Essaouira

Built on a rocky peninsula, Essaouira, the former Mogador, keeps watch over the ocean from its ramparts, with its white-and-blue medina and long sandy beaches. The Phoenicians were already stopping here in the 8th century BC; the town’s true founder was the Alaouite sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah, who entrusted its construction to Théodore Cornut, an architect and pupil of Vauban.

Today its fishing port comes alive when the boats return, as sardines and shellfish are auctioned and fishermen mend their red nets on the quays. We offer it as a private day trip from Marrakech and as the final stage of our Desert & Ocean escape.