Essaouira sits on the Atlantic about three hours west of Marrakech, and the drive there is half the interest. The road leaves the Haouz plain and climbs into the argan country of the Haha, where the trees grow nowhere else on earth and the oil is still pressed by hand at roadside cooperatives run by women.
The town was laid out in the 1760s by a European engineer working for Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, which is why the medina runs on a grid instead of the usual maze. The ramparts face straight into the wind, the fishing fleet still unloads its blue wooden boats onto the quay every afternoon, and the beach runs for miles south of the harbour.
You get roughly four hours in town, enough to walk the sea bastion, eat grilled fish at the port and cross the medina without hurrying. This is a relaxed day rather than a packed one.
Pickup from your accommodation in Marrakech in the morning. The road runs west across the Haouz plain and then climbs gently into the Haha, the argan-growing country that covers the hills between Marrakech and the coast. There is a stop at a womens cooperative where the nuts are cracked and pressed by hand, and where you can taste the culinary oil and the amlou paste made from it.
Arrival in Essaouira around midday. The vehicle drops you at the edge of the medina, which is closed to traffic. You have about four hours here. The obvious walk is the Skala de la Ville, the sea bastion on the northern rampart, where a line of eighteenth-century brass cannons points out at the Atlantic and the waves break directly below the wall.
From there the medina opens onto the port, still a working harbour rather than a marina. The fleet comes in through the afternoon and the catch is grilled on the quay at a row of open-air stalls, which is the standard lunch here and the reason most people remember the day.
The rest of the free time is yours for the souks, the woodworkers who carve local thuya, or the beach that runs south from the harbour and is usually windy enough to be full of kitesurfers. Departure in the late afternoon, arriving back in Marrakech in the early evening.
Between two and a half and three hours each way on good tarmac road, plus the cooperative stop. It is the flattest and easiest of the day trips from Marrakech, with no mountain passes.
Around four hours, which is enough for the ramparts, the port and a walk through the medina at a comfortable pace.
Yes. You travel in a private air-conditioned vehicle with your own driver, and the timing can be adjusted on the day.
No, the driver is not a licensed town guide and the medina is easy to walk without one. We can arrange an official local guide for a few hours on request.
Yes. The medina is flat, traffic-free and small enough not to be tiring, and the beach is a good break in the middle of the day.
A windproof layer, since Essaouira is breezy almost year round, plus sunscreen, comfortable shoes and cash for lunch and the souks.
This is the easiest day out of Marrakech that does not involve a mountain pass. It swaps the heat and press of the city for Atlantic wind, a grid-plan medina you cannot get lost in, and a working fishing port where lunch comes off the boat. If you only have one spare day in Marrakech and do not want to spend most of it in the car on switchbacks, this is the one to take.
