Essaouira Is the Moroccan Coast Without the Marrakech Crowds

Essaouira sits on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, a three-to-four-hour drive west of Marrakech, and its medina looks unlike anywhere else in the country: whitewashed walls, blue shutters, and a set of stone ramparts designed not by a Moroccan builder but by Théodore Cornut, a French military engineer trained in the Vauban fortification tradition of Saint-Malo. Sultan Mohammed III commissioned the town in the 1760s as a fortified trading port, then called Mogador, and its layout still carries that origin: straight streets built for moving goods, and sea-facing walls built to hold cannon.

A medina built for trade winds

The Allizé trade winds that blow almost constantly along this stretch of coast made Essaouira difficult to build a conventional beach resort around, and instead turned it into one of Africa’s best-known windsurfing and kitesurfing bases from the 1980s onward. The same wind keeps the town noticeably cooler than inland Morocco for most of the year, one of the more practical reasons it has drawn a steady stream of visitors looking to escape Marrakech’s summer heat without a long drive to the mountains.

A working port, not a museum

Essaouira’s medina was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2001, but it has never stopped functioning as a fishing town: the blue wooden boats moored inside the old harbour walls land sardine, sea bream and other catch each morning, sold straight off the dock at stalls a short walk from the ramparts. Orson Welles shot much of his 1949 film adaptation of Othello here, using the same sea walls as a backdrop, and the town’s Atlantic light and stone fortifications have drawn film and television productions since, including scenes used to stand in for the city of Astapor in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Beyond the walls

Argan oil, produced almost exclusively in a belt of southwestern Morocco that includes the country around Essaouira, is sold through women’s cooperatives in and around the town, several of which are open to visitors to see the hand-cracking and pressing process. The wind that suits kitesurfers along the main town beach eases further south around Sidi Kaouki, a quieter stretch that has become more of a surf base than a kite-sailing one.

Traveller tips

• The trade winds pick up through the afternoon; mornings are calmer for walking the ramparts and harbour.
• Essaouira is a comfortable day trip from Marrakech but rewards at least one overnight to see the medina without tour-bus crowds.
• Fresh grilled fish at the port-side stalls is sold by weight; agree the price before it’s cooked.
• Bring a light jacket even in summer; the coastal wind keeps evenings cooler than inland Morocco.