Someone said I must go to Essaouira, so I went. I didn’t know it was meant to be this kind of hippy place where Jimi Hendrix came in ’69 and stayed for 2 years… or something? I don’t know. There’s loads of stories round here.
So let me show you Essaouira – in 33 photos. I really tried to narrow this down to just a few photos but it was difficult. This is one photogenic town!
Essaouira is about 180km from Marrakech
It’s pretty much just one road from Marrakech, west, straight to the coast. See this post: Marrakech by van – 14 photos and a sound recording
It’s a fortified town on the West coast of Morocco
It has a busy fishing port
There is a kind of mystical feeling about this place
And this guy is not a statue… or a street performer
They filmed some of The Game of Thrones here
Here’s a rooftop view
Let’s go into the medina
This is the main market street
There’s nice food everywhere!
You can buy freshly caught fish at the docks
And have it cooked on a nearby bbq
This is a shoe repair shop
I reckon he can repair ANY shoe
Here’s a street just on the inside of the medina wall
Some of the streets are like they from the set of a film
Now lets go to the beach
You’ll see camels
And horses
just… galloping down the beach as the sun sets
You can walk a few km down the beach to the next village, Diabat
There is a point during every sunset where all the birds take off
There’s always this mist coming off the sea
Diabat where the Jimi Hendrix cafe is
Back to the beach. Cello practice!
Then I met this crew
They stay in The Pirate’s Zion Hostel – check this place out if you want to meet cool people and stay in a nice place near to Essaouira
They ride around in this
The guy, Abel, made this mobile trike home with his friend. He travelled around morocco in it. He calls her ‘Christina’ – “let’s go to town in Christina’. Thanks for showing me round Abel 🙂
This is where I camped
I stayed in this nice quiet spot in Diabat (near the river and beach) just a couple of km down the road from Essaouira. Coordinates: N31 28.985 W9 45.988
I really like Essaouira. It’s friendly and relaxed and seems to attract loads of good people from all over the world – long term travellers, free spirits, surfers, musicians. The locals are also ace! There’s just a nice atmosphere here. After one week I wasn’t able to go into the town without seeing people I’d met in previous days.
It’s quite different to Marrakech. I could live here.
Oh yeah and In summer there is a Gnaoua world music festival which sounds amazing. I can’t not come back here.
Have you been here? what did you think? share experience, tips and whatever in the comments…
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