Essaouira day trip from Marrakech

At 8 am, you will meet you at your centrally located hotel in Marrakech for this tour. Leaving Marrakech, we drive through lush valleys filled with orange groves, ancient olive trees and farms. After a short while, we arrive in Chichaoua, where we can take a short break for a coffee or snack at a cafe. We will continue deep in the in a semi-desertic area, the vegetation changes; passing by shepherds with their acrobat goats perched on argan trees. These special trees are valued for their nutritive, cosmetic and numerous medicinal properties. The tree is a relict species from the Tertiary age, is extremely well adapted to drought and other environmentally difficult conditions of southwestern Morocco, and while now endangered, they are under protection of UNESCO.

After all of your morning drive, you arrive in Essouira, you’ll head deep into the walled medina, the centre of all the action in Essaouira, formerly known by its old Portuguese name “Mogador”, is a citadel with a prestigious past. It has been occupied since prehistoric times and was famous for its Tyrian factory which supplied Rome with the legendary purple dye… Here you’ll meet a local artists in their studios and check out some of their pieces, giving you the chance to discover Moroccan artwork right from the very source. After you’ve got your artistic fix for the day, you’ll head over to the crazy, atmospheric fish market for a savoury lunch of grilled fish. Being on the coast, the produce here comes right from the sea, so you can definitely expect the freshest and most sustainable seafood to choose from. You can park yourselves down at wood benches and tables, right alongside the locals, and pick your fresh fish to be grilled, while enjoying picturesque views of the fishing port and the walled medina from the bastion of Skala du Port.

There is plenty of time at leisure for you to enjoy the charms of this resort, you might decide to go in a walk along the beach at low tide to see the romantic fort of Borj El Barod crumbling into the sea, or the ruined sultan’s palace at Diabet, or to take a boat to the Iles de Mogador, breeding ground for the rare Eleanora’s falcon, if you love watersports, you would prefer to try some surfing/ kitesurfing/ windsurfing/ bodyboarding/ kayaking) – or just set at the beachside café, relax and watch the world go by with coffee or mint tea, and maybe a Moroccan pastry, in one of the cafés on Place Moulay Hassan.