VacationSelector
The white medina above the harbour walls, Essaouira
EssaouiraThe white medina above the harbour walls
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Essaouira by Manel Cusido, Pexels License; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Essaouira or Windhoek?

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

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Essaouira leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Essaouira 44, Windhoek 36: Essaouira leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Essaouira 48, Windhoek 30: Essaouira leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Essaouira 14, Windhoek 25: Windhoek leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Essaouira 57, Windhoek 52: Essaouira leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Essaouira 17, Windhoek 14: Essaouira leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Essaouira 42, Windhoek 30: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Essaouira 58, Windhoek 22: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Essaouira 44, Windhoek 30: Essaouira leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Essaouira 74, Windhoek 62: Essaouira leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Essaouira 28, Windhoek 18: Essaouira leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Essaouira 66, Windhoek 30: Essaouira leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Essaouira and Windhoek.

Your match

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

Essaouira
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
EssaouiraWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEssaouiraWindhoek
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsCE50 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation11 m1,650 m
Main airportEssaouira-Mogador Airport (ESU)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureEssaouiraWindhoek
City population82,962486,169
People per km²16,59295
Museums within 10 km25
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 Windhoek 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.