunis leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Tunis 33: Tunis leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Tunis 45: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Tunis 77: Tunis leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Tunis 38: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Tunis 48: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Tunis 50: Tunis leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Tunis 86: Tunis leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Tunis 38: Tunis leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Tunis 58: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Tunis.

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Tunis
Best match
56match

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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Tunis in July

34 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraTunis

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). Tunis: 1991-2020 normals, Tunis-Carthage (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraTunis
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightArabic
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Tunisian Dinar (TND)
SocketsCE50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 197, ambulance 190, fire 198
Elevation11 m4 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsTunis Carthage International Airport (TUN)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraTunis
City population82,962602,560
People per km²16,5922,834
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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