Things to do in Essaouira

Essaouira is a walled port on the Atlantic, west of Marrakesh. Europeans knew it as Mogador. Its medina joined the UNESCO list in 2001, and it looks nothing like the other Moroccan old towns.

How the town was drawn

Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah rebuilt the place as a royal port in 1764. A French engineer, Théodore Cornut, drew the plan. That is why the streets run on a grid and the ramparts read as bastions.

The Portuguese fort of 1506 stood on the same rock and left almost nothing. For a century this was the port of Timbuktu, run in part by royal Jewish merchants. You can learn the whole town in a morning.

The walls, the port and the beach

• Skala de la Ville — the sea rampart, brass cannon along it and thuya woodworkers in the arches below.
• The port — a sardine fleet in blue wooden boats, a morning auction, and grills selling whatever came in.
• Place Moulay Hassan — where the medina meets the harbour, and where everyone ends up.
• The Mellah — the old Jewish quarter at the north end, half ruined and slowly being put back.
• The beach — a long bay running south to Diabat, with camels and horses on the sand.
• Îles Purpuraires — the bird islands offshore, circled by boat, landing restricted.

Wind, boards and music

What there is to do in Essaouira starts with the wind. Kite and windsurf schools have worked the south beach for decades, teaching privately or in pairs. Kit rents by the day.

The rest is quieter. Boats go out for sardines and around the islands, and horses work the dunes at Diabat. Orson Welles shot Othello in the medina, and the square by the port carries his name.

Music is the other thing. The Gnaoua festival fills the squares in late June, and the big outdoor stages are free. The small indoor sessions sell passes and go quickly.

Practical

• Weather. Cool for Morocco all year, rarely far above twenty-five in summer and near eighteen by day in winter. The trades blow hardest from spring to late summer.
• Water. The Atlantic barely passes twenty degrees in August, and the schools hand out wetsuits year round.
• Prices. Mint tea ten to fifteen dirhams, grilled sardines well under a hundred. Cards work in hotels, not in the medina.
• The port grills. They charge by weight, so agree the price before the fish goes on the coals.
• Getting here. Coaches from Marrakesh take about three hours. The airport is fifteen kilometres south, with European budget routes.
• Thuya wood. The cheap boxes are veneer over softwood; the real ones are heavy and smell of resin.