VacationSelector
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens
Palm Springs

Photos: Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Marrakech or Palm Springs?

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 Marrakech for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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. Marrakech and Palm Springs are level on 7.
Food & drink. Marrakech 64, Palm Springs 40: Marrakech leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Marrakech 76, Palm Springs 42: Marrakech leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Marrakech 33, Palm Springs 36: Palm Springs leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marrakech 70, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Marrakech 28, Palm Springs 38: Palm Springs leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Marrakech 25, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Marrakech 38, Palm Springs 22: Marrakech leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Marrakech 72, Palm Springs 44: Marrakech leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Marrakech 72, Palm Springs 32: Marrakech leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marrakech 25, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marrakech 75, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marrakech and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Marrakech
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on families 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.

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

010203040JFMAMJJASOND
MarrakechPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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. Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarrakechPalm Springs
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight-
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation465 m146 m
Main airportMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarrakechPalm Springs
City population1,002,69744,575
People per km²4,360181
Museums within 10 km143
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marrakech or Palm Springs 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. 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.