Essaouira Travel Guide

A port city in Morocco, this lively port overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. It is therefore not the same temperature as the Mediterranean! This small city, with less than a hundred thousand inhabitants, is a real maze of streets whose architecture mixes several styles: Portuguese, French and Berber architecture.

On the roof of your hotel or your accommodation, tasting a typical breakfast, you will be able to admire the buildings of a purified white of the medina. Surrounded by ramparts, the city gives us the strange impression of being in a Moroccan Saint-Malo. After your breakfast, you can dive into the old Mogador. The best is to stroll aimlessly in the labyrinth that the city offers. In small squares or under almost invisible arcades, you will discover treasures. Handicraft stores for example, selling camel leather bags without forgetting the famous oriental carpets. A little further on, a souk selling a wide variety of products but always in the spirit of the city: spices, fish, multicolored babouches or the famous argan oil, emblematic of the region. For tea, there is more than one flowered terrace to welcome you and you can drink a mint tea while tasting the delicious local pastries.

In Essaouira, wherever you go, you will feel the sea. And the closer you get to the sea, the more you’ll smell the fish. As the third largest sardine port in Morocco, Essaouira still has that special smell and the city is blown by the offshore winds (which is great if you want to go surfing). At dawn, when the sun rises over the sea, go to the port to watch the trawlers and blue boats set out for the morning fishing. This spectacle, with the swarms of gulls that crisscross the sky, is worth the detour. It is a real dive for your five senses: especially the sense of smell.

Essaouira is a city of fishermen, merchants, craftsmen and artists. Accessible and inexpensive from Europe, you will be truly disoriented by the sights and sounds of this beautiful city on the Atlantic coast.