From Marrakech: day trip to Essaouira

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Enjoy a day trip to Essaouira, on the Moroccan coast. Visit the Medina, the beach and an association of Berber women who produce argan oil.

Essaouira lies about two and a half hours west of Marrakech. The road crosses the dry Chiadma plateau and long stretches of argan forest, where goats sometimes climb into the branches, and we stop at a women’s cooperative to see argan nuts cracked and pressed by hand into oil.

The old town is listed by UNESCO. Inside the ramparts you walk the Skala de la Ville, the sea wall lined with old bronze cannons facing the Atlantic, then through a medina laid out in straight lines rather than the usual maze, known for its thuya woodwork and silver jewellery.

The fishing port is the other face of the town: blue wooden boats tied up side by side, nets drying on the quay and small grills where the morning catch is cooked in front of you. The beach runs for kilometres and the wind that made Essaouira famous with surfers and kitesurfers blows most of the year.

You have free time for lunch and for the medina before we drive back to Marrakech in the late afternoon.