Guesthouses

A guesthouse here is a host’s home at Diabat, Ghazoua or Sidi Kaouki, with a garden, often a pool, and dinner cooked to order. Quiet in exchange for the medina at night: without a car, budget a transfer for every outing. Better for a second stay than for three nights.

A candlelit dining room: laid wooden tables, leather chairs, brass candlesticks, a lit fireplace at the back and a floor of cube-pattern tiles — The dining room at Tangaro, Diabat, in 2010© Wikitan2012 · Wikimedia Commons

Choose a guesthouse if you have a car, or if you are happy for your evenings to happen at the house. It is the middle ground between a riad and a hotel. Someone’s home in a village or the countryside, with a garden, often a pool, and dinner cooked when you book it. Three areas hold most of the addresses around Essaouira: Diabat at 5 km, Ghazoua at 10 km and Sidi Kaouki at 26 km by road. The bargain is plain: quiet and a table, in exchange for the medina after dark. For a courtyard house inside the walls, see our riads. For a car outside the room, our hotels.

What “guesthouse” means here

Law 80-14 of 4 August 2015 defines a maison d’hôtes as a commercial establishment in the form of a villa or house. It lets rooms and, as a sideline, serves meals (Bulletin officiel of 15 October 2015, read on 16 October 2026). The same law defines a riad as a house of traditional architecture that offers accommodation, and says nothing about a medina. A place in Ghazoua can call itself a riad quite legally. We keep the word for the ramparts and file anything with a garden and a host here.

On the ground, the host is the difference: an owner or manager who lives on site. The law caps the size of the house too, with a minimum and maximum capacity set by regulation. Dinner is a single sitting, served at a set time and ordered by mid-afternoon. There is no menu: you eat what has been cooked, so ask the price of dinner when you book the room. These houses are now graded in stars, like hotels, rather than by category. The Ministry of Tourism allowed 24 months to comply (announced on 10 June 2025), and that period is still running. The star shown online therefore means little yet: our hotels pages give the dates.

Diabat, Ghazoua, Sidi Kaouki: three villages, three kinds of stay

Diabat is the nearest, across the Oued Ksob. The beach is a walk at low tide, and the dunes and the golf course are next door. It is also the shortest drive of the three to the medina: 5 km and 7 minutes from Bab Doukkala. For anyone who wants the countryside without giving up the town.

Ghazoua is open country on the Sidi Kaouki road: argan trees, stone walls, nothing to walk to. The gardens there are the biggest, and that is where the pools are. You stay there with a car or a host who drives. For a week of rest, or a group renting the whole house.

Sidi Kaouki puts the ocean at the door: surf in the morning, horses on the beach. Guesthouses there share the row with the surf and kite camps, which sell bed, lessons and board together. Our advice: a guesthouse if you already surf and want a proper room, a surf camp if you are learning.

Transport, evenings included

Getting there is easy. Getting back at 23:00 is not. Do not count on finding a taxi at the medina gate: settle the ride back before you go out. That leaves three options. A hire car, left at a guarded car park by one of the gates while you eat in the medina. A host transfer, with the price agreed when you book. Or dinner at the house, the point of the formula.

Our rule: one evening in town for every three at the house. A guesthouse suits a second stay better than three nights of discovery. If you have come to stop, swim and eat what the host cooks, sleep here. Two things to settle before paying, above all in winter. Heating or a fireplace, since nights average 11.1 to 14.4 °C from November to February. The latest check-in time, because nobody waits at a gate after midnight. Our getting around pages cover taxis and car parks, and our neighbourhoods pages say what lies around each village.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a guesthouse and a riad in Essaouira?

The place and the host. A riad is a courtyard house inside the ramparts. A guesthouse is a villa or farmhouse with a garden, in a village or the countryside, where the host lives and cooks. Law 80-14 allows the word riad outside the medina, but we do not use it that way.

Do you need a car to stay in a guesthouse near Essaouira?

In Ghazoua and Sidi Kaouki, yes, or a host who drives. Diabat, the nearest, is only 5 km by road from Bab Doukkala. Without a car, book a transfer for every outing and eat at the house.

Can you have dinner at your guesthouse?

Yes. It is the custom, and close to a necessity with no restaurant within walking distance. One dinner, booked by mid-afternoon: ask its price when you book the room. State any dietary needs when you book, not at the table.

Diabat, Ghazoua or Sidi Kaouki: which one?

Diabat to keep the town within taxi reach, Ghazoua for countryside, a pool and silence, Sidi Kaouki for the ocean when you wake. All three share one drawback: nothing on foot after dark.

Are there guesthouses with a pool around Essaouira?

Yes, above all in Ghazoua, where the land allows it. Ask whether it is heated before you book. Unheated, it is scenery more than a swim from November to March. In summer it earns its keep once the garden is walled against the wind.