VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
Victoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter, Victoria Falls
Victoria FallsVictoria Falls and its gorge from a helicopter

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Victoria Falls by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Victoria Falls?

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 Victoria Falls for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria Falls’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, Victoria Falls 7: Essaouira leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Victoria Falls 24: Essaouira leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Victoria Falls 12: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Victoria Falls 8: Essaouira leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Victoria Falls 94: Victoria Falls leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Victoria Falls 22: Victoria Falls leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Victoria Falls 38: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Victoria Falls 45: Essaouira leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Victoria Falls 18: Essaouira leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Victoria Falls 32: Essaouira leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Victoria Falls 10: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Victoria Falls 34: Essaouira leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Victoria Falls.

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.

Victoria Falls
29match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Victoria Falls in July

26 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraVictoria Falls

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). Victoria Falls: 1991-2020 normals, Livingstone (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraVictoria Falls
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Xhosa, Ndau, Venda, Chewa, Khoisan, Kalanga, Shona, Tonga, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Northern Ndebele, Nambya, Zimbabwe Sign Language, Barwe
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Zimbabwe Gold (ZWG)
SocketsCE50 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15999
Elevation11 m961 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsVictoria Falls International Airport (VFA)18 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraVictoria Falls
City population82,96233,060
People per km²16,592-
Museums within 10 km22
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 Victoria Falls 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.