Essaouira is a walled port on the Atlantic with a slower rhythm than anywhere inland: blue fishing boats, sea-battered ramparts, galleries and grilled fish at the harbour. It stays mild all year — the natural antidote to a hot week in Marrakech.
The town
The medina of Essaouira — the old Mogador — has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001: an 18th-century fortified port laid out on a European grid, with the Skala ramparts and their cannons facing the ocean. Mornings are for the fishing port, afternoons for the galleries, thuya-wood workshops and the long beach, evenings for the ramparts at sunset. Each June the town fills for the Gnaoua music festival.
Where to stay
Inside the walls we book Heure Bleue Palais and Dar L’Oussia; just outside, Le Médina Essaouira Thalassa Sea & Spa (MGallery) faces the beach with a pool and thalasso spa.
Weather and wind
Essaouira is famously mild: about 18 °C by day in January and only about 22 °C in August, when Marrakech passes 37 °C. It is also windy, especially from April to August — wonderful for kitesurfers and for cool evenings, less so for lying on the beach.
