Essaouira
A wind-buffeted Atlantic port where coloured fishing boats crowd the harbour and a whitewashed medina spills down to the sea, Essaouira blends Portuguese fortifications, Andalusian lanes and a living artisan tradition.
Arriving through the Bab Sbaa, the landward gate of the old walled city, the scale of Essaouira hits immediately. Below lies the Atlantic, pale and restless, and the square bastions of the Sqala du Port — eighteenth-century Portuguese ramparts where cannons still face the sea. The city was rebuilt in the mid-1700s by French engineers working for a Moroccan sultan, and its grid of lanes and arcaded passages still reflects that deliberate, Enlightenment-era plan. The medina is small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, yet dense with layered history.
The medina and its quarters
The streets follow a clear logic: the Port quarter descends steeply toward the water, its lower lanes lined with fishmongers and wood-fired grills where the morning catch sizzles on metal plates. Higher up, around the Place Oranais, artisan workshops occupy the former homes of merchants — cabinet-makers shaping thuya wood, metalworkers beating brass into trays and lanterns, painters working in small studios off quiet courtyards. A short walk east leads into the former Mellah, the Jewish quarter, where buildings are set closer together, windows smaller, and a handful of synagogues and former Mellah quarters survive along narrow passages.
The port and the sea wall
Below the Sqala, the working harbour is entirely different in character. Dozens of blue and white wooden boats — the iconic barques — are drawn up on the sand, their hulls patched and repainted in a patchwork of colour. Fishing brings in mackerel, sea bass and the occasional catch of sardines. At the water's edge, coffee stalls serve people watching the Atlantic rollers arrive. Walking the sea wall promenade in late afternoon, when the light drops low and the wind drops briefly, gives the clearest view of how the city sits — half fortress, half fishing port — between the land and the open ocean.
Wind, argan and the surrounding countryside
Essaouira is consistently windy. The Atlantic winds meet the coastal plain here, and the city has long attracted windsurfers and kitesurfers to the beaches immediately south of the medina. Beyond the city walls, the hinterland produces argan oil — the nut is pressed by women's cooperatives in villages scattered across the semi-arid plateau. The argan trees, gnarled and low-growing, are visible from the road heading inland, part of a landscape quite different from the green hills further north in Morocco.
Find it on the map
- Essaouira City
Tours that visit Essaouira
No tours visit this place just yet — tell us where you want to go and we'll build one. See all tours
Before you book you should know
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Is this trip right for you?
Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that.
Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in.
Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month.
How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above.
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Rooms, and travelling on your own
Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three:
- Twin share — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender.
- Travelling as a couple — one double room.
- Individual room — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book.
Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard.
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Accommodation
The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip.
Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking.
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Passports, visas and insurance
Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight.
Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport.
We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well.
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Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change
Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around.
What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions.
