Best Hidden Beaches in Essaouira

Hidden Beaches in Essaouira: Surf Villages, Wild Headlands and Flat-Water Lagoons

The coastline south of Essaouira is one of Morocco's most beautiful and least visited stretches — a continuous Atlantic shore running through argan forest, dune systems, and rocky headlands for sixty kilometres before the next settlement of any size. The surf village of Sidi Kaouki marks the first significant stopping point, and beyond it Cap Sim and Moulay Bouzerktoun provide further access points to a coastline that belongs to migratory birds, kitesurfers, and the occasional four-wheel-drive traveller who has made the effort to find out what lies beyond the last tarmac road. These beaches require no special equipment and no expedition planning — just a willingness to drive past the tourist route and into a Morocco that hasn't yet accommodated itself to the tourism economy.

Top Hidden Beaches in Essaouira

Sidi Kaouki Beach

Sidi Kaouki is thirty kilometres south of Essaouira on a paved road that winds through argan forest before arriving at a tiny coastal village of extraordinary beauty. The village consists of a domed marabout shrine, a handful of guesthouses, a surf school, and a tea shop. The beach extends south for several kilometres from the village in a state of complete natural development — no sunbeds, no parasols, no promenade. The Atlantic conditions here are more powerful than in the sheltered northern section of the main Essaouira beach, and the offshore wind that makes the main beach famous for kitesurfing is less pronounced here, producing cleaner wave conditions. The small community of Sidi Kaouki receives visitors graciously and the guesthouses are excellent. This is the Essaouira coast as it was before the travel writers found the city.

Cap Sim

Cap Sim is the headland immediately south of Sidi Kaouki, accessible by a four-wheel-drive track that branches off the main Sidi Kaouki road and runs through low coastal scrub to the clifftop. The headland is completely wild — the Souss-Massa Drâa regional government has never found reason to develop it — and the beach below the cliffs is reached by a rough path that descends fifty metres of coastal cliff. The beach is short, exposed, and surrounded by dramatic rock formations that the Atlantic swell has carved over millennia. There are no visitors on most days, no facilities of any kind, and no shade. The view from the clifftop, however, north toward Essaouira and south toward the empty Atlantic coast, is one of the finest coastal views in Morocco.

Moulay Bouzerktoun Lagoon

Moulay Bouzerktoun is fifteen kilometres north of Essaouira on the coast road, at a point where the Oued Ksob estuary system creates a shallow coastal lagoon sheltered from the Atlantic swell by a natural sand bar. The lagoon is the most consistently flat-water location on this section of the Moroccan coast, which is why the serious kitesurfing community has established a small camp here that operates outside the main tourist season when the wind is optimal. Non-kitesurfers who find the lagoon discover a calm, shallow body of water surrounded by salt marsh and dune vegetation, with flamingos wading in the shallower sections and almost no other visitor infrastructure. The lagoon beach is nothing like the dramatic Atlantic surf beach of Essaouira proper, but it has a quiet beauty of its own that rewards visitors who are looking for something different.

Discover More of Essaouira's Hidden Coast

The coastline south of Essaouira rewards explorers with experiences that no travel brochure currently features. Browse our full collection of hotels in Morocco and find an Essaouira base with access to a car for coastal exploration. For the complete guide to Morocco's hidden beaches, see our beaches in Morocco guide.