Essaouira

Introduction

Essouira

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Essaouira along the central western coast of Morocco is a laid-back and peaceful place (no traffic within the huge walled area), lots of cafes in squares to lounge around and drink mint tea and just soak up the atmosphere. You can walk everywhere in Essaouira as it is relatively small. Essaouira is the perfect place to unwind at the end of a Moroccan tour.

The beach is clean with gorgeous soft sand and pretty much hassle free. At times, the beach can be very windy and ideal for windsurfing, and at other less windy times it is ideal for relaxing on a sunlounger, although, as with all weather you have to take your chances. Essaouira retains its old fashioned traditional charm, unlike more aesthetic built up resorts like Agadir and there is not a jet ski in sight!

This coastal town is famous for the GNAOUA World Music Festival which takes place every year around the 20 of June thereabout for 4-5 days (see below).

Neighbourhoods

Most of the activity in Essaouira is normally limited in the area within the sandstone walled area of the medina and especially at the time of the GNAOUA festival. The medina consists of a number of alleys and Babs (doors/gates). Bab Zerktouni is famous for the two restaurants - one that serves pizzas and the other very good breakfasts. Different babs serve different functions: there are places which are reserved for restaurants and others where they sell souvenirs and traditional wares etc.

Sights and Activities

• Essaouira is a great place for just wandering around, browsing in the souks or lounging around in cafe's. There is also an artists quarter where local artists and ex-pats display their works and might be a welcome relief from all the Thuya woodcarving shops! The old medina of Essaouira is on the Unesco World Heritage List.
• No stay in Essaouira is complete without having a fish dinner at one of the basic, but busy, make-shift stalls (with seating) near the fish market on the seafront. The delicious, freshest fish and seafood will be served up to you with salad by friendly waiters and is not expensive. This can be followed by delicious Italian ice-cream from the shop in the nearby square, Place Moulay Hassan. Delicious!
• Climb up to the top of the old rampart walls along the seafront for a fantastic view of the beautiful sunsets above the rocky coastline.
• You could stroll down the beach for about 1 kilometre and when you reach the dunes, look back at the view of Essaouira which inspired Jimmy Hendrix "Castles In The Sand". Then head inland to the village of Diabat and you'll stumble across a shack-type cafe which is an entire homage to the man himself, with his music playing (and if not, the owner will dig out a dusty old cassette tape) and photos on the wall. Do play along with the owners stories of how Jimmy hung out in the next room strumming his guitar, it is all true, except for the fact that the original building was in an entirely different part of the village and no longer stands!

Events and Festivals

The GNAOUA festival comprises a number of individual concerts and other events, starting from noon untill late at night. At this time, small riads and apartments get booked up and locals even rent out their apartments for the duration. This can be a good option but if anything goes wrong, you can’t count on the police since the place you are staying is not registered.

The best events tend to be at night, at the entrance of the Bab e medina. This is the place where the best atmosphere can be seen from 11:00pm onwards until 2:00am. The atmosphere in the concerts is amazing with lots of people on a high! The Moroccans love to dance and their movements would put any ballerina to shame. A lot of the performers are French and Moroccan rap artists.
Though a word of caution: when going out at night it's best to leave your valuables in your hotel, because of groups of pick pockets in the packed crowds.

Weather

The weather is hot or warm during the day, all year round but sometimes windy. It's usually not very humid though and conditions are fairly fine year round. Temperatures can drop in the evenings, but are mostly around or above 20 °C during the day.

Getting There

By Plane

The nearest airports are in Agadir and Marrakech:

• Agadir - Al Massira Airport offers a wide range of flights, mainly to Europe and other Moroccan cities. Also low-cost airlines have found there way here, and Ryanair has flights to and from Brussels, Liverpool, London, Marseille and Weeze (near Düsseldorf). Condor flies to/from Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Other destinations with a range of airlines include Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Warsaw, Berlin, Leipzig, Luxembourg), [[Saint Petersburg, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and East Midlands. Domestic destinations served by Royal Air Maroc are Casablanca, Rabat and both Dakhla and El Aaiun in the Western Sahara. It also flies to Paris. Casablanca is also served by Regional Airlines.
• Menara International Airport (IATA: RAK, ICAO: GMMX) has a growing number of flights from southern and western Europe, for example with budget airline Ryanair to Alicante, Bristol, Brussels South-Charleroi, East Midlands, Girona, Frankfurt-Hahn, London-Luton, Marseille, Pisa, Reus (Barcelona), Seville and Weeze (Düsseldorf). Atlas Blue, a Moroccan budget airline fliest to Barcelona, Bordeaux, Brussels, Geneva, Lille, London-Gatwick, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Milan-Malpensa, Nantes, Nice, Paris-Orly and Toulouse.

Some domestic services exist as well, for example to and from Casablanca. Regional Air Lines has many domestic services.

By Car

Essaouira is a 2.5 hour drive from Marrakech or a 3.5 hour drive from Agadir on good tarred roads.

By Bus

Supratours and CTM buses run regularly Marrakech - Essaouira (leaving approximately 8:30am, 10:45am, 2:45pm and 6:30pm). Buses also run between Agadir and some other cities.

Getting Around

By Car

Taxi's leave from the bus station or the area just outside the walls of Place Moulay Hassan. These can be handy for a trip to Diabat if you'd prefer to go by road rather than along the beach.

By Public Transport

You can walk around the town in about half an hour. The bus station is an easy stroll about 15 minutes inland, towards the back of the town.

By Foot

The medina is just a 15-minute walk from the main bus station so there is no need to take a taxi, even though you may be persuaded by eager locals that you need to. You can however take advantage of the helpful men with huge wheelbarrows who will happily wheel your luggage to your riad or guesthouse for a few dirhams and this can be a welcome relief in the heat.

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

There are lots of budget guesthouses or mid-range traditional riads as well as 4-5 star ones like Sofitel on the seafront. Finding accommodation should not be a problem outside of the festival period. There is a campsite about 25 kilometres down the coast, handy if you have a car.

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

There are lots of internet kiosks in the medina so its easy to find a place to on the world wide web.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Post

Post Maroc is the national postal service of Morocco and has details on their website (French) regarding the sending of letters, postcards and parcels, both domestically and internationally. The postal service in Morocco is very efficient and the post offices are generally open Monday through Friday, from 8:30am to 12 noon and 2:30pm to 6:30pm. On Saturdays it is open from 8:30am to 2:00pm. Some might keep longer hours though, especially in larger tourist cities and central areas. You can post your mail at one of the post offices or otherwise in the yellow post boxes you'll find throughout the country.