Atlantic Coast, Morocco
Essaouira
Wind. Art. History. Ocean.
The retreat
Mogador.
Essaouira, Morocco.
A timeless Atlantic port city where the trade winds never stop and the ramparts have guarded the harbour for centuries. Essaouira, once known as Mogador, is a place where Gnawa music drifts through blue-shuttered streets, artists fill the galleries of the old medina, and kitesurfers ride the swells beyond the fortress walls.
8 to 14 participants. Mornings on the ramparts or riding horses along Diabat beach. Afternoons in the souks, galleries, or dune buggies on the coastal sands. Evenings with Atlantic seafood and the sound of the ocean. Eight days where wind, art, history, and the Atlantic become your rhythm.
Apply for Essaouira →The experience
What awaits you
Mogador fortress
Walk the 18th-century ramparts at dawn. The Atlantic crashes below. The old Portuguese fortress frames the horizon.
Medina & galleries
Essaouira's medina is a living gallery. Woodworkers, painters, and sculptors in every alley. Art without pretension.
Kitesurf & ocean
The trade winds make Essaouira one of the best kitesurf destinations in Africa. Ride the Atlantic or simply watch from the beach.
Atlantic evenings
Fresh seafood at the port. Gnawa music in the square. Long evenings where the ocean breeze cools the day's warmth.
Horses on the beach
Diabat beach, just south of the medina. Ride along the Atlantic shoreline at sunrise, wide sands, crashing waves, and the wind-worn coast stretching to the horizon.
Buggies in the dunes
Dune buggies through the coastal sand dunes south of Essaouira. Speed, space, and Atlantic wind, a wild counterpoint to the medina's ancient calm.
Two hours you will remember
Horses on the sand, and the dunes where the desert meets the Atlantic.
South of the medina, the beach runs uninterrupted for kilometres and the coastal dunes begin where the surf ends. We ride it at first light or at the end of the day, when the sand is firm and the light is long. Barb and Arab-Barb horses from a stable we have worked with for years, matched to your level, walk or full gallop. No experience needed, and nothing performative about it.
Included
Included
- 8 days, 7 nights private riad accommodation
- All meals, Atlantic seafood, local cuisine
- Airport transfers (Essaouira Mogador or Marrakech Menara)
- Guided medina and gallery excursions
- Guided horse ride on Diabat beach
- Dune buggy session in the coastal dunes
- A programme built around your group, not a fixed itinerary
- Photography documentation
- The Umnya kit: hand-woven fouta, engraved flask, and the piece made for this retreat
Getting there
How to arrive
Fly into Essaouira Mogador (ESU) with direct connections from Paris, London, and Brussels, or fly into Marrakech Menara (RAK) and transfer by road, approximately 2.5–3 hours along the Atlantic coast.
Private transfers from the airport to your riad in the medina are included. We coordinate all logistics once your place is confirmed.
These weeks run with a partner
This retreat is not on open sale. We build it with a studio, a club or a clinic that brings its own group, and we open a date around their season rather than ours. Tell us who you would bring and when, and we will come back with a week.
Design this together→2027 Season
Receive the full programme
8 days · 8 to 14 guests · Morocco. We send the itinerary, dates and availability by return.
No newsletters. One email with the programme, nothing more.
Where you stay
Superior accommodation, chosen on the ground by our own experts.
Nothing on this site was booked from a catalogue. Every riad, camp, kasbah and guesthouse was found, visited and slept in by one of our experts before it was ever offered to a guest. The standard is superior throughout, and the reason is practical: after a day of walking, surfing or altitude, comfort is not a luxury, it is what makes the next day possible.
Visited before it is offered
Our team travels the country year-round. If one of us has not slept there, it does not go into a programme.
Original, never generic
Private riads, our own exclusive-use camp in the dunes, restored family kasbahs, guesthouses in Berber villages. Places you cannot book from a screen.
Comfort as a working tool
Real beds, hot water, quiet rooms, proper food. Recovery is part of the programme, not an afterthought.
Groups & circles
Coming as a group?
Six of you or more, and the whole retreat can be arranged around your circle. Tell us the size and the dates, and we prepare a proposal for you.
Request a group proposal→A departure for your circle alone
A private date set aside for your group, at the pace and in the season that suit you.
One group at a time, never mixed
You are never placed among strangers. The camp, the table and the guides are yours.
Group rate and privatisation on request
For six guests or more we prepare a tailored proposal. Simply ask.
Eight spots. One wind season.
Submit your application. We respond within 48 hours.
Apply for Essaouira →