Morocco: Marrakech, Essaouira and the Atlantic Coast

Arrive in Marrakech

Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) to your riad in the Marrakech medina

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Marrakech
• Environ 18 min de route

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the five days ahead: how the medina is laid out, what fair prices in the souks look like, how tipping works, and what to wear in the hammam. Then we walk together to Jemaa el-Fnaa as the square fills with food stalls, musicians and storytellers, and sit down to a welcome dinner of salads, tagine and mint tea at a restaurant in the medina.

Compris

• Pick-up at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK), whatever your flight time
• Welcome briefing with your guide, including souk prices and tipping
• Dusk walk to Jemaa el-Fnaa
• Welcome dinner in the medina

Majorelle at opening, the medina, then the hammam

Jardin Majorelle, then the Marrakech medina on foot, then a hammam

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Marrakech
• Environ 18 min de route

Matin

We leave the riad early to be at the Jardin Majorelle for the first entry of the day, before the garden fills by late morning. The painter Jacques Majorelle laid it out from the 1920s; Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé later restored it, and at opening the cobalt-blue studio, the bamboo and the cactus beds are quiet. We book the combined ticket for the garden and the Berber Museum inside it. A short drive takes us back to the medina, listed by UNESCO in 1985, where a licensed local guide joins us on foot: the Koutoubia minaret from its gardens, the carved and painted courtyards of the Bahia Palace, the spice squares of the Mellah, then north through the souks of dyers, metalworkers and leather-sellers. There are no commission shops on this walk.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in the medina, then the afternoon is free. Late in the day we go to a hammam for a steam, a black-soap scrub and a rinse.

Compris

• Jardin Majorelle at the first entry of the day, on the combined garden and Berber Museum ticket (included)
• Medina walk with a licensed local guide: the Koutoubia gardens, Bahia Palace (entry included), the Mellah and the northern souks
• Sit-down lunch in the medina
• Hammam with a black-soap scrub (gommage), late afternoon

Activités en option

• Yves Saint Laurent Museum, next to the Jardin Majorelle
• Ben Youssef Madrasa
• A massage after the hammam

Cooking class, then sunset in the Agafay

Marrakech medina, then out to the Agafay plateau and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Marrakech
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

The morning starts in a neighbourhood market with the cook who will teach us, buying vegetables, herbs and spices for the day and learning how the stallholders sell them.

Après-midi

Back in the kitchen we make two or three dishes together: zaalouk, a cooked aubergine and tomato salad, a tagine, and bread or a sweet to finish, and the class ends with lunch at one table, eating what we cooked. The afternoon is yours, to rest at the riad, go back to the souks or see the Ben Youssef Madrasa. At about four o'clock we drive roughly 40 km south-west, about 45 minutes each way, to the Agafay, a stony desert of bare hills between Marrakech and the Atlas. As the sun drops the plateau turns gold and the snow on the High Atlas, when there is some, turns pink.

Soir

Dinner is at a desert camp with lanterns and a fire, and we are back at the riad by about ten.

Compris

• Market visit and cooking class, with lunch of the dishes you cook
• Sunset over the Agafay plateau
• Dinner at a desert camp in the Agafay

Activités en option

• A short camel ride in the Agafay before sunset

West to the Atlantic and the Essaouira ramparts

Marrakech to Essaouira, with an argan cooperative on the way

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Essaouira
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

We reach Essaouira for a sit-down lunch, check in to our riad inside the walls, and in the afternoon a licensed local guide walks us through the medina, listed by UNESCO in 2001: the 18th-century grid laid out for Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, the old Jewish quarter, the woodworkers of thuya burl under the ramparts.

Soir

We end on the Skala de la Ville, the sea bastion lined with old bronze cannons, for sunset over the Atlantic and the Mogador islands.

Compris

• Drive from Marrakech to Essaouira with your guide
• Women's argan cooperative visit
• Sit-down lunch in Essaouira
• Medina walk with a licensed local guide
• Sunset on the Skala de la Ville ramparts

Essaouira: the harbour, the souk and the beach

Essaouira fishing harbour, the souk, then the beach south towards Diabat

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Essaouira

Matin

The fishing harbour is busiest in the morning, when the blue boats come in and the catch is sold on the quay, so that is where we start, with the guide explaining who sells what and climbing the Skala du Port for the view back over the boats and the medina.

Après-midi

Lunch is the classic Essaouira one: at the grill stalls by the harbour you choose fish, prawns or squid from the morning's catch and they are cooked in front of you. The early afternoon is free in the souk, which is calmer than Marrakech's and good for spices, argan oil and woodwork; your guide helps if you want to bargain. Late in the afternoon, timed to the tide, we walk along the wide beach south of the town, where kitesurfers work the wind, to the ruined fort of Borj el-Berod beyond the Oued Ksob river mouth at Diabat, about 3 to 6 km each way; if the river is up, the van takes us round by road.

Soir

Dinner tonight is your choice.

Compris

• Morning at the fishing harbour with your guide, and the Skala du Port
• Grilled-fish lunch at the harbour stalls
• Beach walk to the ruined fort of Borj el-Berod near Diabat, timed to the tide, with the van round by road if the river is up

Activités en option

• A kitesurf or surf lesson
• A horse or camel ride along the beach
• A massage or a second hammam

Back to Marrakech and home

Essaouira to Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

A last walk on the ramparts or a coffee in the main square, Place Moulay Hassan, before we leave Essaouira mid-morning, at about ten, for the drive back east, about 195 km and a little over three hours to Marrakech Menara Airport, with a coffee stop on the way.

Après-midi

We drop you at the airport in the early afternoon, or at a riad or hotel in Marrakech if you are staying on; your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you would like more time on the coast or in the city, we can book extra nights before or after the trip in Essaouira or Marrakech. Book a flight leaving Marrakech after about 3 pm; if you need an earlier flight, the private trip can leave Essaouira earlier. Essaouira also has its own small airport with a few flights to Europe, so if you would rather fly out from the coast, tell us when you book and we will drop you there instead and plan the transfer around your flight time.

Compris

• Drive from Essaouira to Marrakech with your guide
• Drop-off at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) or a hotel in Marrakech