OH TRAVEL | TRAVEL DESTINATIONS | MOROCCO | ESSAOUIRA
E is for Essaouira — My A-Z Of Favorite Travel Destinations
A medieval city on the coast of Morocco.
In pondering my favorite destinations starting with the letter E, I came up with a short list of memorable ones. There is Elphantine Island in the middle of the Nile River near Aswan which we lived on for 3 weeks. Of course, Aswan is part of a country with another E, Egypt. Many already know my thoughts on Egypt, so I don’t think I have to get into that here. Unfortunately, though we loved Elphantine Island, we have far too many grievances with the rest of our experience to claim it as a favorite.
Another notable is Entebbe, our arrival point in Uganda and a place where we spent a month painting murals in the Ugandan Wildlife Education Center. We really did like Entebbe and its stunning location on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Victoria. However, it is very busy since it is a major entrance point to the country, housing Uganda's only International airport, and it is connected to Kampala, Uganda’s largest population base and capital city, by a large highway. So all in all, the area was a bit busy for us.
The final one on the list is Essaouira, Morocco. Essaouira turned out to be a bit of a refuge for us. It was in Essaouira that we started to heal from the covid trauma that we had endured while being locked down, and it was our final destination in Morocco before we broke our 9-month stay and headed off to Turkey in the fall of 2020.
I’ve been meaning to write about Essaouira for a while now, and am thrilled that I am finally pressed to do it as part of the A-Z Favorite Destination challenge that is being hosted on Globetrotters.
Essaouira (es-a-wee-ra) (also known as Mogador until the 1960’s) is a bustling port city of about 80 000 people that is located midway down Morocco’s Atlantic coastline. Boasting steady temperatures of 23C (73.4F) throughout the year, Essaouira is a popular holiday destination for Europeans and Moroccans alike.
Although the bay that Essaouira sits on is not the best one for surfing, there are great surf spots to the North and South of the city. Essaouira does however have a plethora of kite surfing, so this gives the city a bit of surf culture and a funky vibe.
We arrived in Essaouira in August of 2020 after spending the covid lockdown in Tinghir (central Morocco) for 2.5 months, then spending 5 weeks out in the dry Sahara desert where it was 45C (113F) every day. We were desperate for some cooler temps and were very relieved when we reached the coast to find a steady and reliable ocean breeze to cool us down.
Upon arriving, we thought that we may only stay a couple of weeks and then leave the country. Morocco had finally just opened its borders so that foreigners could leave, and we had heard rumors that we were actually required to leave. But after spending a few days in this lovely seaside town, and going to the police station to discuss our visa situation, we realized we weren’t required to leave and decided to just stay put for a bit.
We were desperate for a place to rent so we could hunker down and simply focus on ourselves for a while. Since arriving in Morocco 7 months earlier, we had found ourselves painting murals in three different locations. Plus, of course, there was the whole shock of Covid and how that all came to be.
We didn’t know it at the time but we needed a respite from everything and everyone.
We joined up with another young Moroccan man that we had met earlier in the year up in Chefchaouen, and rented a 3-bedroom apartment at a good price for one month. We fell in love with its location, right in the heart of the old city, and we ended up staying for 2.5 months before we finally flew off to Turkey in mid-October.
Essaouira’s old town is a walled-in city that is commonly referred to as a Medina. The high stone walls extend around the entire city, even along the oceanfront. Within the walls is a treasure trove of pedestrian-only (motorbikes are allowed) alleyways winding randomly in every direction.
Once in a while, as we walked the city streets, we would round a corner to witness a scene that can only be described as ‘straight out of Aladdin.’ In fact, I often half expected him to come swinging down from the rooftops, landing softly in the colorful awnings that cover the street vendors along the sides of the walkways.
Being a seaside city means that they have a huge fishing industry. We spent many days wandering down by the harbor, stopping to watch the goings on of the fisherman as they brought in their catches for the day. It was a sad moment when covid forced the government to shut down the fishing for two weeks while we were there. It was then, and only then, that we saw shows of drunken aggression in the streets.
Tensions were clearly running high as the government took away yet another industry that was crucial to the very survival of the residents.
Thankfully it didn’t last very long.
Of course, like most Moroccan cities, Essaouira has many stray cats living in the streets. You can imagine that cats and fishing go hand in hand and we always saw a ton of them down at the harbor on any given day.
They too were waiting for the catches to come in.
Of course, fish also brings seagulls, and this whole area had a cacophony of seagull cries going off all day as they circled around waiting for their chance to get a tasty morsel.
They would dive and chase the boats as they pulled into the harbor and it amazed me that they never crashed into each other in the air as so many darted to and fro.
Many days we simply entertained ourselves by wandering the Medina streets, purposefully trying to get lost so we could do more exploring and see what else we could discover. Not a day went by that we didn’t see something that stopped us in our tracks with awe.
Morocco truly appeals to every sense!
Many food vendors lined the streets and we always shopped from the markets and street stalls for our goods. One of our favorite men to visit was the honey vendor. He sold it right from the back of his vehicle, and he wasn’t there every day, so we were always happy when we did find him!
We also reveled in some incredible Moroccan food and took great delight in trying as many of the tajines as we could. Tajines are actually a type of clay dish in that meals are cooked in. But the dishes themselves are also called Tajines. Basically, it is a combination of meat and vegetables that is cooked on a fire in a clay pot.
There are many delicious combinations!
Essaouira also features fancy restaurants and some funky cafes. One, in particular, was called Mandala Society, and we went there once in a blue moon for a coffee and to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere while watching the world go by.
You can see that we had a great view of the street as pedestrians would pass by the window, and we were highly entertained by all sorts of things that happened out there.
I’m telling you, there is just so much to look at in Morocco!
Occasionally we would venture out along the beach to see what we could find. The sun was always punishing, so we picked our times wisely. But it was fun to see the camels and watch the kitesurfers bob around in the waves.
The wind was always blowing in Essaouira so it never got too hot.
Being that we were on the ocean, and facing west, meant that the most beautiful part of the day was the sunset. Many evenings we would find ourselves down by the ocean as the sun dipped into it. Each time there were numerous other people gathered to witness the end of the day.
Of course, being that we were there in 2020 means that we didn’t really get to see this city at its full capacity. I can only imagine what it would be like with the hustle and bustle of tourism going on during normal times.
On one hand, we certainly felt sorry for the Moroccans and the people who depended so heavily on tourism for their livelihoods, but on the other hand, we selfishly reveled in being some of the only foreigners in the city and getting the chance to truly witness Moroccan life going on, raw and real.
We were certainly fortunate to spend a unique moment in time in Essaouira, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Thanks for reading the E selection of my A-Z of Favorite Destinations. Sam Millichap started this challenge and it has now been followed up by many other writers, a few of which are featured below:
Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist
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