Essaouira, Morocco

famous blue boats in front of the fish market / port

Essaouira the blue town, also known as "the windy city" is located 3 hours east of Marrakech sitting on the North Atlantic coastline. Famous for it's fish market, Essaouria provides exporting business for Moroccan's and is considered the largest fish market in Africa, exporting to countries such as France, Spain, Brazil and India.

On the 29th of July we caught a Supratours bus from Marrakech to Essaouria where we stayed at The Atlantic Hostel for 3 nights. Essaouria is a very small town compared to Marrakech with one small main market street which is surrounded by many restaurants and apartments.

Fort Wall that surrounds most of the coast line

Essaouria is a very popular destination for wind surfing, kite boarding and regular surfing because it is almost always windy.

Over our 4 days in the town we noticed a lot of European families on holiday, soaking up the culture and cuisine that this small town has to offer. During our stay we ate some of the best food we had experienced in Morocco, specifically a small restaurant called Bab Skala where we ate the chicken tagine and a vegetable one. The flavours were really intense (in a good way!) I wish we could have eaten here every night of our trip!

We also went to a french inspired restaurant called Taro's where they had a live musician playing a remix of covers which was really entertaining.

We spent most of our time relaxing, browsing the street stalls and walking along the beach. If I headed back to Morocco I would probably head to Agadir or Tiznit for a nicer beach experience. Essaouira beach is extremely windy and shallow so it isn't very good for swimming, but is great for kite boarding!

Famous for it's Sunset

After Essaouria we headed back to Marrakech for 1 night before departing on a 3 day desert tour.