Riads, Atlas & Ocean
Marrakech to Essaouira- From
- €1,380
- Duration
- 7 days / 6 nights
- Group
- Private · 2 to 8 travelers
- Route
- Marrakech → Marrakech
01 / About this journey
A week of Marrakech riads, Atlas villages and the sea air of Essaouira.
Seven days, three climates, and never more than ninety minutes of driving a day — except the one that takes you to the ocean. Our gentlest itinerary, and the best one with children.
Seven days from Marrakech to Imlil and Essaouira: a courtyard riad, a wood-heated lodge below Toubkal and a house on the ramparts, with only one drive over two hours.
What’s included
- Private English-speaking driver-guide throughout
- Air-conditioned vehicle with fuel
- 6 nights in riads and a mountain lodge
- All breakfasts, 4 lunches and 3 dinners
- Medina guide in Marrakech and Essaouira
- Mountain guide in Imlil, walk matched to your level
- Visit to a women’s argan oil cooperative
- Return airport transfers
The moments that stay
01Eat lunch with a family in Imlil, ninety minutes from Marrakech and ten degrees cooler.
02Walk as far as you like on day 4 — two hours to Aroumd, five to the plateau, or none at all — and turn back whenever you want.
03Stop at a women’s cooperative on the argan road and watch the oil being pressed by hand before you buy any.
04Be at Essaouira harbour when the boats come in, with a guide from the neighbourhood, then have the rest of the day to yourself.
02 / Your itinerary
Your itinerary
7 days / 6 nightsMarrakech → Marrakech · Very easy · walking optional
A private transfer from the airport to the riad — ten minutes, then the car stops at the edge of the medina and you finish on foot, in lanes too narrow for it. Nothing is scheduled today, and that is deliberate: a first evening in Marrakech is best spent on a terrace, watching the swifts turn above the roofs. Dinner at the riad. If you land early and you are still upright, Jemaa el-Fna is ten minutes away on foot — go at dusk, when the food stalls go up, rather than at three in the afternoon in full sun. The driver-guide who meets you stays with you for all seven days.
A morning with a medina guide, starting early for the usual reason: the souks are liveable before eleven. The dyers first, with skeins of wool drying across the lane, then the ironworkers, whom you hear long before you see, then the Ben Youssef medersa and its zellige courtyards, silent in the middle of all that noise. Lunch in the shade. The afternoon slows down: the gardens, an avenue of bamboo and still pools, the place where you recover. In the evening, somewhere you eat well without being on the square — we give you two or three ten minutes from the riad, and you pick.
Ninety minutes south and the temperature drops ten degrees: the best-value drive of the trip. The plain, then the first walnut trees, then the valley narrowing and the track climbing to the village. Lunch with a family in Imlil, in the upstairs room, sitting around a low table: a tagine or a couscous depending on what you chose, salad, and tea poured from a height. You are not shown round the house, you are received in it, which is not the same thing. The afternoon is free: an hour’s easy walk through the terraces, or the lodge terrace facing Toubkal, which tops out at 4,167 metres and watches you all evening.
You decide at breakfast, not the night before. Three options: two hours there and back to Aroumd village along the valley side, with mules carrying supplies up; five hours towards the plateau, higher and drier, with a real reward at the top; or nothing at all, a book and the terrace. The mountain guide adapts, including halfway through: we have turned back after twenty minutes because somebody did not feel like it, and it caused nobody any trouble. Lunch on the way or at the lodge depending on the option. Dinner at the lodge, wood-heated — it is ten degrees cooler than Marrakech, and you will notice once the sun goes.
The only long drive of the trip, and it is broken in two. You come down west, leave the mountain for the plain, and the argan trees start: low thorny trees that grow nowhere else, sometimes with goats up in them — yes, in the trees. A stop at a women’s cooperative pressing the oil by hand: the nut cracked between two stones, the culinary and the cosmetic oil to taste, and no pressure at all if you buy nothing. Then the air changes long before you see the ocean — it turns damp and salt, and the temperature drops. Essaouira in the late afternoon, a riad in the medina, dinner there. The wind may wake you.
The blue harbour early, with a guide from the neighbourhood: the boats come in, the catch is sorted and sold, nets are mended, and nobody performs for visitors because the fish has to move. After that the day is entirely yours. The ramparts and the Skala facing the open sea; the thuya marquetry workshops in the vaults under the fortifications; the beach, which runs for kilometres and is better for walking than for sunbathing — Essaouira is windy most afternoons, which is what keeps it cool in August and what brings the surfers. A fish lunch at the port if you like, picked off the stall and grilled in front of you.
Breakfast without rushing, then two and a half hours back to Marrakech across the same argan plain, the other way round and in a different light. We drop you at the airport, timed to your flight rather than to a theoretical schedule. If your plane leaves late, say so: we can break the day with a last lunch on the road, or leave you a few hours in the medina with your bags in the car. Plenty of travellers add two nights in Essaouira instead of driving back the same day — it costs little and it changes the end of the trip. You only have to ask when you book.
03 / Where you’ll stay
Three houses, three climates
A courtyard riad in the Marrakech medina, a wood-heated stone lodge in Imlil, a house on the Essaouira ramparts where you hear the gulls. Three ways of sleeping in Morocco — and the real thread of this journey.
04 / The route, at a glance
The route, at a glance
Stops are indicative and can be adapted to your pace.
Marrakech → Marrakech
05 / Before you go
Before you go
- One long drive, on day 5: four and a half hours from Imlil to the ocean, broken by the argan cooperative. Every other day is ninety minutes or less.
- Imlil is always ten degrees cooler than Marrakech and the lodge is heated by wood. From November to March bring a proper jacket; in summer it is the one place on the trip where you will not be hot.
- The day 4 walk is optional and stays optional on the morning itself. You can turn back after twenty minutes and nobody will mind.
- Essaouira is windy most afternoons, which is what keeps it cool in August and what makes the beach better for walking than for sunbathing.
- Morocco tips. Your driver-guide, the mountain guide and the riad staff expect it; we tell you what is usual before you leave. Child seats are provided at no extra cost.
What’s not included
- International flights
- Meals not listed and drinks
- Travel insurance (strongly recommended)
- Tips and personal expenses
- Optional Essaouira activities (surf, quad, kitesurf)
To prepare for this journey
Moroccan medinas: how much walking is really involved?Morocco’s Atlas Mountains: when to go and what to expectSix, eight or ten days in Morocco: which pace should you choose?Your questions
Does this journey work with children?
It is the one we recommend first. Drives are short except on day 5, the Imlil walk is optional and adjustable, and Essaouira is the most relaxed town in the country. Child seats are provided at no extra cost.
Is it cold in Imlil?
It is always ten degrees cooler than Marrakech, and winter nights are genuinely cold. The lodge is wood-heated. A warm jacket is useful even in April.
Can we stay longer in Essaouira?
Yes, and many people do. Two extra nights cost little and change the end of the trip entirely. Mention it in your enquiry.
Is the day 4 walk compulsory?
No, and that is the point. You decide on the morning itself, and you can turn back whenever you like: the guide stays with you, the driver stays in the village.
Is it the same driver for the whole trip?
Yes. The person who meets you on the first day stays with you until the final drop-off — the same driver-guide, the same vehicle. It sounds like a detail until the third day, when you no longer have to explain that you would rather stop for a coffee than for a photograph.
What does this trip support locally?
We give ten per cent of what we earn to small cooperatives in the regions we drive through, to help them grow their own business. It is not a line added to your invoice — it comes out of our side of it.
Your journey starts here
Let’s plan your journey.
Your dates, your wishes, your pace. Tell us what matters to you and our local team will reply with a personal proposal.
Or write to uscontact@kasbahroutes.com
