Essaouira

Essaouira is Morocco's quietest love affair. Inscribed by UNESCO for its 18th-century medina and Vauban-designed ramparts, the former Mogador was the country's first cosmopolitan port — a place where Berber, Andalusian, Jewish, Portuguese, and French heritages have been negotiated daily for three centuries. The trade winds that have always shaped the city continue today: kitesurfers fly across the bay at Sidi Kaouki, while inside the medina, woodworkers carve thuya, galleries hang the next generation of Moroccan painters, and the fishing port unloads its blue boats at dawn. From Marrakech, the journey is precisely the kind our chauffeurs were made for — two hours and forty-five minutes through argan forests where, yes, goats really do climb the trees. We arrive at the Bab Doukkala or the Bab Marrakech depending on your riad, coordinate with porters from L'Heure Bleue Palais or La Sultana, and remain at the medina edge for whatever the day requires. Beyond the city, the wild beaches of Sidi Kaouki, the boutique hotels of Diabat, and the long route south to Oualidia (where the oysters of the protected lagoon are served straight from the water) all reward those who travel with their own driver. Essaouira with Noor Elite is the Atlantic at the slowest, most civilised pace possible.