36 Hours
36 Hours in Essaouira, Morocco
Essaouira, Morocco
The fetching Atlantic port of Essaouira lacks the fame and grandeur of more famous Moroccan cities like Casablanca, but that is exactly its draw. Easier to navigate than the vast medieval labyrinth of Fez and far more manageable than hectic Marrakesh, Essaouira (pronounced ess-uh-WEE-ruh) is coastal North Africa at its most quaint and picturesque. Blue wooden fishing boats haul in the day’s catch. Dromedaries roam the beaches. Come evening, the sunset casts its glow on the crenelated ramparts and watchtowers. It’s little wonder that productions like Orson Welles’s 1951 “Othello” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” have filmed here. These days, art galleries, stylish guesthouses and a blossoming design scene add to the eye candy, while summer music festivals like the Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival provide the beat.
Recommendations
Key stops
- Rue de la Sqala takes you to a walkway along the battlements that offers sublime coastal views.
- Bayt Dakira museum offers a window into Essaouira’s former Jewish community, which was at its peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a short walk from the old Jewish cemetery and the Haim Pinto Synagogue.
- The port of Essaouira has the city’s distinctive blue fishing boats, which provide the ingredients for a seafood lunch at a makeshift harborside grill.
Galleries and shopping
- Le Real Mogador hosts rotating exhibitions of Moroccan artists in a stone mansion that was once the Italian consulate.
- Elizir Gallery is a meandering, hodgepodge emporium with offerings including vintage furniture, movie posters and oil paintings.
- Galerie la Kasbah exhibits sculptures, carved doors and paintings in manifold styles in a rambling two-level space.
- Histoire de Filles sells Moroccan-modern fashion, accessories and jewelry for a mostly female clientele.
- L’Atelier combines a cafe, houseware boutique and cooking school under one stylish roof.
- Côté Bougie stocks scented candles and diffusers to bring the scents of Morocco to your home.
- The joutia, or Sunday flea market, plunges you into a riot of retro bric-a-brac, cheap clothes, fresh produce and the occasional fabulous find.
Restaurants and nightlife
- Dar Baba pops with colorful décor and a menu of Euro-Moroccan tapas. Its glowing bar is the most photogenic in town.
- La Clé de Voûte serves succulent lamb prepared in different ways along with French-influenced Moroccan dishes and many local wines.
- Le Salon Anglais pours sophisticated drinks in a bar reminiscent of a British gentlemen’s club.
- Le Taros, the city’s most famous nightspot, has a booming rooftop bar with live bands, D.J.s and drinks aplenty. Just downstairs is Le Club, a mellow wine bar.
- Salut Maroc, a chic hotel, features a rooftop bar with sunset views and occasional live music.
- D’Jazy, a bohemian haven, offers live music in all forms.
Attractions and activities
- Ocean Vagabond is an indoor-outdoor beach club that channels the spirit of the French Riviera with sea views, sun beds, outdoor lounging and chilled wines.
- Azur Art & Spa elevates the traditional hammam experience with upscale steam baths, massages and spa treatments.
Where to stay
- Mama Lova opened in September with five chic, understated rooms (a mix of duplexes and suites), a Middle Eastern restaurant and a rooftop cafe-lounge with panoramic views. Rooms from 1,900 Moroccan dirhams, or $180.
- Riad Perle d’Eau’s seaside location provides unobstructed Atlantic views from its eight elegant rooms and suites, as well as its roof deck. A jacuzzi and hammam are also available to guests. Rooms from 95 euros.
- Mama Souiri, a colorful, small hotel right on Essaouira’s main square, offers 21 rooms, a lounge, a patio and a roof terrace. Doubles start at 480 dirhams.
- Because Essaouira is so compact, an apartment rental anywhere within the city walls would be practical. Jack’s Apartments is the main local apartment-rental service.
Itinerary
Friday
4 p.m.
Peer into the past
A portal into the past opens down Rue de la Sqala, a passageway off Essaouira’s main square, Place Moulay Hassan. Strolling alongside the high battlements, you pass beneath stone arches and ascend a long ramp to reach the city’s most scenic spot: a promenade lined with 18th-century cannons pointing out to sea. The wide walkway and its majestic watchtower offer sublime vistas of the craggy coast and the Purple Islands, where ancient Phoenicians and Romans crushed murex shells to make much-prized violet dyes. Seagulls whirl above. Waves crash below. For a moment, time stands still.
6 p.m.
Drink in the sunset
Maghreb, the Arabic term for Morocco, means “sunset,” and the rooftop lounge of the boho-chic Salut Maroc hotel, steps away from the promenade, is a lovely spot to soak it up. Sit amid the riot of multicolored tiles and order a glass of local Terre Blanche white wine (90 dirhams, or about $8.60) as you gaze out at the Atlantic. On some weekend evenings, live local musicians provide the soundtrack.
7:30 p.m.
Feast in a retro setting
Dar Baba, a candlelit restaurant with a retro-kitsch aesthetic, features banquettes made from cheesy floral blankets, mismatched vintage chairs and walls hung with all imaginable kinds of curios. The menu is awash in seafood tapas that encompasses calamari, ceviche and sautéed shrimp, as well as a succulent lamb shoulder in a caramel glaze. For dessert, try a lush, Moroccanized tiramisu larded with fig slices, rose petals and pistachios. The wine list includes many Moroccan wines, including Tandem (420 dirhams a bottle), made from 100 percent Syrah.
10 p.m.
Choose your nightcap
In the mood for a discreet, dimly lit lounge that’s perfect for sealing deals or pontificating over Cognac? Glide into Le Salon Anglais in the palatial Heure Bleue hotel. The fireplace, wood paneling, Chesterfield couches and cigar humidor exude Churchillian elegance, while the fine spirits and original cocktails slake sophisticated thirsts. A Mogador Passion, a concoction with rum, pineapple and passion fruit, runs 200 dirhams. Alternatively, channeling the spirit of Essaouira’s most famous musical visitor, Jimi Hendrix (he passed through in July 1969), D’Jazy evokes the city’s hippie past with bohemian décor, live music that includes guitar duos and jazz trios, and Moroccan beer (40 dirhams for a Flag Spéciale).
Essaouira lacks the fame and grandeur of more famous Moroccan cities like Casablanca, but that is exactly its draw.
Saturday
L’Atelier
10 a.m.
Discover local scents and styles
All the accouterments of your new Moorish-modern home and wardrobe are hiding in the lanes near the stone Sbaa gate, where a small local design scene is flourishing. A favorite of laptop-toting global nomads, L’Atelier cafe also sells carpets, tea services and tableware, while the new Côté Bougie store (3 rue Youssef El Fassi) provides room deodorizers, diffusers and scented candles in fragrances like mint tea, spice and orange blossom. For women’s clothing, check out Histoire de Filles, which stocks contemporary caftans, scarves embossed with Moorish prints and abundant accessories.
L’Atelier
Galerie la Kasbah
12 p.m.
Get lost in the galleries
Essaouira’s most compelling galleries are as charmingly meandering as the city itself — exploring and getting lost are half the pleasure. The most organized is Le Real Mogador, a grandiose mansion housing rotating exhibitions of mostly Moroccan contemporary artists, such as the folkloric Mostafa El Hadar and the abstract painter Said Ouarzaz. Larger and more eclectic, Galerie la Kasbah is a three-level hodgepodge of sculptural horses, African masks and paintings that range from Saharan scenes to fever-dream hallucinations. Vaster and stranger still, Elizir Gallery is a sprawling vintage emporium full of Egyptian movie posters, steamer trunks, Saarinen-style chairs, spotlights, appliances, harem pants and paintings.
Galerie la Kasbah
2 p.m.
Haul in your lunch
There’s a makeshift seafood grill by the harbor, amid the briny chaos of fishmongers, where newly netted bounty passes almost directly into your belly. This outdoor jumble of plastic chairs and tables has no name, no address, no phone and no set hours — just an array of undersea delicacies that might include sardines (an Essaouira specialty), sea bream, monkfish, shrimp, langoustine or lobster. To find it, pass through the colonnaded stone El Marsa gate toward the port and veer off to the right. Your selections will be tossed on the scale, flipped onto the grill and served with bread and diced tomatoes. Messy and magnificent. Two can lunch for 200 dirhams.
Ocean Vagabond
4 p.m.
Ride the waves — or a camel
A whiff of France’s Côte d’Azur suffuses Ocean Vagabond, a tree-shaded, indoor-outdoor beach club (free entry) where a tanned crowd in designer sunglasses indulges in various forms of leisure: lounging on sunbeds, shopping for beachwear, clinking glasses of local rosé wine (50 dirhams) and, most notably, marveling at the dromedaries who roam the sands just in front of them. To ride one, negotiate directly with their individual handlers and expect to pay 100 to 150 dirham per hour. If you want to try surfing Essaouira’s modest waves, the adjacent Ion Club provides gear and lessons. A one-hour beginner class is 275 dirhams.
Ocean Vagabond
6 p.m.
Vanish into the vapor
The hammam treatment (380 dirhams) at Azur Art & Spa is like a journey into some mythological wellness underworld. Nearly naked, you are led into a hot, dark room flickering with candles, where an attendant washes you and leaves you to absorb the heat and moisture. In a dreamy half consciousness, you move to a dark chamber that resembles a mausoleum and are laid out on a slab of marble as if to be sacrificed. The ritual instrument is a rough glove that the attendant rubs forcefully all over your body to remove dead skin. It can be painful, but purgatory soon gives way to paradise. After an invigorating massage, you emerge an hour later from the darkness, don a white robe, drink restorative tea and climb a set of white stairs into the sunlight. A roof deck has rarely felt so heavenly. Reserve ahead.
8 p.m.
Dine under the arches
The cooks at La Clé de Voûte — a classy, living-room-like restaurant with stone arches and plush banquettes — are masters of lamb, whether you take yours as a thick shank with caramelized bananas or simply slow-cooked over coals in a clay pot along with cumin, candied lemons, raisins and clarified butter. Rounding out the menu are classic Moroccan dishes like pastilla (shredded pigeon in a crispy, savory-sweet phyllo pastry), jazzed-up French classics (mille-feuille with goat cheese and dates) and some flavorful vegetarian options (cauliflower drenched with Greek yogurt and zesty red Spanish piquillo pepper sauce). Dinner for two without drinks costs around 600 dirhams. Reserve ahead.
Le Taros
10 p.m.
Dance on a rooftop
“Everybody Comes to Rick’s” was the play that became the film “Casablanca.” An Essaouira version could be called “Everybody Comes to Taros.” The restaurant-bar-club sprawls over a multitiered rooftop built around an elevated stage for D.J.s and bands and attracts a crowd that defies generalization: Moroccan youth, dreadlocked European backpackers, English sports fans, weekending businesswomen and retired couples. By 11 p.m., the place is packed with crowds sipping Casablanca beer (50 dirhams) and dancing to funk, techno and more. For a quiet interlude, one flight down is Le Club, a cozy indoor lounge serving Moroccan wines.
Le Taros
Visitors may recognize Essaouira’s charming scenery from Orson Welles’s 1951 “Othello” or HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” just some of the productions that have filmed here.
Sunday
10 a.m.
Hone your haggling skills
When you’re amassing exhibitions for your Museum of Obsolete Technologies, the teeming Sunday flea market (called the joutia) should be your first stop. A 10-minute walk from the Doukkala gate along Avenue Moulay Hicham, the sprawling, blockslong market abounds in old fax machines, calculators, clock radios, VHS players, slide projectors, turntables and other bygone gadgetry — to say nothing of cheap shoes, diapers, towels, chain saws, fruits and vegetables. Amid the chaff and sundry daily staples, you might also be lucky enough to find folk art, cow skulls, metal lanterns, hexagonal end tables and other cool knickknacks. Prices are open to negotiation.
Jewish cemetery
12 p.m.
Explore Jewish heritage
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Essaouira had a significant Jewish community, whose picturesque cemetery sits behind the high white wall running alongside Avenue Moulay Hicham. Call the caretaker, Mouassine (the phone number is printed on the gate), who will usher you into a sea of flat, white gravestones, including the hexagonal tomb of Haim Pinto, a 19th-century rabbi and community leader still revered by Essaouira’s Jewish diaspora (free entry; tips appreciated). Continue along Rue Mellah, in the former Jewish quarter, to the small Haim Pinto synagogue (free entry), notable for its blue-tiled prayer room. But the main attraction is Bayt Dakira, a new multimedia museum in a restored 19th-century synagogue and an opulent adjoining mansion.
Jewish cemetery