Jardin Majorelle is a luminous botanical garden in Marrakech, Morocco, famed for its electric cobalt-blue architecture, extraordinary plant collection from five continents, and its deep connection to painter Jacques Majorelle and fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent.
Morocco: Essaouira
🌊 Essaouira: The Wind Always Wins
Essaouira appeared on the horizon the way certain places do — not with a fanfare, but with a kind of quiet inevitability, as if it had simply always been there and was waiting for you to catch up. Which, given its history, is not entirely an exaggeration. The city is a bleached, windswept thing of white walls and blue shutters and serious-looking fortifications, sitting right at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean with the composed air of something that has weathered quite a lot and expects to weather a good deal more.
The Phoenicians knew about this place as far back as the seventh century BC, which, to put it in context, is roughly two and a half thousand years before anyone thought to build a Tesco. They called it Mogador — a name that stuck around in various forms for centuries and is still used today by locals who find two syllables more efficient than five. After the Phoenicians came the Carthaginians, who established a factory here for producing Tyrian purple dye — an extraordinarily expensive colour derived from crushing large quantities of sea snails, which tells you something about both the priorities of the ancient world and the resourcefulness of anyone who has to make a living on a blustery Atlantic headland.
Then came the Romans, then various Berber dynasties, and eventually the Portuguese, who in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries established a trading post they called Mogador and built fortifications that you can still see in the basic structure of the seawall today. The Portuguese, to their credit, built things to last. What is less well known is that Essaouira’s most dramatic transformation came in the eighteenth century, when the Moroccan Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah — who reigned from 1757 to 1790 and was, by all accounts, an unusually progressive and outward-looking ruler — decided that he wanted a purpose-built Atlantic trading port of his very own. He chose Mogador, and he hired a French military architect named Théodore Cornut to redesign it from scratch.
Cornut was a student of the great Vauban tradition of French military engineering, and the influence shows. The result is something you genuinely do not see anywhere else: a North African medina laid out with the geometric precision of a French military garrison, wrapped in Portuguese-influenced ramparts, and stacked with two and a half thousand years of accumulated commercial history. The Sultan renamed it Essaouira — which translates from the Arabic, roughly, as “the well-designed” — and declared it the principal port through which Moroccan trade with Europe would be conducted. For a time, it was one of the most cosmopolitan cities on the African continent. The city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, and unlike some places that carry that designation as though it were a particularly heavy piece of luggage, Essaouira seems more or less indifferent to it. It just gets on with being itself.
🧳 Arriving, and the Man with the Cart
Cars are banned inside the medina. This is, in principle, a sensible rule, and one you are grateful for once you are actually inside the place. It is less convenient when you have bags that need to be moved from the car park to the riad, which is located somewhere in the middle of what is, despite being rather more rationally laid out than most North African old towns, still a sufficiently dense tangle of lanes to defeat casual navigation.
The solution — the universally accepted solution in Essaouira, in the same way that queuing is the universally accepted solution to most British social problems — is the man with a wooden cart. He appeared promptly, loaded our bags with a practised efficiency that suggested he had done this several thousand times, and set off at a pace that we found, frankly, challenging to keep up with.
The medina of Essaouira is not enormous. In theory, it takes about twenty minutes to cross on foot. In practice, crossing it involves threading through a constant and cheerful press of tourists, locals, vendors, cats, and the occasional moped that was definitely not supposed to be there but had concluded that no one was going to stop it. The tables and stalls along the main lanes were stacked with the usual Moroccan merchandise — argan oil products (Essaouira is in the heart of the argan-growing region and never lets you forget it), thuya woodwork (the thuya tree, which grows in the nearby forests of the Haut Atlas foothills, produces a beautifully grained timber that local craftsmen have been turning into boxes, frames and furniture for centuries), spices piled in photogenic cones, and hand-woven textiles in colours that seemed specifically chosen to make everything else around them look slightly under-dressed. The air smelled of salt and bread and fish in roughly equal measure.
Our riad was near the far end of the medina, about ten minutes on foot once you factored in the weaving. We checked in. The room was decent, the courtyard was pleasant, and the receptionist, unprompted, suggested we might enjoy using the hammam that afternoon.
We had declined this suggestion at several previous stops on the trip. There had been no particular reason for this beyond a vague sense that a hammam was probably quite good for other people, and a British reluctance to commit to anything involving a significant degree of personal exposure to a stranger. This time, for reasons I cannot fully explain, we said yes.
🛁 The Hammam: Or, Being Comprehensively Cleaned
A hammam, for anyone who has not encountered one, is a North African bathhouse operating on roughly the same principle as a Turkish bath, but with rather more enthusiastic exfoliation. The tradition goes back at least to the seventh century, when the spread of Islam brought with it a religious emphasis on ritual cleanliness that made bathhouses not merely a luxury but a civic and spiritual institution. In Moroccan cities, the neighbourhood hammam was for centuries the place where people bathed, socialised, and conducted a fair amount of informal business. Most medinas still have public hammams — cheaper and rather more communal than the private ones attached to riads — where local residents continue to use them in preference to bathing at home.
The hammam at our riad occupied a humid, tiled room that smelled of eucalyptus and hot water. What followed involved being scrubbed, steamed, washed, and oiled with a thoroughness that suggested our skin had been assessed, found significantly wanting, and was now being dealt with accordingly. The person doing the scrubbing used a kessa — a rough mitt that looks innocuous but turns out to be extraordinarily effective at removing what I can only describe as historical layers of skin that one had not previously been aware of carrying around. The black soap they apply beforehand, savon beldi, is made from olives and has been used in Moroccan hammams for about as long as anyone can remember.
What I had imagined would be an hour of mild self-indulgence — the sort of thing you do on holiday and feel mildly smug about — stretched to something closer to two hours of what I can only describe as a full mechanical overhaul. We emerged into the late afternoon air feeling, if not exactly new, then at least significantly cleaner than we had been going in, and with the specific kind of weightless calm that I imagine is how people feel after a particularly successful visit to a spa, or possibly after a very long sleep. I am not, as a rule, a spa person. But I will grudgingly admit that this was excellent.
🏛️ The Streets and the History: A City That Has Seen Everything
Afterwards, we walked. Essaouira is absolutely the right size for walking. It is compact enough that you can cross it in twenty minutes if you are trying, and varied enough that you can wander for an entire afternoon if you are not. The streets are noticeably narrower than Marrakech, the pace is measurably slower, and the city has the feel — not uncommon in places with very long histories — of somewhere that has seen rather too much to get particularly exercised about tourists.
The history of Essaouira is, in essence, the history of trade. From the Phoenicians to the Portuguese to the Alaouite Sultans, everyone who took an interest in this stretch of the Atlantic coast did so because it offered something useful: a sheltered anchorage, access to trans-Saharan trade routes, a point of contact between Africa and Europe. By the nineteenth century, under Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah’s reforms and those of his successors, Essaouira had become one of the most important commercial ports on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Merchants from across the world maintained offices and warehouses here. Sugar, slaves, gold, ivory, ostrich feathers, and gum arabic flowed through the city from the interior of Africa; European manufactured goods flowed in the opposite direction.
What made this commercial ecosystem particularly unusual was the central role played by the city’s Jewish community. Essaouira had a substantial and prosperous Jewish population, many of whom had been brought to the city by Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah specifically to act as commercial intermediaries — tujjar al-sultan, or “merchants of the sultan” — managing trade with European partners and facilitating the complex financial arrangements that long-distance commerce required. At the height of the city’s commercial importance, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community made up something approaching forty per cent of the total population, one of the highest proportions of any city in North Africa. They occupied the mellah — the traditional walled Jewish quarter found in most Moroccan cities — which is still very much present in Essaouira today, along with several synagogues in varying states of preservation and restoration.
The community began to decline in the late nineteenth century as the port lost commercial importance to Casablanca and Tangier, and the Jewish population emigrated steadily through the twentieth century, accelerating sharply after the establishment of Israel in 1948. Today, very few Jewish families remain in Essaouira, though the city continues to host an annual Jewish cultural festival and maintains a genuine connection to this part of its past in a way that feels less performative than you might expect.
The city has, over the decades, also accumulated a rather different kind of cultural reputation. From the 1960s onwards, Essaouira became a magnet for artists, musicians and various other people whose career paths did not require them to be anywhere in particular on a Monday morning. The painter and filmmaker Orson Welles filmed much of his adaptation of Othello here in 1949, using the city’s ramparts, alleys and fortifications as his backdrop. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1952, and a statue of Welles now stands in one of the city’s squares, looking out over the medina with an expression of considerable self-satisfaction. Frank Zappa allegedly visited. Cat Stevens passed through. And then there is Jimi Hendrix, who came in 1969 during a period when Essaouira was a significant stop on the hippie trail between Europe and India. The city has been dining out on this particular visit ever since, which is understandable, though it seems his actual time there was relatively brief and not especially eventful by the standards of Jimi Hendrix’s life in 1969. There is a dedicated café-shrine, regular references in tourist literature, and a degree of certainty among locals about exactly where he stayed that is not entirely consistent from one telling to the next.
💨 The Ramparts and the Atlantic
We made our way to the seafront ramparts in the late afternoon. The main bastion — the Skala de la Ville — is the most impressive section of the old city walls, a long, flat-topped platform running along the top of the seawall and looking out directly over the Atlantic. The Portuguese originally constructed coastal defences here in the sixteenth century; the current walls are largely the work of the eighteenth-century reconstruction under Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah and Théodore Cornut. The cannons are still in place along the top of the wall, pointing seaward in a row with the patient confidence of things that no longer expect to be needed. They are a mixture of Spanish, Dutch, English and Portuguese origin, which tells you something about the various powers that had an interest in this stretch of coastline and the rather energetic period of European history that produced them.
The tide was coming in hard. Waves broke against the dark basalt rocks at the base of the wall with a satisfying, percussive crash, filling the rock pools below with white foam and then draining away again in a rush of bubbles. The Atlantic here is not a gentle sea. The water is cold — the Canary Current brings water up from the south Atlantic that is noticeably cooler than you might expect at this latitude — and the waves carry real weight. It was visually dramatic in the way that Atlantic coastlines invariably are: vast grey-green water, a wide, clean horizon, the smell of the sea arriving in proper gusts rather than the polite waft you get on calmer coasts. You could stand up there for a considerable time watching the waves do what waves do, which is essentially the same thing over and over again but somehow never quite gets dull.
🐟 The Harbour: Blue Boats and Working Lives
We made a detour through the harbour before the sun got too low. Essaouira is still a working fishing port, and has been for a very long time — the archaeological evidence of fish-processing facilities here goes back to the Phoenician period, and the city’s relationship with the sea is, to put it mildly, deep-rooted.
The harbour was full of the small, flat-bottomed wooden fishing boats that have become as visually synonymous with Essaouira as its white walls: painted a particular shade of bright blue that is specific enough to the city that it has its own informal name among photographers and travel writers who cannot resist a good visual shorthand. They were packed together so tightly in the inner harbour that it seemed logistically implausible that they could all depart independently without a great deal of manoeuvring and mutual negotiation, but presumably they managed this every morning without incident.
Larger, more weathered vessels sat further back, hulls worn and stained from years of actual use, carrying the kind of quiet authority that belongs to working things that have been genuinely put to work. The smell was, as you would expect, strongly maritime. Gulls were making their views known at considerable volume. It was, taken as a whole, an exceptionally photogenic scene, which I say as someone who does not normally pause to take photographs of things when there is a perfectly good café somewhere nearby.
Beyond the harbour wall, the beach curved away to the south in a long, pale arc. Essaouira’s beach is wide, firm-sanded and partially sheltered from the full force of the Atlantic by the curve of the bay and the harbour walls — though “partially sheltered” here means something rather different than it would mean on, say, a beach in Cornwall. The city has had a long-standing reputation among windsurfers and kitesurfers going back to at least the 1990s, when the sport of kitesurfing was still in its early development and pioneers were looking for reliable wind. What they found here was the Atlantic trade winds, which funnel down this stretch of the Moroccan coast with a consistency and force that make Essaouira one of the better locations in the world for the sport. On a busy afternoon, the bay can look like someone has released a very large number of colourful kites simultaneously and then stood back to see what happens. In summer, it makes the place one of the better destinations in the world for watching other people be very cold and highly athletic at the same time while you sit on a terrace with a glass of mint tea feeling absolutely fine about your life choices.
🐱 The Cats of Morocco: A Brief Digression
On the way back from the harbour, we passed a man distributing food to what appeared to be somewhere between fifty and sixty cats gathered in an irregular cluster around a section of old wall. This is, in Morocco, a perfectly normal thing to encounter.
Morocco has cats in the way that Britain has pigeons: they are everywhere, they are apparently being fed by someone, and they are regarded by the general population with a mixture of genuine affection and the kind of resigned acceptance that comes from long coexistence. The Islamic tradition holds cats in notably high esteem — the Prophet Mohammed is said to have been fond of them, and there are specific hadith about the permissibility of keeping cats and the virtue of treating them well — which may explain why Moroccan street cats tend to look considerably better fed and more relaxed than their counterparts in some other parts of the world.
There were a notable number of kittens in the group by the wall, which suggested that the feeding programme had not been accompanied by any particularly systematic neutering operation. The cats themselves looked, on balance, reasonably healthy, which was something. Several of them appeared to have allocated specific territories on the warm stones of the wall and were conducting their territorial claims with the focused intensity of small landowners. We watched for a bit and then carried on, because there were ramparts to return to before the sun went down.
🌅 The Sunset, Which Was Genuinely Good
We returned to the ramparts as the sun began to drop. The light changed in the way that Atlantic sunsets at this latitude have a habit of doing — from the ordinary golden yellow of late afternoon through orange and then into a pink that deepened towards the horizon, before arriving briefly at a copper-coloured purple that lasted about ninety seconds and was, frankly, worth the walk. Then the Atlantic swallowed the sun and the colour drained away and it was just the sea and the darkening sky and the waves continuing their entirely patient argument with the rocks below.
It was a good end to a day that had begun, effectively, by waiting for a man to finish his breakfast.
🌅 The Last Morning: Blue Boats and a Final Walk
The last morning in Essaouira began at the sort of unhurried pace that the town appeared to regard as the correct and only appropriate speed. After breakfast at the riad — simple, served in the courtyard, involving bread and olive oil and honey and an amount of tea that suggested the kitchen had been preparing it since the previous evening — we had a few hours before departure, and we used them the only sensible way: we went for a walk.
We retraced the route we had taken the previous evening, heading back towards the seawall. The Atlantic, which had been throwing itself at the rocks with considerable force and purpose the night before, was noticeably calmer in the early morning. The sea had apparently decided to be on its best behaviour, which made the walk along the wall more pleasant and rather less dramatic. Both of these things can be true.
Down at the harbour, the fishing boats were already being prepared for the day, and I found myself stopping repeatedly to take photographs, which is not normally something I do with any great efficiency or discipline. Essaouira’s fishing harbour is one of those places, however, that seems to manufacture pictorial opportunities in an almost irresponsible way. The same blue boats we had seen the previous evening were there, bobbing gently and knocking against one another with the companionable ease of things that are used to each other’s company. In the early morning light, the whole scene had a quality of considered stillness — a mixture of industry and calm that made it genuinely difficult to walk away from. The larger vessels, hulls worn and salt-darkened from years of use, sat in the background with the quiet authority of things that have actually been somewhere and done something, rather than simply looking decorative. Which is more than can be said for me most mornings.
🌊 The Beach: Cold, Pleasant, Sufficient
From the harbour, it was a short walk to the beach. Essaouira’s beach sweeps around in a long, soft arc to the south, pale-sanded and firm underfoot. It is partially sheltered from the full force of the Atlantic by the curve of the bay and the harbour walls — though as noted, “partially sheltered” in Essaouira means something rather more rigorous than the same phrase would mean in Bournemouth. The wind was modest that morning, which by Essaouira standards apparently qualified as a near-windless day.
The kitesurfers were absent. In their place, the beach was quiet — a few early walkers, some fishermen with lines out, the sea doing its thing in a moderate and professional manner. We rolled up our trousers and paddled in the shallows, which were cold in the specific way that Atlantic water is cold regardless of what the calendar says. It was pleasant. It was entirely sufficient. No one needed to be impressive about it.
The kite-surfing reputation of the beach is not accidental or recent. Essaouira sits in a corridor where the Atlantic trade winds — the same winds that powered the sailing ships of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers and kept the trans-Atlantic trade routes going for several centuries — compress against the Moroccan coast and deliver reliable, consistent force. By the late 1990s, the place was already being discussed seriously in windsurfing circles, and the annual kite-surfing festival that the city hosts has been drawing international competitors for well over two decades. It is, in summer, one of the more reliably excellent places in the world to watch this happen from a comfortable distance while wrapped in a jacket.
🏰 The Medina: Order in an Unlikely Place
We returned to the medina for a final wander before it was time to leave. The narrow streets of Essaouira’s old town are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 2001, which in practice means that the whitewashed walls and blue-painted shutters are very well preserved and the whole thing photographs beautifully. It also means that the basic structure of the eighteenth-century city has been maintained in a way that gives you a genuine sense of what it looked like at the height of its commercial importance.
What strikes you, particularly if you have recently been to Fez or Marrakech, is how unusually ordered the medina is. Most North African old towns are magnificent, disorienting labyrinths — the product of organic centuries of growth, where streets follow the logic of drainage and property boundaries and neighbourhood feuds rather than anything as straightforward as a plan. Essaouira is different. Théodore Cornut laid it out in the 1760s with the logical grid of a French military engineer, and while it has accumulated the normal layers of commerce and habitation over the intervening two and a half centuries, the underlying structure is still there. You can navigate it without the specific existential crisis that Fez tends to produce. This is not a criticism of Fez. It is simply an observation that Essaouira is considerably kinder to people with a limited sense of direction, which includes me.
The morning’s business was getting underway as we walked — the spice sellers arranging their displays, the thuya wood workshops opening their shutters, the bread sellers appearing with trays of fresh-baked loaves. The occasional smell of cumin or grilled fish drifted down the lanes. It was the ordinary, comfortable bustle of a place with functioning daily life, and it was, in a way that is hard to explain, deeply agreeable.
🧱 The Ramparts: One Last Look
We emerged near a section of the old town wall, where stone steps led up to the ramparts. The Skala du Port — the harbour bastion, as distinct from the longer seafront wall — is a separate fortification at the entrance to the harbour, and from the top of it the views are considerable: south along the beach, north-west over the Atlantic, and back across the rooftops of the medina to the minarets and water towers beyond.
Essaouira is not a city that announces itself. It makes its points quietly, and this was one of them: a view that takes in the full context of the place — the sea it faces, the port it serves, the city it contains — without any of the theatrical self-presentation that some coastal towns feel compelled to offer. You look at it and understand, without anyone having to tell you, why people built a city here and why, twenty-seven centuries later, it is still here and still functioning. Sometimes a good view does all the necessary explaining.
🛻 The Departure: A Cart, a Driver and the Road Back
Back at the riad, we collected our bags and the same process that had brought us in now ran in reverse. A porter arrived with a wooden cart of such spectacular decrepitude that it appeared to be held together primarily by habit and optimism. It had the particular character of things that have been repaired so many times that the repairs have become structural — a wheel that sat at a slightly compromised angle, a handle that had been splinted at some point and never fully recovered. It was, in its own way, magnificent.
The porter navigated this vehicle through the alleyways of the medina with the confidence and precision of a man who has done this several thousand times and long since ceased to find it interesting. He squeezed past walls and pedestrians with barely an inch to spare on either side, never pausing, never hesitating, apparently incapable of encountering a gap too small to attempt. We followed in his wake, trying to keep up and mostly managing it.
Out through the city gate, and the lanes widened into proper streets, and there was the car, and there was Azdine, our driver, waiting with the patient expression of a man who has spent a large proportion of his professional life waiting for people to emerge from places they have been enjoying rather more than they expected to, and has long since arrived at a settled peace with this arrangement. He took the bags, loaded the car, and we pulled away from Essaouira into the midday traffic.
Planning your visit to Essaouira
📍 Location
Essaouira — also known by its ancient name, Mogador — sits on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, roughly 200 kilometres west of Marrakech and within the Marrakech-Safi region. The city is home to around 80,000 people and occupies a compact coastal position where the Atlantic Ocean shapes almost every aspect of daily life. Its famous winds have earned it the nickname “the Windy City of Africa,” and the consistent Atlantic breeze keeps temperatures mild throughout the year, making it a welcome contrast to the heat of Morocco’s interior.
The city is dominated by its UNESCO World Heritage-listed medina — a beautifully preserved example of an 18th-century fortified town, laid out in an unusually orderly grid pattern rather than the more labyrinthine layouts typical of Moroccan medinas elsewhere. Whitewashed walls, blue-painted shutters, and ornate wooden balconies define the streetscapes, while the waterfront ramparts stand guard over the sea below.
✈️ Getting There
The most common point of arrival for international visitors is Marrakech Menara Airport, which offers a wide range of flights from cities across Europe and beyond. From Marrakech, the journey to Essaouira takes approximately two and a half to three hours by road.
Essaouira does have its own small airport — Essaouira-Mogador Airport — located around 15 kilometres from the town centre. It handles some direct flights from European cities including London, Paris, Brussels, and Marseille, as well as internal Moroccan routes, though the flight schedule is more limited than Marrakech.
From Marrakech, the most affordable way to reach Essaouira is by long-distance bus. Supratours and CTM are the main operators, with tickets costing around 100 dirhams per person. The bus drops you just outside the medina walls, usually within easy walking distance of most accommodation. Booking in advance is advisable during busy periods. Grand taxis — shared long-distance taxis — are another option from Marrakech and can be negotiated at the official taxi stands. The price depends on the number of passengers and your haggling ability, with shared journeys costing less per person. Private transfer services are also widely available and can be booked in advance online; these are a more comfortable option, particularly for families or groups. Driving is also a straightforward and popular choice, with a well-maintained road connecting Marrakech to Essaouira in around two to two and a half hours.
If travelling from Casablanca, CTM operates direct bus services, with the journey taking approximately four and a half to five hours.
🚶 Getting Around
Essaouira is a pleasantly compact city and the medina in particular is best explored entirely on foot. The grid layout of the streets makes it far less disorientating than other Moroccan medinas, and wandering without a map is part of the pleasure. Most accommodation, restaurants, and attractions are within easy walking distance of each other.
Petit taxis operate within the city and fares are notably consistent and reasonable by Moroccan standards — typically around 7 dirhams for a ride within the city, dropping to around 5 dirhams per person when sharing. As with elsewhere in Morocco, always confirm the fare before setting off or ensure the meter is used.
Grand taxis are useful for reaching destinations outside the medina or for day trips to nearby villages and beaches such as Sidi Kaouki, around 30 minutes to the south. There is also a local Lima Bus service that connects the city to outlying areas including Sidi Ishaq to the north and Smimou and Sidi Kaouki to the south. Car hire is available at the airport and through agencies in town, offering the greatest flexibility for exploring the surrounding coastline and countryside.
Cycling is possible along the beachside promenade, and bicycles can be hired locally. However, within the narrower medina lanes, cycling is impractical.
🏰 The Medina
The historic medina is the heart and soul of Essaouira. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its well-preserved late 18th-century urban planning, it blends North African, European, and sub-Saharan African architectural influences into a coherent and visually striking whole. Walking through its lanes, visitors pass art galleries, jewellery workshops, spice stalls, carpet merchants, and leather goods shops. The atmosphere is notably more relaxed than in Marrakech or Fez, with far less pressure to buy.
Place Moulay Hassan, the main square adjacent to the medina, is an ideal spot to rest over mint tea and people-watch. Musicians, street performers, and locals going about their daily business make it a lively hub at any hour, becoming even more animated in the evenings.
The souks of Essaouira are particularly well regarded for their craftsmanship. Thuya wood — a locally sourced timber with a distinctive grain — is worked into intricate boxes, trays, and decorative pieces by artisans whose workshops line several streets. Handwoven rugs, ceramics, silver jewellery, kaftans, and leather goods are also widely available. Haggling is part of the experience and is expected.
🏛️ Key Sights
The ramparts that encircle the medina are among the most photographed features of Essaouira. Built in the 18th century under Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah with the input of French architect Théodore Cornut, the fortifications run along the sea-facing edge of the city, offering sweeping views over the Atlantic. A stroll along the top of the walls, particularly at sunset, is one of the highlights of any visit. Rows of old cannons point out to sea, and the sheer scale of the defences gives a clear sense of the city’s former strategic importance.
Skala du Port, the fortress at the entrance to the harbour, provides some of the most iconic views of the city. Its stone arches and elevated position frame the medina beautifully and make it a favourite spot for photography. Fans of the television series Game of Thrones may recognise it as the filming location for the city of Astapor.
The fishing harbour itself is worth visiting, particularly in the morning when boats return with their catch. The famous blue-painted fishing vessels that crowd the port have become one of the defining images of Essaouira. The fish market nearby offers a vivid and lively introduction to the city’s maritime character; visitors can purchase fresh seafood and take it to nearby restaurants to be cooked for a modest fee.
The Musée Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah, housed in a 19th-century building that previously served as the town hall, displays a collection of traditional Moroccan crafts, musical instruments, jewellery, Berber clothing, and weapons.
The Jewish Quarter, or Mellah, is a quieter corner of the medina worth exploring for its insight into Essaouira’s culturally diverse history. The city was once home to a significant Jewish community, and the Haim Pinto Synagogue and adjacent cemeteries survive as reminders of this heritage.
🏖️ The Beach and Water Sports
Essaouira’s main beach, Plage d’Essaouira, is a two-kilometre crescent of golden sand stretching south from the medina along a wide promenade. It is accessible and well used, though the persistent Atlantic winds mean it is not always suitable for relaxed sunbathing. Those same winds, however, make Essaouira one of the premier destinations in the world for kitesurfing and windsurfing. Numerous schools and hire operations line the promenade, catering to both beginners and experienced riders. Surfing is also popular, particularly in autumn and winter when the swell increases.
For a quieter beach experience, Plage Assafi to the north of the city sees fewer tourists. The village of Sidi Kaouki, around 30 minutes south, is another popular surf spot with a long, uncrowded beach and a relaxed atmosphere.
Horseback riding along the beach is a popular activity, with several operators offering everything from short hourly rides to longer excursions. Camel rides and quad biking are also available along the shoreline and out into the dunes.
🎵 Arts, Culture, and Festivals
Essaouira has long attracted artists, musicians, and creative visitors, and the city has cultivated a thriving arts scene. Galleries throughout the medina showcase everything from traditional Moroccan crafts to contemporary painting. The city is deeply associated with Gnaoua music, a hypnotic and rhythmic style rooted in sub-Saharan African and Moroccan traditions. The Gnaoua World Music Festival, held each June, transforms the city into a major music event drawing performers and visitors from across the world.
Spring brings the Printemps Musical des Alizés, a classical and chamber music festival held in historic venues throughout the city. October sees the Andalusian Atlantic Music Festival, which celebrates Essaouira’s rich Moroccan-Jewish cultural heritage.
The city’s association with the legendary musician Jimi Hendrix, who visited in 1969, has become part of local lore. The village of Diabat, five kilometres to the south, is where Hendrix reportedly stayed, and a café there still bears his name.
🍽️ Food and Drink
Fresh seafood is the undisputed highlight of eating in Essaouira. Grilled fish, prawns, and calamari are available at restaurants throughout the city, and buying directly from the harbour market and having it cooked at a nearby restaurant is a popular and cost-effective option. Traditional Moroccan dishes — tagines, couscous (traditionally served on Fridays), and pastilla — are widely available. Mint tea is a constant companion at cafés across the medina.
Alcohol is available in licensed restaurants, riads, and hotels throughout Essaouira, though not all establishments serve it. Drinking in public spaces or near mosques is not appropriate and should be avoided.
The best time to visit Morocco
🌸 Spring (March to May)
Spring is widely regarded as one of the finest times to travel to Morocco. Temperatures across the country sit at a comfortable 15–25°C, the landscape is green and flowering, and the famous Dadès Valley bursts with roses during the annual Rose Festival in May. The Atlas Mountains are still capped with snow in early spring, providing a dramatic backdrop to the warmer valleys below. Coastal cities such as Essaouira and Agadir enjoy pleasant breezes, while Marrakech and Fès reward explorers with long, warm days without the crushing summer heat. Crowds begin to build from April onwards, but the overall atmosphere remains relaxed and the light is exceptional for photography.
What to pack: Light layers and a cardigan for cooler mornings and evenings, comfortable walking shoes for the medinas, a sun hat, sunscreen, and a lightweight scarf — useful for visiting mosques and souks alike.
☀️ Summer (June to August)
Summer in Morocco is intense. Inland cities such as Marrakech and Fès can reach 40°C or above, making midday exploration genuinely challenging. That said, summer has its own rewards for the heat-tolerant traveller. The Sahara Desert offers extraordinary overnight camp experiences and star-filled skies, and accommodation prices drop noticeably compared to the peak spring and autumn seasons. The Atlantic coast — particularly Essaouira and Agadir — remains refreshingly breezy and rarely exceeds 25°C, making it a popular escape for Moroccans and visitors alike. The Rif and Atlas mountain villages stay cool and are worth seeking out. Those planning a summer visit should schedule outdoor activities in the early morning or evening and embrace the slower, shaded midday rhythm of local life.
What to pack: Loose, breathable linen or cotton clothing (long sleeves are practical and culturally appropriate), a wide-brimmed hat, high-SPF sunscreen, sandals and one pair of closed-toe shoes, a large lightweight scarf, and a reusable water bottle.
🍂 Autumn (September to November)
Autumn rivals spring as the most enjoyable season to visit Morocco. Temperatures ease from the summer extremes to a more manageable 18–28°C, and the Sahara Desert becomes genuinely inviting once again as the fierce heat fades. The date harvest in the southern oases — particularly around Erfoud and the Tafilalt region — is a spectacular sight, with palms laden with fruit and local festivals celebrating the season. October brings golden light and quieter roads, making it ideal for a road trip through the valleys and gorges of the south. The Atlas Mountains are accessible before the first winter snows arrive in November, and the cities of Marrakech and Fès are lively but not overwhelmed.
What to pack: Light layers with a jacket or mid-layer for cooler evenings, comfortable shoes suitable for uneven medina streets, sunscreen, a small daypack for day trips, and a light pashmina or scarf for versatility.
❄️ Winter (December to February)
Winter is Morocco’s most underrated season. While Marrakech and Fès can be surprisingly chilly — with temperatures dipping to 8°C at night — the days are often bright and crisp, and the souks and medinas have a relaxed, unhurried quality that is difficult to find during busier months. Prices are at their lowest, and popular sites such as the Bahia Palace and the Majorelle Garden can be enjoyed without queuing. In the High Atlas, skiing at Oukaimeden is a unique experience, and the snow-dusted mountain villages are extraordinarily photogenic. The south of the country — Ouarzazate, Zagora, and the Drâa Valley — remains warm and sunny during winter, making it an excellent destination for those escaping the grey of northern Europe.
What to pack: Warm layers including a wool jumper and a proper jacket, a scarf and hat for mountain areas and cold nights, waterproof shoes, and thermals if you are heading into the Atlas Mountains or sleeping in a desert camp.
The Overall Best Time to Visit
For most travellers, spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) offer the ideal balance of pleasant weather, manageable crowds, and access to the full range of Morocco’s landscapes — from the Sahara to the Atlas peaks to the Atlantic coast. Of the two, October stands out as perhaps the single best month: the summer heat has passed, the desert is at its most inviting, the date harvest is in full swing, and the quality of light is exceptional. Those willing to visit outside these windows will find real rewards: winter brings remarkable value and solitude in the imperial cities, while summer opens up the coast and the desert night sky to those who can bear the heat.
Where to stay in Essaouira
1. L’Heure Bleue Palais (Relais & Châteaux)
A magnificent 19th-century riad-palace tucked inside the medina walls near Bab Marrakech, L’Heure Bleue Palais is a proud member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux collection and widely regarded as the finest place to stay in all of Essaouira — and notably the only luxury property within the medina to feature a rooftop heated swimming pool. Its 33 individually decorated, non-smoking rooms and suites are arranged around a luminous central courtyard, with four distinct suite styles — African, Portuguese, English, and Oriental — each offering king-sized beds, marble bathrooms, free Wi-Fi, and air conditioning. Upper-floor rooms are the most serene and light-filled. Dining options include two restaurants serving refined Moroccan and international cuisine, a colonial-style English lounge bar complete with fireplace and piano, a hammam spa, a cinema room, a billiards room, and a generous free breakfast buffet served daily in the open-air courtyard. Ideally positioned on the edge of the medina, it is a short stroll from the Skala du Port, the historic ramparts, and the fishing harbour, yet set back enough from the noisiest streets to ensure a genuinely peaceful and indulgent stay
2. Mid-Range: Ryad Watier
Consistently rated the best riad in Essaouira by independent reviewers and repeat visitors alike, Ryad Watier is a beautifully restored former madrasa on a quiet side street deep within the medina, earning near-perfect scores on Booking.com. The building’s original school layout means its ten rooms and suites are exceptionally spacious by riad standards, each featuring a generous sitting room, a large comfortable bed, and a well-appointed bathroom — a genuine rarity in a city where rooms so often feel cramped. The all-female staff are legendary for their warmth, going far beyond expectations to arrange fish market visits, local restaurant recommendations, and personalised experiences for every guest. A sumptuous complimentary Moroccan breakfast is served each morning on the rooftop terrace, which delivers sweeping 360-degree views over the medina rooftops and out towards the sea. An on-site hammam is also available.
3. Budget: The Chill Art Hostel
The most celebrated and characterful budget option in Essaouira, The Chill Art Hostel occupies a restored traditional riad in the heart of the medina and has built an enthusiastic following among backpackers and solo travellers for its creative, artsy atmosphere, nightly live music open-mic sessions, and craft workshops. It appears consistently among Booking.com’s most popular cheap hotels in the city, praised for being clean, well-run, and staffed by a team repeatedly commended for their friendliness and local knowledge. Accommodation ranges from affordable dormitory beds to private rooms, all set within a charming courtyard of twinkling lanterns and Moroccan tilework. A large rooftop terrace offers outstanding views over the medina — described by guests as the perfect spot to watch the sunset over the ramparts — with a communal kitchen, bar, sauna, and breakfast service also on offer. Day trips and surf lessons can be arranged directly at the hostel.
More to Explore
