Morocco: Marrakech, Essaouira and the Atlantic Coast

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Marrakech

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

   • Environ 18 min de route
   • Repas du soir
   • Nuit : Marrakech
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK), about 6 km from the old city, at any time of day: a driver meets every flight and drives you to the edge of the medina, where a porter wheels your bags down the lanes to the riad, since cars cannot reach most riad doors. If you land early, rest on the roof terrace or take a first look around the nearby lanes. 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

   Temps libre : Free until the early-evening briefing

   Activité : Plan to land by about 5 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met and briefed the next morning.

   

2. Jour 2 : Majorelle at opening, the medina, then the hammam

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

   • Environ 18 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Marrakech
   Détail du jour 2

   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. 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

   Option plus facile : Leave the walk after the Bahia Palace and return to the riad with the guide to rest before lunch; the hammam can also be swapped for a quiet afternoon on the roof.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free until the hammam

   Activité : About 3 to 4 hours on foot on flat, busy lanes; motorbikes share the alleys, so keep to the side. The hammam has separate sessions or areas for men and women; swimwear is fine.

3. Jour 3 : Cooking class, then sunset in the Agafay

   Marrakech medina, then out to the Agafay plateau and back

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Marrakech
   Détail du jour 3

   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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Skip the Agafay evening and have dinner on your own in the medina; the guide arranges a taxi home if you need it.

   Option plus active : Walk the last stretch to the sunset viewpoint over the Agafay hills, about 3 km on stony tracks, while the van meets you at the top.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Marrakech

   Activité : The Agafay is a stony plateau, not sand dunes, and evenings there are cool for most of the year; bring a warm layer.

   

4. Jour 4 : West to the Atlantic and the Essaouira ramparts

   Marrakech to Essaouira, with an argan cooperative on the way

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Essaouira
   Détail du jour 4

   We leave Marrakech at about nine and drive roughly 190 km west, about three hours, across the Haouz plain and into the argan country near the coast, with a coffee stop halfway. Before Essaouira we stop at a women's argan cooperative to see how the nuts are cracked by hand and pressed, and to taste amlou, a spread of argan oil, almonds and honey; there is no pressure to buy. 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. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free in Essaouira

   Activité : The coast is often windy and noticeably cooler than Marrakech; bring a windproof layer.

   

5. Jour 5 : 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
   Détail du jour 5

   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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Walk as far as you like along the beach and take a taxi back to the medina gate.

   Option plus active : Carry on past the fort into the dunes behind Diabat and walk back along the beach, about 8 to 14 km in all depending on the start point, tide and river allowing.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon and evening free

   Activité : The beach walk is about 3 to 6 km each way on firm sand. The fort sits south of the Oued Ksob river mouth, which can be impassable at high tide or after rain, so we time the walk to the tide and use the van or a taxi round by road if needed. The Atlantic here is cold and the wind strong for much of the year; swimming is for the brave.

6. Jour 6 : Back to Marrakech and home

   Essaouira to Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK)

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 6

   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. 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

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm from Marrakech; earlier flights can be handled on the private trip.

Faune et météo : This trip runs all year. Marrakech often passes 40 C in July and August, so summer days start early and rest at midday, while Essaouira stays mild and windy. Winter days are sunny but nights are cold, with some rain from November to March.

• Marrakech3 nuits
• Essaouira2 nuits