The wind is the first thing you meet in Essaouira, and it never really leaves. The trade winds blow in from the Atlantic for most of the year, which is why the old Portuguese-named town of Mogador is a centre for windsurfing and kitesurfing, and why the beach is a long, flat plain of pale sand with surfers working the surf at the far end.
The walled town was laid out in the late eighteenth century for the Moroccan sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah, who wanted a port to rival Agadir and attract European trade. A French engineer, Théodore Cornut, is generally credited with the plan, which is why the streets run in straight lines, unusual for a Moroccan medina. UNESCO listed it in 2001. Black brass cannons still point out to sea from the ramparts of the Skala, where the waves slam into the rocks and the gulls ride the updraughts. The harbour, with its blue wooden boats, is the best place to eat, since you choose your fish from the stalls and have it grilled on the spot.
The ride to Essaouira from Agadir is one of Morocco's great coastal runs. The road leaves the resort belt and climbs through argan country, where the thorny trees grow on stony hills and goats famously climb into the branches to feed on the fruit. You pass fishing villages, empty beaches and cliffs, with the road swinging inland and back toward the sea in broad bends. The surface is mostly good, with the occasional pothole and some slow trucks. Wind can be fierce on exposed stretches, and fog sometimes rolls in during summer mornings.
Fuel is easy in Essaouira, a town of seventy thousand with several stations, and plentiful on the coast road. The town is lively in June, when the Gnaoua music festival fills the squares, and quiet in winter, when the air is cool and the beach is empty. Keep a jacket handy, since the evening wind has a bite, and be prepared to haggle gently in the souks. The best things here are free: the sunset from the ramparts and the sound of the wind in the narrow streets.