Essaouira was the perfect end to our vacation – it is a beautiful, sleepy port town.  During the day, the medina and the beach have a fair number of tourists, but since many of the tourists are in town on day trips from Agadir or Marrakesh, the town goes back to its normal self at night. Having said that though, it attracts a lot fewer visitors than Agadir since it gets pretty windy.

While it does have a reputation for getting pretty windy, we were lucky.  For both of our days in Essaouira, it was great beach weather.  The waves were great for swimming, and if you went a little further out, the 15 foot swells would be a lot of fun on a surf board.

It is just a great place to relax.  We stayed at Riad Mimouna, with a room directly on the sea, so we spent time enjoying the harbor, sauntering through the medina and at the beach.

We spent lunches eating juicy plums, sweet kiwis, and of course, oranges, which are plentiful anywhere in Morocco.  For dinner though, we visited the harbor fish stands for some BBQ seafood.  My negotiation led us to Saeid, stall number 25.  For 150 dirham, we managed to get a whole crab, a whole seabass, shrimp, scampi, squid and prawns (and salad, bread and drinks).  Also, Saeid’s staff, like many Moroccans, were enamoured with Indians, so I also got an impromptu Bollywood performance from all the cooks.