Leaving Essaouira

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We've now lived in Essaouira for more than a week and we feel a little bit sad about leaving. It IS a wonderful town, and we'll absolutely return.

When we arrived, we found ourselves lost in the labyrinth of the old souks, but the medina is actually not that large and the big walls, the gates and the sea are great for giving you bearings.

Now we walk through the alleys and take the narrow bypasses like old timers.

You can see a lot of stuff about Essaouira in the guidebooks. The wast fortifications are exactly as beautiful and impressive as you can read  (or see on Game of Thrones or in the old Orson Welles version of Othello).




Here  are some special tips we learned from a knowledgeable friend or had to experience ourselves


Where to stay
There are lots of riads inside the medina, but only a few with an actual view of the sea.

We're staying in a place called Riad Dar Nor (www.darnor.com) just next to the city wall.


Dar  Nor is a very lovely, small hotel with just six tastefully decorated rooms. On top of the riad, climbing lots of narrow staircases, you can enter onto a rooftop terrace, where we every morning enjoy our breakfast with a view of the beach and the vast ocean.

 

We also visited the quite luxurious Riad Mimouna, where most of the rooms and suites have a truly
spectacular view of the waves thundering against the mighty city walls.   Another place, Dar Al Bahar (meaning 'house by the sea') is 'cash only' and has a wonderful rooftop terrace. We haven't checked their rooms but had it recommended.


Where to eat
There are of course lots of small restaurants and street kitchens in the souks, and we enjoyed most of them. The best meal we had was in the fish market at the center of  the medina. Here you sat, surrounded by busy stalls, where the chef just grabbed the best parts up and eventually came out with a heap of exotic grilled fish (no menu card, you have to negotiate the price in advance!)  

 

Where to drink
The following might suggest we have some serious alcohol problems, but after many weeks in the dryness of Sahara, we've taken some effort in finding places with plenty of drinks and cool beer.

Inside the medina, you find a few international style rooftop terraces (ex. Taros and Il Mare) but
either we've forgotten how a mojito should taste or the drinks have actually been watered down!

Anyhow, the only kicks we got out of our visits to these hipster bars came from watching the spectacular sunsets across the sea. We were completely sober when leaving.


A place, where we - on several occasions - have been a bit tipsy, is one of the secrets of the medina, a real authentic dive bar called Le Trou (The hole), which dates back to the late 1800s. It is almost completely hidden and you find it by walking through a gate to the right of the large Sahara hotel. Follow the narrow alley behind the gate, when it bends to the left and the entrance to the bar is at the very end of the alley (no signs on the door).

Inside you find regular customers, enjoying the local Flag and Stork beers. You just order and drink - and when it's time to pay, the waiter simply counts the number of empty bottles on the table

Finally - we were told about a shop, where you can buy wine and beers 'to go'. You find the shop by exiting the medina through the gate of Bab Doukkala and walking about a hundred meters up Av. Al Massira. The shop is on the right, just next to a small bakery.


Where to swim
The touristic beaches with the hotels and beach bars lie south-west of the medina, but you find a much more interesting beach towards the northeast,  a couple of miles up along the broad Av.Al Aquaba.



Here a few of the locals are taking a swim surrounded by crumbling factories and dilapidated housing blocks. The area looks like a setting from the movie Inception and is absolutely worth a visit.

Where to shop
OK - it's not a problem to find shopping opportunities when you're living inside a souk, but quite interesting - every Sunday there is a huge, local market along the Av. Moulay Hicham, a few hundred meters outside the Bab Doukkala gate.

Here the locals are shopping for all kinds of stuff, and some even try to dig through huge piles of used shoes in the hope of finding matching pairs.

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