How much does a day in Essaouira cost? Real prices, line by line

The short answer, if you are in a hurry

Three levels, for the activities part of a day, per person.

• A modest day, a guided walk in the morning and a hammam late in the afternoon: around 350 dirhams, roughly 32 euros.
• A full day, two activities and a treatment: around 880 dirhams, roughly 82 euros.
• A generous day, a watersports lesson, lunch facing the ocean and a long massage: around 1,900 dirhams, roughly 176 euros.

These cover what we invoice. They do not include accommodation, everyday meals or taxis, because we do not sell them and we would rather not invent a number. We come back to that honestly further down.

The dirham in three seconds

One reference point before everything else.

• One euro is worth about 10.8 dirhams as we write this.
• The easiest mental maths: divide by ten, then take a little off. So 300 dirhams is roughly 28 euros, and 1,000 dirhams roughly 93.
• The dirham is a closed currency. You change money on arrival, not at home.
• Bring cash. Workshops, guides, small restaurants and taxis all run on it, and the medina cash machines have their moods on busy days.

What activities actually cost

These are the public prices from our catalogue, per person unless stated otherwise.

Two things worth knowing. These prices include instruction, equipment and insurance wherever the activity needs them, which is what explains the gap with a figure shouted at you in a lane. And they move, like all prices: treat this grid as a reliable order of magnitude, not as a quote.

Everything that fits under 300 dirhams

There is far more available under 28 euros than people expect, and it is not the dull half of the list.

• A short traditional hammam, twenty minutes, at 150 dirhams. Pound for pound it is the best value in town for what it does to a day.
• A guided medina tour, if there are a few of you: 350 dirhams each on your own or as a pair, 300 from three people, 200 from six, 150 from eleven. The guide is paid a flat fee regardless.
• A medina escape game, 190 dirhams for an adult and 160 for a child, unbeatable on a windy afternoon.
• A walk between the dunes and the river mouth, 200 dirhams for a half day.
• A one hour group surf lesson at 252 dirhams, board and instructor included.
• A half day in the markets, in the argan forest, or out with binoculars birdwatching, 300 dirhams each.

What costs more, and why

The gaps are not arbitrary, and it helps to know what you are paying for.

• Watersports. A kitesurf lesson means a qualified instructor for one or two people, expensive kit that wears out fast, and safety cover on the water. Hence 1,050 dirhams for two hours semi private, against 252 dirhams for an hour of group surfing.
• Anything with an engine. A buggy or a quad means fuel, constant maintenance and a guide riding ahead. The one hour buggy discovery is 950 dirhams, but it is a flat rate, and that is where the real saving hides.
• Longer treatments. An hour of massage starts at 380 dirhams, and a two hour massage plus hammam package runs to 500 or 600.

Before booking a lesson, check which surf spot suits your level.

The rule that changes everything: flat rate or per person

This is the most profitable paragraph in this guide, and nobody explains it to you on arrival.

Part of our catalogue is sold at a flat rate: the price covers the whole outing, however many of you there are. That applies to quad bikes, buggies, electric motorbikes, the 4x4 and transfers.

• The one hour express quad escape: 300 dirhams on your own, 450 dirhams for two. That is 225 dirhams each instead of 300.
• The one hour buggy discovery: 950 dirhams whether one or two of you ride. Split between two, it comes to 475 dirhams each.
• A private transfer within Essaouira and the surrounding area: 250 dirhams for one to four people. Divided by four, it beats a return taxi.

The rest of the catalogue is priced per person, but very often on a sliding scale as soon as you form a small group. The guided medina tour falls from 350 to 150 dirhams a head between one person and eleven. A surf lesson drops from 472 dirhams private to 336 semi private and 252 in a group, for the same hour in the water.

The practical conclusion: travelling as a group does more than split the dinner bill.

Three days costed from start to finish

Three real programmes, with the activities total per person.

The modest day assumes six of you on the guided tour. On your own, the same day comes to 500 dirhams, which is exactly the effect described above.

What we do not invoice, and how to estimate it

We do not sell everyday meals, nights or taxis, so we are not going to invent figures we cannot stand behind. What we can offer instead are a few honest markers.

• Food. Grilled fish at the harbour, picked off the stall, is still one of the best value meals in town. Tables on Place Moulay Hassan cost more than those in the lanes a hundred metres behind, for cooking that is often comparable. Ask the price before you sit down: it is normal here and nobody takes offence.
• Accommodation. The gap between a medina riad out of season and the same riad during the Gnaoua festival or the last week of August is enormous. Our guides to the best time to visit and to Essaouira out of season are more useful here than a price range.
• Getting around. The medina is entirely car free and crosses on foot in an hour, so on a normal day the question barely arises, except to reach the southern beaches.
• Sights. The ramparts, the Skala, the harbour and the beaches cost nothing at all. That is a good part of what makes Essaouira, and it is free.

Five ways to pay less without losing anything

None of these involves cutting the programme down.

• Come as a group, or join one. It is the number one lever, on tours and on lessons alike.
• Choose group over private while you are learning. A first hour of surf works perfectly well with others, and it saves more than 200 dirhams.
• Take the short formats. Twenty minutes of hammam at 150 dirhams beats an hour of treatment you are too tired to enjoy after a day on the beach.
• Shift your dates. October, November and March give the best compromise between weather, crowds and room rates. Our guide to the wind in Essaouira explains why those months are also the gentlest.
• Cluster your activities into one day rather than scattering them. You lose less time moving about, and free days cost nothing.

So, what should you budget?

If you want one figure to remember: between 350 and 900 dirhams per person per day for the activities part, so 32 to 83 euros, comfortably covers the great majority of trips. Below that, you walk Essaouira for free, which is already a fine way to spend a day. Above it, you are into supervised watersports, engines and long treatments, and the bill climbs quickly.

The real trap is not the price of activities. It is discovering on the spot that an outing advertised per person was in fact a flat rate, or the other way round. Now you know.

And if what you actually want is how to fill those days rather than how to pay for them, our three days in Essaouira itinerary and our beach guide take over from here.