VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Essaouira or Valletta?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Valletta for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Valletta 55: Valletta leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Valletta 56: Essaouira leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Valletta 38: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Valletta 50: Essaouira leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Valletta 32: Essaouira leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Valletta.

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.

Valletta
Best match
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraValletta
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m56 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraValletta
City population82,9625,197
People per km²16,5926,496
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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