Practical guides written from inside the medina, not scraped listicles. Everything here is what we tell guests in person at the rooftop.
In the Essaouira medina a riad and a hostel are often the same courtyard house used two different ways. What actually separates them: how each prices, how much quiet you get, whether you meet anyone, and who should pick which.
The forecast says mild, the Atlantic says otherwise. A season by season packing list for Essaouira: what the wind changes, the seven things not to bother carrying, and what to buy in the souk instead.
Sidi Kaouki, Cap Sim, the argan cooperatives, the Wednesday market: the trips that are genuinely worth a day out of the medina, the ones we talk guests out of, and the honest answer to whether you can see the Sahara from here.
The Wi-Fi question answered honestly, the time-zone advantage nobody mentions, what a month costs apart from your bed, and where in a medina hostel you can actually take a call.
Three days in June when the medina becomes the venue. What Gnaoua music actually is, which stages are free, how the town changes and how far ahead the beds really go.
Two towns on the same Atlantic coast, two completely different trips. Points and winter swell against a forgiving sandy bay and summer trade winds, compared month by month.
What is actually risky and what is not, what changes for women travelling alone, where solo travellers meet people, and how to spend your first 48 hours on your own in Essaouira.
Four ways this town feeds you, how the port fish grills really work, what a day of eating costs in dirhams, and the six mistakes that make visitors overpay.
Essaouira is easy to love and easy to get wrong. Who leaves calling it the best part of the trip, who leaves disappointed, how many nights it deserves, and how it compares to Marrakech and Taghazout.
Essaouira has a wind season and a swell season, not a high and a low one. A month-by-month table of weather, waves, wind and crowds, plus which month suits which traveller.
A good cooking class is barely about cooking. It is about the market, the layering and the waiting. Here is what actually happens in a Moroccan cooking class in Essaouira, and how to tell whether it is worth half a day of your trip.
The bay is a beginner's spot and Moulay Bouzerktoun is not. A season-by-season, spot-by-spot guide to kiting in Essaouira, what a first week really looks like, and what the whole thing costs.
The four road options drop you in four different places, and in a town where cars cannot reach your door, that is the detail that matters. Durations, costs and arrival practicalities for the Marrakech to Essaouira road.
Three days is the length of stay Essaouira handles best. A local, hour-by-hour plan built around the afternoon wind and the last light in the souks, plus the four things that break it.
Essaouira is four different places to sleep, not one. Medina, beachfront, Diabat or the wind villages: what each is actually like, who should choose it and who should not.
Wind season and swell season are not the same trip. A local guide to reading the seasons, choosing where to sleep and asking the nine questions that matter before you book.