--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Essaouira, Morocco | Wimup" description: "The 10 best things to do in Essaouira, mapped and ranked: the sea ramparts, the blue fishing fleet, Bayt Dakira, Ile de Mogador and the windsurf bay." url: https://wimup.com/city/essaouira type: City guide updated: 2026-08-23 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10 Things To Do in Essaouira Essaouira, Morocco · Africa · By Wimup Editorial, 15 min read Essaouira is the one Moroccan medina you cannot get lost in. It was drawn as a single project in 1764, when the sultan hired a French engineer to lay out a port that could trade with Europe, and the result is a walled grid of straight streets and blue joinery that looks nothing like Fes. The Atlantic runs the place. ## Quick answer Give Essaouira three days. Walk the Skala de la Ville first, the sea rampart begun in 1764, then drop into the vaults where the thuya woodworkers still work. Spend a morning at the fishing port while the blue boats unload, and an afternoon at Bayt Dakira in the mellah. Keep one day for the bay: the trade winds that blow from April to September made this a kitesurf town. A fourth day goes south to Sidi Kaouki. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr · May · Sep · Oct - **Ideal length:** 3 days - **Budget per day:** $45–90 - **Language:** Arabic and Tashelhit, with French widely spoken and English common in the medina - **Getting around:** The medina is walkable end to end; blue petits taxis for the port road and the beach - **Tourism board:** [Official site](https://www.visitmorocco.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## The 10 best things to do in Essaouira ### 1. Skala de la Ville Landmark · Rue de la Skala, Medina, Essaouira The rampart that gives the town its silhouette, and the right place to start. Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah began the fortifications in 1764 and handed the drawings to Theodore Cornut, a French engineer who answered with a straight artillery platform above the Atlantic. The vaulted rooms underneath hold the thuya woodworkers. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** Small fee for the north bastion - **Best at:** Late afternoon - **Tip:** Come an hour before sunset. The light rakes along the cannons, the wind usually eases, and the bastion fills at the exact moment the sun drops, so take your position early. Links: [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/753/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 2. The fishing port and Skala du Port Port · Port de Pêche, Essaouira A working harbour before anything else, and still one of Morocco's sardine ports. The fleet is painted a single blue, which fishermen explain as protection as much as decoration. The Skala du Port went up in the 1770s using stone taken from the Portuguese castle. Climb it, then eat at the grill stalls beside the fish market. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** Free, small fee for the Skala du Port - **Best at:** Late morning - **Tip:** The catch lands through the morning and the stalls grill it at lunch. Arrive before one o’clock or you are choosing from what nobody else wanted. ### 3. The medina UNESCO site · Medina of Essaouira, Essaouira UNESCO inscribed the medina in 2001 as an exceptional late 18th-century fortified town built to European military principles. That is a dry way of saying it is a grid: straight streets and right angles at a moment when every other Moroccan medina had grown by accretion, so the place is legible on foot. Whitewash and blue doors throughout. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** You cannot get properly lost here, which is rare in Morocco. Walk Avenue de l’Istiqlal end to end first to fix the grid, then leave it on purpose. Links: [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/753/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 4. Bayt Dakira Museum · Rue Ziry Ben Atiyah, Mellah, Medina, Essaouira The House of Memory, opened in 2020 and the most substantial account of Moroccan Jewish life in the country. It gathers three things under one roof: the restored Simon Attias synagogue, exhibition rooms of documents and objects from the Essaouira community, and a research centre. The synagogue is where people stand longest. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** – - **Best at:** Afternoon - **Tip:** Read the mellah on the way in. The streets immediately around the building are the community it documents, and several buildings still carry their original doorways. ### 5. Essaouira beach and the bay Beach · Plage d’Essaouira, Boulevard Mohammed V, Essaouira The bay curves south from the walls towards the Oued Ksob, a wide flat sweep of sand. The Atlantic trade winds blow hardest from April to September and the bay is sheltered enough to be forgiving, which turned Essaouira into a windsurf and kitesurf town rather than a swimming one. The water is cold and the wind is constant. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Late morning - **Tip:** Wind builds through the afternoon in season. Take the morning for the walk and the sun, and hand the afternoon to the schools. ### 6. Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah Museum Museum · Rue Derb Laâlouj, Medina, Essaouira The town museum, established in 1980 in a 19th-century mansion and named for the sultan who built the port. Small and specific: carpets from the country around the town, jewellery, trading-era coins, weapons, and the instruments of the gnaoua brotherhoods. A 2026 agreement commits to redeveloping it. - **Time:** 45 mins - **Cost:** Ticket - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** It reads best as a companion to the medina walk rather than as a destination. Go before the souks, not after. ### 7. Place Moulay Hassan Square · Place Moulay Hassan, Essaouira The hinge of the town. The medina ends here, the port begins beyond the arch, and everyone crosses it several times a day. It is the one open space in a walled grid, which is why the Gnaoua festival puts its main stage here every June. Off-season it is a long slow coffee and a view of the masts. - **Time:** 30 mins - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Early evening - **Tip:** Sit on the port side for the light. The square faces the harbour, so the hour before sunset puts the ramparts and the boats in front of you at once. ### 8. Ile de Mogador Nature · Îles Purpuraires, off Essaouira The archipelago 1.5 kilometres offshore, and the reason the town appears in Roman records as the Purple Isles, where murex shells were processed into imperial dye. It is now a reserve holding the only breeding colony of Eleonora's falcon outside the Mediterranean. Landing needs authorisation; boats circle it instead. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** Boat trip - **Best at:** Early evening - **Tip:** You do not have to go out at all. Bring binoculars to the Skala or the south end of the beach in the half-light and the falcons come to you. ### 9. Diabat and Borj El Baroud Ruin · Diabat, Essaouira A village across the Oued Ksob six kilometres south, and the ruin on the sand below it. Borj El Baroud is an 18th-century fortification the dunes have been swallowing for two centuries. Diabat trades on a Jimi Hendrix story that does not survive checking: he passed through in 1969, two years after the song was released. - **Time:** 3 hrs - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Low tide - **Tip:** Walking down the beach means crossing the Oued Ksob, which is passable at low tide and not after rain. Check the tide, or take the road through Ghazoua instead. Links: [Website](https://ranchdediabat.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 10. Sidi Kaouki Beach · Sidi Kaouki, about 25 km south of Essaouira Twenty-five kilometres south, and the version of this coast with nothing built on it. A long exposed beach runs under the whitewashed marabout of Sidi Kaouki, with argan forest a few hundred metres inland. There is no bay to break the wind, so it blows harder and the swell arrives cleaner, which is why the surf schools moved here. - **Time:** Half day - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** Mornings are the calm window. By mid-afternoon the wind is honest work for anyone not holding a sail. ## Best restaurants in Essaouira Six kitchens worth planning an evening around, from a carob warehouse to the grill stalls on the quay. 1. **La Table by Madada** (Seafood · Rue Youssef El Fassi, Medina): The town's fine-dining answer, in an 18th-century carob warehouse off Place Moulay Hassan. Atlantic first, French in technique. Dinner only, by reservation. [Website](https://madada.com/en/restaurant-essaouira-table-madada/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Le Chalet de la Plage** (Seafood · Boulevard Mohammed V): On the corniche since 1893, built in wood and run by the same family since 1965. Oysters, turbot and sardine tagine, looking straight at Ile de Mogador. [Website](https://www.restaurantlechaletdelaplage.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 3. **Dar Baba** (Mediterranean · Medina): A 19th-century medina house turned into a small Mediterranean dining room, and the address locals name first. Pasta and fish rather than tagines. [Website](https://www.dar-baba.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 4. **Triskala Café** (Modern Moroccan · Rue Touahen): A stone cellar off a back lane doing Moroccan cooking with the vegetables pushed forward. Cheaper than the headline restaurants and better than most of them. 5. **The port grill stalls** (Grilled fish · Port de Pêche): A row of numbered stalls beside the fish market where you pick from the ice, agree a price by weight and watch it go on the charcoal. The most Essaouira lunch. 6. **La Fromagerie** (Farm table · Ounagha road, about 10 km out): A working goat farm, cheese dairy and coffee roastery ten kilometres inland, with a table attached. Lunch is what the farm made that week. ## Best cafes and rooftops in Essaouira Three places to lose an hour: a rooftop over the square, the oldest patisserie in the medina and a garden on the sand. 1. **Taros** (Rooftop · Place Moulay Hassan): An 18th-century building on the corner of the square with the terrace everyone means by rooftop here: ramparts one side, port the other, live music most evenings. 2. **Pâtisserie Chez Driss** (Patisserie · Place Moulay Hassan): A medina institution since the 1920s and still the default meeting point: a courtyard hung with paintings, pastries by the tray, juice pressed to order. 3. **Océan Vagabond** (Beach garden · Plage d’Essaouira): The beach cafe next to the water school, with a shaded garden opening onto the sand. Salads and wood-fired pizza while the kites go up in front of you. [Website](https://www.oceanvagabond.com/en/essaouira-morocco/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## Best water sports in Essaouira Four schools on the same bay. All four teach beginners, all four rent to people who already know what they are doing. 1. **ION Club Océan Vagabond** (Windsurf, kitesurf, wing · Plage d’Essaouira): On this beach since 1995 and the biggest operation on it. Windsurf and wing gear in depth, kitesurf lessons, and the cleanest wind in the bay. [Website](https://www.ion-club.net/essaouira/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Explora Watersports** (Surf, kitesurf, SUP · Plage d’Essaouira): Beachfront centre teaching surf, kitesurf and paddleboard, with a rescue boat on the water during lessons, which matters on a coast this exposed. [Website](https://explorawatersports.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 3. **Essaouira Wavescape** (Surf and kitesurf school · Essaouira): A smaller school running surf and kitesurf lessons on the town beach, moving to Sidi Kaouki when the bay is too gentle. A group of three rather than ten. [Website](https://www.essaouira-wavescape.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 4. **Essaouira Watersports** (Lessons and rental · Plage d’Essaouira): Another beach centre covering the same disciplines, with rental for visitors who arrived without a board. Worth a call when the bigger schools are booked. [Website](https://www.essaouirawatersports.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## Best galleries and craft in Essaouira Five rooms, from the gallery that put Essaouira painting on the map to the marquetry cubbyholes under the ramparts. 1. **Galerie d’Art Damgaard** (Gallery · Avenue Oqba Ibn Nafiaa): Frederic Damgaard first came here in 1969 and opened this gallery in 1988. It is the room that made the Essaouira school of self-taught painters legible. Free. 2. **Espace Othello** (Gallery · 9 rue Mohammed Layachi): Open since 1993 and named for the film Welles shot on the ramparts. Paintings, sculpture and calligraphy, with a hanging that changes often. 3. **Galerie de la Kasbah** (Gallery · 4 rue de Tetouan): A broader room than the other two: naive and abstract painting alongside sculpture, pottery and rugs. Useful if you want to buy rather than only look. 4. **The thuya ateliers under Skala de la Ville** (Marquetry · Rue de la Skala): The vaulted rooms inside the rampart are the woodworkers' quarter: thuya burl from the argan country, inlaid with lemonwood, ebony and mother of pearl. 5. **Le Real Mogador** (Art centre · Medina): A contemporary art centre and residency inside the medina, running installations, concerts and open studios. Check what is on before walking over. ## Best souks and shopping in Essaouira Four markets inside one grid. The medina is small enough to do all four in a morning. 1. **Souk Jdid** (Covered market · Centre of the medina): The main market, and the one that still serves the town. Fish at one end, spices in their own square, produce through the middle. Ras el hanout blended in front of you. 2. **La Joutia** (Flea market · Medina): The flea market, with a morning auction and a spread of second-hand everything. Sundays are fullest, and bargaining is expected and unhurried. 3. **Souk des Bijoutiers** (Jewellery · Between Avenue de l’Istiqlal and Rue Sayaghine): A cluster of jewellery workshops in the lanes between the main streets, several run by families at the same benches for generations. Repairs while you wait. 4. **The thuya shops by Skala du Port** (Woodwork · Near Skala du Port): The retail end of the marquetry trade, where the boxes and inlaid tables meet the port traffic. Smell the wood: real thuya is fragrant and stays that way. ## Best hammams and spas in Essaouira Three baths, from the town’s oldest public hammam to a private one in a riad. 1. **Hammam Lalla Mira** (Public hammam · Rue d’Algerie): The oldest public bath in Essaouira, rebuilt under the eco-hotel above it and the first hammam in the country heated by solar panels. Black soap and argan oil. 2. **Azur Spa** (Spa and hammam · 15 rue Khalid Ibn Oualid): The full-service option: hammam and gommage, massage, and the easiest place to book at short notice. The one to pick if a public hammam is a step too far. [Website](https://www.azur-spa-essaouira.com/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 3. **Riad Mumtaz Mahal** (Private hammam · Medina): A medina riad whose spa takes non-residents for a private hammam and an argan massage. Book ahead; it is one room, so it goes to whoever asked first. [Website](https://www.riadmumtazmahal.com/spa-oriental?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## Best day trips in Essaouira Six trips off the same coast road and one inland, from a camel-ploughed vineyard to Morocco’s pottery capital. 1. **Domaine du Val d’Argan, Ounagha** (Vineyard · About 20 km inland): Charles Melia left Chateauneuf-du-Pape in 1994 to plant Rhone varieties in the argan country east of town. Organic, camels between the rows, lunch on site. [Website](https://www.valdargan.com/en/cellar/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Moulay Bouzerktoun** (Wave sailing · About 25 km north): A point break up the coast that windsurfers travel for and swimmers should leave alone. Strong, side-shore and unforgiving. Go to watch if you are not sailing. 3. **Cap Sim and the Oued Ksob estuary** (Dunes and birds · South of Diabat): Past Diabat the coast turns into dune fields and the river mouth widens into a lagoon full of waders. Take water and the tide table; allow three hours. 4. **Safi** (Pottery city · Up the coast, about two hours): Morocco's pottery capital, where the Colline des Potiers has fired green-glazed ware for centuries. A working port, which is why the craft is cheap at source. 5. **Marrakech** (City break · 175 km, about 3 hours): The coach does the run in about three hours, so the red city is a long day out and a better two-night detour. Most people arrive from there anyway. 6. **Imsouane** (Surf · About two hours south): A fishing village down the coast with one of the longest right-hand point breaks in the country. Not a half-day trip: leave early, or stay the night. ## Festivals & annual events in Essaouira (2026) - **Moussem des Regraga** (Mar – Apr): The spring pilgrimage of the Regraga saints, a circuit of shrines through the country around Essaouira that takes weeks. - **Printemps Musical des Alizés** (Apr – May): Classical and chamber music in the medina's historic rooms, small enough that the players are a few metres away. - **Gnaoua and World Music Festival** (Jun): The town's defining weekend: gnaoua maalems on stage with jazz and world musicians, and the main square free. Book months out. - **Moussem of Sidi Kaouki** (Aug): The annual pilgrimage to the marabout above the beach 25 kilometres south, with tents, music and horses on the sand. - **MOGA Essaouira** (Sep – Oct): Electronic music crossed with gnaoua rhythm, spread across hotel and medina venues over five days at the start of October. - **Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques** (Nov): Andalusian repertoire performed by Moroccan Jewish and Muslim musicians on one stage, plus flamenco, talks and workshops. - **Jazz sous l’Arganier** (Dec): A small winter jazz programme in the medina, and the quietest of the town's music dates. Low season, low prices. - **Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr** (Moveable): The Islamic calendar shifts eleven days earlier each year. Daytime service thins and evenings run late through the month. ## Must-try dishes in Essaouira, Morocco - **Grilled sardines with chermoula**: The dish the town runs on: sardines onto charcoal with chermoula. Eat them at the port stalls, by weight. - **Fish tagine**: White fish layered over potato and tomato with preserved lemon, olives and chermoula, cooked slowly in clay. - **Boulettes de sardines**: Sardine meatballs minced with herbs and simmered in tomato, usually as a tagine. The cheapest fish, done well. - **Oysters from Oualidia**: The lagoon beds at Oualidia up the coast supply the whole country, and Essaouira restaurants get them fresh. - **Amlou**: Ground almonds, argan oil and honey beaten into a thick spread, eaten with bread at breakfast. - **Culinary argan oil**: The roasted edible grade of argan is a different product from the cosmetic one. This is where it comes from. - **Harira**: Tomato, lentil and chickpea soup that breaks the fast in Ramadan and is sold year-round from mid-afternoon. - **Msemen**: Laminated square flatbread, folded and griddled until the layers separate. ## Essaouira transport & airports - **Essaouira-Mogador Airport** (ESU): Fifteen kilometres south of town, small and seasonal: low-cost routes from western Europe plus domestic flights through Casablanca. Grands taxis wait outside the terminal. [Website](https://www.onda.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Coaches from Marrakech** (Bus): The standard way in. Supratours and CTM both run the 175 kilometres from Marrakech in about three hours, several times a day. Seats sell out in festival weeks, so book. [Website](https://www.oncf.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) · [Website](https://www.ctm.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Petits taxis** (Taxi): Blue, small and everywhere, for the trips the medina cannot cover on foot. They are metered in principle. If the meter is not running, agree the price before the door closes. - **On foot** (Walk): The medina is closed to cars and takes twenty minutes to cross end to end, which is the best argument for staying inside the walls. The seafront runs to the water schools in half an hour. ## Essaouira at a glance - **Country:** Morocco - **Region:** Marrakech-Safi, on the Atlantic coast - **Population:** About 78,000 in the town at the 2014 census; 425,449 in Essaouira Province at the 2024 census - **Founded:** Rebuilt as a planned port from 1764 by Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah; a Portuguese fort, the Castelo Real, stood here from 1506 - **Nickname:** Mogador, the old name, probably from the saint Sidi Mogdoul; also the Windy City of Africa - **Language:** Arabic and Tashelhit, with French widely spoken and English common in the medina - **Currency:** Moroccan dirham (MAD), a closed currency you change on arrival - **Time zone:** UTC+1 for most of the year, going back to UTC+0 for Ramadan - **Calling code:** +212 524 - **Airports:** Essaouira-Mogador (ESU), 15 km south - **Power:** 220V, 50Hz, plug types C and E - **Emergency:** 19 police in town, 15 fire and civil protection, 150 ambulance, 112 from any mobile ## Interesting facts - The medina is a grid, which almost no other Moroccan medina is. Theodore Cornut drew it in 1764 on the model of Vauban's Saint-Malo. - The islands offshore are the Iles Purpuraires, named for the murex the Romans processed into imperial purple. Landing is restricted. - Orson Welles shot much of Othello on the ramparts in 1949. The film took the top prize at Cannes in 1952 under the Moroccan flag. - The fishing fleet is painted one shade of blue. Fishermen explain it as protection against storms rather than a colour scheme. - The Portuguese held the site for four years. Their Castelo Real of 1506 fell in 1510, and its stone was reused for the Skala du Port. ## Essaouira travel FAQ ### How many days do you need in Essaouira? Three. One for the ramparts, the medina grid and the port, one for the museums and galleries with a hammam at the end, and one for the bay, whether that means a board or a walk south to Diabat. Two works if you skip the beach. A day from Marrakech is six hours on a coach for four in town. ### Is Essaouira worth a day trip from Marrakech? It is the most common way people see it and the least rewarding. The coach takes three hours each way, so a day trip leaves you the middle of the day, when the light is flattest and the port has finished unloading. Stay two nights instead: the town changes completely in the evening. ### When is the wind too strong in Essaouira? The trade winds blow hardest from April to September, which is exactly why the water schools are here and why sunbathing on the open beach can be uncomfortable in those months. September and October are the compromise: warm, calmer, and past the summer crowds. Winter is mild, grey at the edges and often still. ### Can you swim at Essaouira beach? You can, and the bay is sheltered enough to be safe in the usual conditions, but the Atlantic here is cold year-round and the wind picks up through the afternoon. Mornings are the swimming window. Most visitors end up sailing, surfing or walking instead, and save the swimming for the pool. ### Do you need tickets for the Gnaoua Festival? Not for the main programme. The big outdoor stages, including the one on Place Moulay Hassan, are free to walk into, which is how the festival draws the crowds it does. The paid part is the smaller sessions in enclosed venues. What you do need to book, months ahead, is somewhere to sleep. ## Nearby guides - [Agadir](https://wimup.com/city/agadir.md): Morocco · 10 picks - [Marrakech](https://wimup.com/city/marrakech.md): Morocco · 10 picks - [Ouarzazate](https://wimup.com/city/ouarzazate.md): Morocco · 10 picks - [All of Africa →](https://wimup.com/africa): 67 cities Part of the [Morocco guide](https://wimup.com/country/morocco.md) · [Africa](https://wimup.com/africa.md) ## Sources - [Essaouira tourism board](https://www.visitmorocco.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Skala de la Ville (official site)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/753/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Diabat and Borj El Baroud (official site)](https://ranchdediabat.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [La Table by Madada (official site)](https://madada.com/en/restaurant-essaouira-table-madada/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Le Chalet de la Plage (official site)](https://www.restaurantlechaletdelaplage.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Dar Baba (official site)](https://www.dar-baba.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Océan Vagabond (official site)](https://www.oceanvagabond.com/en/essaouira-morocco/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [ION Club Océan Vagabond (official site)](https://www.ion-club.net/essaouira/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Explora Watersports (official site)](https://explorawatersports.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Essaouira Wavescape (official site)](https://www.essaouira-wavescape.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Essaouira Watersports (official site)](https://www.essaouirawatersports.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Azur Spa (official site)](https://www.azur-spa-essaouira.com/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Riad Mumtaz Mahal (official site)](https://www.riadmumtazmahal.com/spa-oriental?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Domaine du Val d’Argan, Ounagha (official site)](https://www.valdargan.com/en/cellar/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Essaouira-Mogador Airport (official site)](https://www.onda.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Coaches from Marrakech (official site)](https://www.oncf.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Coaches from Marrakech (official site)](https://www.ctm.ma/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.