  
SURFING IN MOROCCO (CENTRAL MOROCCO, NORTHERN AFRICA)
Essaouira, Sidi Kaouki & Moulay - A Very Rough Guide
Essaouira is a former French colonial town, about two and a half hours drive from Marrakech heading towards the coast. Essaouira stands like a last outpost on a rock cliff facing the sea. You could almost be forgiven for thinking it's a mirage shimmering in the bright sunshine and bathed in mist from the Atlantic ocean. The old city or Medina is completely enclosed by ramparts and battlements it reminds me very much of St. Malo in France. The medina is the heart and soul of Essaouira, a hive of activity with hundreds of busy alleyways, picturesque squares and cosy restaurants. To my mind, Essaouira with it's fortified walls, fishing harbour and long sandy beach, has to be one of the most beautiful towns on the Atlantic coast.
Quick links: Essaouira | Sidi Kaouki | Moulay Bouzerktoun
Essaouira
Essaouira is that rare thing, a town that has become a tourist attraction without losing any of it's charm or cultural identity. Oh sure you can see the influence of Europe in the café culture that is developing along the main beach avenue and the upgrade of it's facilities but Essaouira has retained it's identity and character while gaining a nice cosmopolitan feel.
Inside the medina is for pedestrianized traffic only so if you have a car you'll need to park it outside. However the compact nature of the medina and the miriad of inter-connecting streets and alleyways mean you are never really more than a two minute walk from your accommodation. The medina itself is only 100 meters from the beach and 400 meters from the kitesurfing center. (If you are on a kitsurfing holiday with Zoco you'll be picked up just outside the medina each day).
If you are without a car there are a lot of small blue taxis to be found just outside the entrances to the medina and can be hired for about 6 Dirhams during the day or 7 dirhams at night. So, even if you've chosen accommodation outside the medina, it's pretty easy to get into the center without having to drive.
The town itself is not very big, but has a busy, bustly feel to it and attracts a wide range of tourists, both Europeans and Moroccans. It's a perfect holiday town and has a very busy harbour filled with fishing boats, so the beach is full of families wandering up and down, informal games of football are played on the beach, even after sunset when parts of the beach are floodlit. The seafood is excellent, and ridiculously cheap. Life in Essaouira is all about chilling out in little pavement cafés, browsing the shops in the narrow alleyways of the medina, and living life in the slow lane.
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SIDI KAOUKI
About 20 km south of Essaouira you'll find the excellent beach of SIDI KAOUKI.
A long, long sandy beach that stretches from a small rocky point way off south into the desert almost as far as the eye can see. There's not much here. A car park, a few basic cafés selling food and drinks, a lot of camels and a few hotels.
The new Kiteboarding Pro Center is located in the middle of the beach and offers our clients 200m² of Schill space. From here we offer Surf, Windsurf, Kitesurf , and sea Kayak activities and offer all the peripheral stuff you'd expect from a pro center: changing rooms, showers, toilets and restaurant.
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MOULAY BOUZERKTOUNE
Moulay is a small settlement about 20km North of Essaouira and the Pro Center is right in front of the Spot. The center has a Café-resto on first floor with a great view of the action. The equipment rental prices are pretty good and if you're coming out for just a few days on the back of a good forecast it could easily be cheaper and less hassle to hire your kit in advance.
There isn't much choice for eating out in Moulay but Lawama's restaurant is fantastic. Lawama's is a bar/café and is ideally situated overlooking all the action. They do breakfast, lunches and evening meals at reasonable prices. Expect to pay around 6 euros for a good meal. There are also a couple of basic and cheap local cafes.
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