Yoga & retreats

There are two ways to do yoga in Essaouira, and they are not booked the same way. A single class, in a studio, is bought on the day. At Moga Yoga Studio in the medina it costs 150 MAD booked online and 170 MAD at the door, mat included (prices read on 16 October 2026). A retreat is booked months ahead and usually happens outside the walls. The published prices we read run from €800 for four nights to €1,690 for seven, with meals and classes. In between sits the format that made the area’s name: the surf and yoga week at Sidi Kaouki.

The surf and yoga week, explained

The format grew out of the surf camps at Sidi Kaouki, 26 km south. At SurfTwins the week starts on a Sunday and runs to seven nights. It brings six two-hour surf lessons and five yoga sessions, at sunrise or sunset, to undo what the board has stiffened. Meals and the transfer from Essaouira airport are included: €800 in a shared room, €900 in a private one. The same camp sells six nights with an hour of yoga a day for €550 (prices read on 16 October 2026). Yoga there is the side dish, an hour a day: buy that week for the rhythm, not for the practice.

A pure yoga retreat turns the ratio round. Two sessions a day, usually a dynamic practice in the morning and a slow one in the evening. The rest is free time, for a massage or a hammam. Most take place in a country house: towards Ounagha for La Vida Surf and Les Jardins de Mogador, in Ghazoua for Stephie Yoga’s villa, in an oasis 12 km from Sidi Kaouki for Yoga avec Lisa. Fiona Edwards, by contrast, takes a riad in Essaouira for her October 2026 weeks. Several retreats belong to one teacher who fills her own week. Elsewhere the house changes teacher: La Vida Surf lists a different one for October, November and December 2026. The house stays, the programme changes. Our advice: read who is teaching before you look at the pool.

The studios: inside the walls, on foot

For a class between two walks, Moga Yoga Studio is in the medina, at 3 rue Mohamed Diouri. You can walk in without booking, mats provided, for vinyasa, hatha or yin depending on the hour. Yoga Attitude, which gives Ghazoua as its address, lists 150 MAD a class on an undated price page. Timetables change with the season and the teacher: check the studio’s online timetable on the day.

In the morning the class comes before the beach. In the afternoon, once the trade wind makes the beach uncomfortable, it is the fallback, alongside the hammam and the cooking class. Our things to do page compares everything that happens out of the wind. A sunset class on a medina roof wants one more layer: the wind does not always drop with the light.

When to come, and what a week costs

Yoga has no season here. Retreats do, and it follows the surf. Sources disagree on how long it runs. One Sidi Kaouki camp says all year round. Another organiser schedules its retreats only from 1 September to 31 May (pages read on 25 September 2026). October and November are the best compromise: the swell is in and the wind has dropped. Our surf section explains why. February can be cold in a house with no heating: ask before you send the deposit.

The budget, in orders of magnitude. A surf and yoga week at SurfTwins in Sidi Kaouki, €550 to €900 depending on the package and the room. A yoga retreat, €800 for four nights with Yoga avec Lisa in November 2026, €1,190 for seven nights in a double room with Stephie Yoga in May 2026. Meals are included, transfers often extra. Bought singly, a five-class pass costs 700 MAD at Moga Yoga Studio and 650 MAD at Yoga Attitude. The rest of the trip is priced in our budget pages.

Bed-plus-lessons packages have their own section, surf and kite camps, on the sleep side of the site. For a retreat, the organiser’s own page is the one to trust: dates, teacher and price change from one season to the next.