VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fes or Gulf Shores?

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 Fes for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Gulf Shores’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. Fes 5, Gulf Shores 84: Gulf Shores leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Gulf Shores 38: Fes leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Gulf Shores 12: Fes leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Gulf Shores 32: Gulf Shores leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes and Gulf Shores are level on 52.
Day trips. Fes 62, Gulf Shores 52: Fes leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Gulf Shores 75: Gulf Shores leads by 53 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Gulf Shores 15: Fes leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Gulf Shores 22: Fes leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Gulf Shores 42: Fes leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Gulf Shores 27: Fes leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Gulf Shores 28: Fes leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Gulf Shores.

Your match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FesGulf Shores

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Gulf Shores 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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesGulf Shores
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation408 m2 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesGulf Shores
City population1,167,84215,014
People per km²3,650207
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes or Gulf Shores 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.