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Plage de Sidi Kaouki, Essaouira, 4400, Morocco
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Avenue Al Akaba
Medina and ramparts
Essaouira port
sardines escabeche
Hi, i'm going to Morocco soon and am planning to spend half my time in Essaouira and half in Chefchaouen. What is the best method of transport for a lone traveller between these two places? Will a taxi take me all the way? How much would this likely be?
Thanks for your help
Hi
From in and around (eg. Essaouira) Marrakesh, the best way is a train to Tangier and a taxi/bus to Chefchaouen.
There is a night bus(CTM) from Essaouira to Casablanca, which would be there for the morning bus to Chaouen. This is 13 hours of travelling, not including the wait at Casa, and the CTM's will go as fast as most taxi's along the road.
A taxi from Chefchaouen to Fes is around €70-80 and that is 4hours, so from Essaouira you'll need a calculator! The taxi's don't like going out thier 'zone' unless it's worth their while.
I don't know about the trains, but CTM from Tangier is less than 50dh. Casablanca - Chaouen is around 70-100dh.
If you have any questions at all mail me.
Paul
This does not really look like the most practical of 'two-center' holidays in Morocco. it's a very long journey to do in one hit.
you could also combine it with a night or day in fes - there are frequent buses 4 hours from chechouen to fes - about 55 dirham - and then each morning at 730 am there are buses to marrakech from fes that arrive at 315 pm. about 130 dirham - thats about 20 euro.
you could then have a night to see marrakech - the main square etc and at least get a taste of marrakech and then the next morning head out by grande taxi to essouira.
its a lot of travelling but fine if youre having decent amount of time i guess or you like me get a kick out of doing and seeing as much as poss in even little amounts of time.
then where do you leave morocco from - if its from Marrakech its not so bad.
but yes if you are talking taking taxis on your own and not sharing them then it will be expensive but you could rent a taxi and driver for about 500 dirham a day plus his accommodation and food.
or rent a car - guys who work amongst the hotels and restaurants would be able to put you onto rental hires for you - theres a company from tetoun thats dealing in chouen for not too expensive but Tetouan itself is expensive as is Tangier.
On this one, there remains still a lot to do but the framework is done. Not only has it its hull and ribs but also the planking. The hard and delicate work is now done. It seems really strongly built. What remains to do is fixing the boards for the hull on the ribs. It is the easiest.
Essaouira's Ile de Mogador lie southwest of the port. Also known as the Iles Purpuraires, these two uninhabited islands contain fortifications, a mosque and a disused prison. From April to October the island is a breeding ground for the Eleanora's falcons, who come all the way from Madagascar. There is no scheduled ferry to the islands - which is probably a good thing as the falcons are close to extinction - but in calm weather you can hire a boat from the port to cross to the island.
When I was a travel agent, I used to tell my clients that Rule Number One is, always ask the price first. Good advice.
At the harbour in Essaouira, we'd patrolled the stalls, resisting the come-hither tactics of the vendors until we'd seen them all, and then we came back to Stall #1. It was high noon and I eyed the fish suspiciously, wondering how long it had been out there. I decided that to make sure our lunch was fresh, we should choose something that was alive -- lobster and crab. I boldly marched up to the stall and ordered one of each, and the vendor split the little lobster and prepared to cook it. We sat down, looking forward to this meal which we'd heard would be really good and really cheap (we'd heard around 70-80 dh for two).
At the stalls, payment is made upon ordering, and the man came to our table and asked for 380 dh. We were stunned, and I figured that (as I kept doing), I mislaid a zero somewhere). But that was the amount. He then showed us a price list: this fish, that fish...10 dh, 20 dh; crab...80 dh; lobster...300 dh. Why I ever thought it would all be the same price is still beyond me, except that there were no prices posted anywhere, I guess. I tried, with a pathetically thin application of charm, to change my order but he pointed out quite reasonably that the lobster was now dead and being cooked.
He did come down to 300dh, about $45.00 Canadian, which is way more than we've spent for lunch in recent memory. But being our usual fairly resilient selves, we rationalized that we'd make this our main meal of the day, and what the hell. So we perked up and waited for our meal.
Well... it was overcooked, stringy, and I think we each got about 1.5 good bites. The rest was sucking on various tendons and cartilege and imagining lobster. The crab was no better, even the claws.
By the end of the meal we did manage to laugh at it, or at least smile, but it really brought that ol' Rule Number One home.
Thuya is a hardwood, with a lovely perfume, that grows abundantly in the Agadir and Essaouira region, and has been a source of prosperity for these regions.
Almost every part of the tree except the branches can be used. Its used to make such things as coffee tables, caskets and boxes in all shapes and sizes, trays and jewellery. and decorated with polish, inlaid with decorative motifs in citron wood, mother-of-pearl or ebony and sometimes with threads of copper, silver or camel bone.
Essaouira has been renowned as the capital of marquetry and its regarded that some of the countrys best marquetry craftsmen can be seen working in the small workshops in the former munitions stores beneath the ramparts. There are plenty of shops here with items for sale.
Some nice examples can be also seen in the small museum Musee Sidi Mohammed ben Abdullah next to the post office and Hotel Majestic and also in the Cooperative Artisanal des Marqueteurs at Rue Khalid ibn oualid which is off the square where you find the renowned Pattisserie Driss.
The canons are beautifully designed. Each of them is different. Amazingly, they bear Portuguese, Spanish or Flemish armors though they should all be Portuguese. I suppose that some of them were taken from enemy ships that were caught. This one, with a Flemish design is aimed towards the harbor.
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Address: Plage de Sidi Kaouki, Essaouira, 4400, Morocco
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