VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Fes or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Shanghai 72: Fes leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Shanghai 25: Fes leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 58 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Shanghai 55: Fes leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Shanghai 55: Fes leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Fes
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FesShanghai

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.

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesShanghai
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightPutonghua
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCE50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation408 m4 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesShanghai
City population1,167,84224,870,895
People per km²3,6503,922
Museums within 10 km245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes or Shanghai 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.