Where to stay

Sleep where your days will happen. For the medina, a riad inside the ramparts. For the beach and the kite, a hotel on the bay, on the beach road. For surf, a camp at Sidi Kaouki, 26 km south. For a month, or a season of wind, an apartment in the new town. For quiet, a guesthouse in the countryside at Ghazoua. For the van, a campsite south of the bay. Six families, and you choose on your plans before your budget. In Essaouira the date sets the price, not the category.

Two things are worth knowing before you book. What Gnaoua festival week does to rates, and why the medina is reached on foot, bags in hand. What we know about prices comes further down.

Six families, one question: where will your days happen

Our riads are the answer for anyone who has come to walk, eat and look. You sleep inside the walls, minutes from the port and the souks, in a courtyard house with a roof terrace. That section explains what a courtyard does to noise and to arrival, and why the floor matters more than the star rating.

Our hotels cover three addresses: the medina, the beach road and the forest south of the bay. The last two are where the car parks at the door. On the beach road the wetsuit dries on the balcony. The forest sells silence, with a taxi for every trip. That section also says what stars and taxes do to the advertised price.

Our surf and kite camps bundle the bed, the lessons and the gear into one price, by the week. The surf camps are at Sidi Kaouki, an open beach at the end of the road. Kite packages sleep in town. Surf runs from October to April and kite from April to September: choose the month before the camp, and that section says why.

Our apartments are the tool for a month of kite, for a family and for remote work. They have a kitchen, a washing machine and a rate that drops by the week. We suggest the ones in the new town, 10 to 25 minutes on foot from the ramparts depending on the street, where the taxi stops at the door. Our guesthouses are the countryside: Diabat at 5 km, Ghazoua at 10 km, or Sidi Kaouki itself. A pool, dinner at the house table, and a transfer or a car to arrange for every evening in town.

Our campsites section is the one for tents and motorhomes. None is inside the town. The ones we have spotted are south of the bay, on the Diabat road. Another is at Sidi Kaouki, and its own site lists pitches for motorhomes, caravans and tents. A motorhome fits through no medina gate: the pitch is the base, and the town is a taxi ride. We have not yet recorded enough rates to give a range.

What a night costs, and the week that changes everything

We do not yet give a per-night range for riads, hotels, apartments or guesthouses. We have not recorded enough prices published by the properties themselves. For the Sidi Kaouki surf camps, we have read two camps’ rates on their own sites. The first lists €380 to €550 for six nights in a private room, with lessons or guiding, gear and the transfer from Essaouira airport included. The second, €580 to €920 per person for seven nights, with lessons, gear and full board. Our budget pages set these nights against meals and activities.

One week is the exception, and it is known well ahead. The Gnaoua and World Music Festival has announced its 28th edition for 24 to 26 June 2027 (official site, read on 25 September 2026). We advise booking those three nights, and the ones either side, months in advance. All six families feel it, the medina first. If you are not coming for the music, move by a week. If you are, book the room when you book the ticket, and accept the new town or Ghazoua as a fallback. The other festivals’ dates live in our agenda.

Outside the festival, we advise booking early for July and August and for the Christmas and New Year fortnight. November and January are the months for negotiating. Our when to visit guide gives the month-by-month picture, wind included.

The walls, the noise and the wind: three criteria people forget

The walls first. No car enters the medina. The taxi or transfer drops you at a gate, and the last stretch is on foot over the paving, bags included. That is the real line between our six families. Inside the walls, someone meets you at the gate and carries the bags. Outside them, you park. A buggy, a heavy suitcase or a weak knee settles the question before charm does. Our riads section covers the walk in from the medina gates, and our getting around pages the taxis and car parks.

Noise next, and it is not the same noise everywhere. Medina nights are quiet except near the cafés on place Moulay Hassan and the bars. The dawn call to prayer carries everywhere. On the bay it is the boulevard: ask for a courtyard or poolside room, or a high floor. At Sidi Kaouki there is nothing after sunset, no noise and no taxi either. Our advice: ask which way the room faces before you ask about the view.

The wind last, and here it decides everything. Essaouira has 147 days a year above 15 knots (1991-2020 normals). From April to September the trade wind gets up late in the morning and strengthens through the afternoon. A north-facing terrace is useless on those afternoons, and sand blows into a beach room left open. Look for the courtyard, the patio or the sheltered terrace, not the ocean frontage. Winter asks the opposite question: 11 to 14 °C at night from November to February. Heating is not a given, in a riad, an apartment or a guesthouse alike. Ask before you pay. Our hotels section says which view to keep in each season, and today’s wind, spot by spot, is on our weather and wind pages.

One last rule, and it holds for all six families. Book on your plans, never on the photograph: a terrace tells you nothing about the floor, the exposure or the distance to the gate. Write to the house before paying and ask three things. The earliest arrival time, the heating, and which way the room faces. Those three questions prevent most of the bad nights we hear about.