This summer I visited Morocco for the first time. For a destination so close to where I live, it sure took a long time to actually plan this. Not to mention that my husband has been promising to take me here for a decade. Our itinerary took us from Essaouira all the way to the deep Sahara desert, in Erg Chegaga. But I am getting ahead of myself. This now is about our first week, the one we spent in Essaouira, my first taste of Morocco. Let’s go through where we stayed, where we ate, what we did, and everything else I think you need to know about this windy city that drive Orson Wells mad while filming Othello.
How We Got There
Luckily, Lisbon is a mere hour and a half away from Morocco, and there isn’t even a time difference. That being said, to fly to Essaouira we would have to have a layover in Barcelona most likely. And since the flight times and operators didn’t really appeal to us, we chose to fly to Marrakesh Menara instead. We arrived in Marrakesh at around 10 in the morning after flying directly with TAP from Lisbon. Prices for flights always differ, but for the record we payed around 300€ per person (end of August). Once in Marrakesh a private driver which we contracted previously picked us up from the airport. We paid 700 MAD for the private transfer to Essaouira, in a Sedane with A/C, and we arrived there in less than 3h. The driver dropped us off directly at our villa, which takes me to the next topic.
Where We Stayed
Let me start off by telling you that we went to Essaouira on a friends trip. We were three couples and two of them had two young kids each. This worked out wonderfully because we rented a private villa with five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The villa is part of the Maison Flamingo hotel, but is completely separate and private. It has its own kitchen dining area and living room, as well as a gorgeous yard and big pool. We had a gardener that made sure the garden looked pristine, and we also hired a private chef. Nannies were also hired by the hour here and there for the kids. Oh and the hotel’s massage room had a private access via our yard, so we took plenty of advantage of that as well. All in all, the best comfort we could buy for the money.
The villa’s prices depend on the period of the year you book it, but it cost us 4.000€ for the last week of August (2026). For the chef we paid an extra 25€ a day (to cook us three meals a day), and for the nannies it was 5€ an hour. Grocery wise we spent a little over 100€ a day for the food for all 10 of us (kids included). Obviously everyone’s situation is unique, but I can say that for us this was great value for money.
Where and What We Ate
As mentioned before, we did have a private chef, so most of our meals were enjoyed at the villa. Having said that, we did also go out for drinks or coffee, and on the last day we did a really cool street food tour. I´ll dedicate a separate post to the food part, but honourable mentions go to: La Mouette et les Dromadeires for sunset drinks and music, Le Jardin des Douars for morning coffee and Giu Giu for a chic under the radar lunch.
As to what we ate, at the villa we had a lot of tagines, couscous, pastillas and some lighter salads for lunch. In Essaouira we tried to aim more for fish and oysters, it being on the Atlantic and all. Moroccan food is extremely flavourful and I personally have been a fan of it for years, so stay tuned for the food article on all restaurants we tried.
What We Did
You might wonder whether Essaouira is worth a full week if you’re not a surfer. Well I am not, and I didn’t get bored for a second. Essaouira has seen a lot of foreign investments, and as such has also become very cosmopolitan. As such here are some things we did.
Visiting the city. On the second day we arrived, we headed early into the city. We parked by the port and started on foot through the medina, admiring the shops and petting all the cats. We stopped for coffee at a specialty coffee spot whose name I forget, but whose coffee I cannot, it was sooo strong. We took alleyways which lead into more alleyways and just allowed ourselves to get lost. Essaouira´s medina is really not that big, and it doesn’t even come close to Marrakesh´ souks, so this was super pleasant and chill. It started getting busy closer to midday, so we left shortly before lunch. Since we weren’t interested in shopping on that day it was okay, but be warned that stores don’t open super early here so only at midday was it starting to get interesting from that perspective. Going up the fort to admire the sea is a must!
Sitting by the beach in Sidi Kaouki and enjoying the sea. Now I should preface this by saying I am rather spoiled by the Portuguese beaches, so maybe that’s also why I wasn´t blown away by the Moroccan ones in Essaouira. Sidi Kaouki would be apparently one of the nicer ones, was the water not rather dark and the beach quite full of both humans and animals. I think it can still make sense and be nice for you if you live in a country without beaches, but to be honest I felt it rather underwhelming.
One morning we went walking from Maison Flamingo to the yoga studio at Yogam Villa where the wonderful Marion guided our yoga session (in French) and served us tea by the pool afterwards. The villa is a retreat aimed particularly at yoga fans, so if that’s you, you can consider it as an accommodation option.
One afternoon we spent at the hamman. We opted for Hamman Kenza where for 600 MAD we spent some wonderful hours getting pampered and scrubbed (hammans are not for the faint of heart) before finishing off with a relaxing massage and tea. This is a rather popular experience in Morocco and I am so glad we did it, together with the girls we had a blast. As mentioned above, due to the easy access to Maison Flamingo´s massage parlor we also had plenty of massages there, usually paying around 400 MAD for an hour for a relaxation massage.
On one late afternoon we went horseback riding with the wonderful Natalia who owns Paradiso Horseclub. I know what you’re thinking. But Cristina, when in Morocco why not try and ride a camel? Well neither the camels nor the horses we saw on the beaches of Essaouira seemed well taken care of. Natalia shared our concern. She talked extensively about her efforts to help. She is trying to make a difference in a country where animals are often mistreated. Her horses – all stallions – are super well taken care of. I got to ride Gingerino, a wonderful horse that took me through the forests of Essaouira, not quite reaching the dunes of the beach since it was very windy and we preferred to stick around the trees. Recommending this 10/10 if you love animals. We paid 600 MAD for a 2h sunset ride.
The day before our last was dedicated to some shopping. We started off at a stunning art gallery Galerie La Kasbah – which hides so many treasures. Paintings from big local artists, but also old sculptures and pots await for you in this stunning riad which spans two floors of art and magic. We left with two watercolour paintings, a carpet to frame and a calligraphy painting with amazigh (berber) symbols. We also shopped the medina close to the fort for some trinkets like a woven basket for our bathroom, some bean bag covers, and a magic box my husband loved, but we left most of our wish list for later on in the trip – and boy did we tick everything off!
On our last day, after checking out, we organised our own little street food tour. Having been spoiled for days by our cook who made us heaps of delicious goodies every day, we wanted to get dirty. So after a lot of research, I build us an itinerary of all the must try spots for street food, or street food adjacent. In my next post about restaurants in Essaouira I´ll dive deeper into this, but safe to say we loved every bit of it. From the local snack joint where we had a bissara, to the port where we tried fresh oysters to the fish we bought ourselves at the fish market and asked a lady to cook it for us in a whole in a wall. What an experience!
So as you can see, between these activities and our regular sunset drinks on the beach, reading by the pool and napping in the middle of the day, it was impossible to get bored in one week in Essaouira. Also, don’t get put off by the fact that we went there at the end of August, which people who have been to the rest of Morocco will try to convince you against because it’s so hot. It is indeed very (maybe too) hot in the rest of the country, but Essaouira gave us crisp mornings at 20 degrees and during the day the temperature never went above 26 degrees, so it was just perfect.
Anyway, any questions you might have about our trip, feel free to drop them in the comments and I´ll get back to you!
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