VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Essaouira or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Wellington 44: Essaouira leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Wellington 42: Essaouira leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Wellington 33: Essaouira leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Wellington 30: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Essaouira
45match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Essaouira: 1991-2020 normals, Essaouira (1.4 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraWellington
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCE50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15111
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraWellington
City population82,962216,200
People per km²16,592487
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Essaouira or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.