VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Valencia?

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

  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Valencia for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Valencia 60: Valencia leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Valencia 57: Essaouira leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Valencia 42: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraValencia
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish
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 m15 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraValencia
City population82,962840,792
People per km²16,5926,242
Museums within 10 km245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Valencia 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.