Boutique hotels
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Heure Bleue
- Style
- Ocean-liner elegance
- Setting
- No-worry, no-hurry ancient port
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Madada Mogador
- Style
- Parisian apartment
- Setting
- Ocean-view ramparts
Essaouira Eating, drinking and dancing
Restaurants
(+212 (0)524 784726)
After Five
This trendy modern European bistro, right beneath Madada Mogador on Rue Youssef El Fassi, is open seven days a week.
(+212 (0)524 476238)
Chez Sam
This unassuming shack on the tip of Port de Pêche will assuage your fresh-fish hankerings.
(+212 (0)524 475972)
Le Chalet de la Plage
A cosy, wooden-panelled Essaouira institution at 1 boulevard Mohamed V, where the sea urchins are fresh, the sea bream gleaming, and the waiters dignified. There’s pigeon and pasta on the menu, but you’ll want something piscine, with the Atlantic crashing away just beyond the terrace.
(+212 (0)524 476819)
Les Alizés Mogador
For a reasonably priced dinner of Moroccan home cooking, this relaxed candlelit venue at 26 rue de la Skala (no credit cards) is a great spot to seek out.
(+212 (0)524 476407)
Taros
The mod Maroc food makes this restaurant on Place Moulay Hassan a prime spot for lunch on the terrace overlooking the harbour, or cocktails and snacks in the evenings.
Bars
+ 212 (0)544 479000
the Piano Bar, Sofitel Mogador
There's not much Western-style nightlife in laidback Essaouira, but this venue offers a variation on the Lost in Translation theme.
Avenue Mohamed V
Cafés
Gelateria Dolce Freddo
Buy a day-old newspaper from home, have an early-morning coffee, and watch the fishermen head to their blue-hulled boats in the harbour. If you have a hankering for Italian coffee, pull up a chair at this place.
Place Moulay Hassan
Stall 14, Calvados
The fishermen display their catch in the harbour every afternoon; choose what you want to eat and they cook it. This stall was our favourite.
