Plage Assafi — Attraction in Essaouira

Wondered over from the Medina. Looked like I could see some fun peaks worth surfing from the roof top so went to check it out. Report for the day was 1-3ft, 235kj. Was smallish and barely surfable at the southern beach (main beach) plus there were an insane number of people swimming (cause August summer holidays) so thought could be worth it.

Heaps of fun (what looked to be) beach breaks down the whole stretch of beach. There is an unnamed stretch of beach going the whole way from the Medina which I walked along and there were four or five spots with a tidy wave. Further on the main beach there were heaps.

Yarned with a local bloke who reckoned the currents on the unnamed section are no good although there were a decent number of swimmers so unclear. He reckoned the spots on the main beach were good and fun though.

Decided against surfing and have given a 1 star rating because the amount of rubbish was overwhelming. Plastic, rotting fruit and other “stuff”, broken glass, tiles and building materials, cables, batteries — you name it, it was on the beach. The smell at times was also overwhelming. At first I thought it was the port on the other side of the Medina or the Medina itself, but as I walked further away from both I realised it was a combo of the water and the rubbish. I crossed 2 or 3 outflow “creaks” which smelt so bad I almost gagged. There were some local kids swimming but I couldn’t risk it knowing I have a few more weeks of travel ahead of me.

Would be a sick little beachy on the smaller swells if the beach and area got cleaned up but totally not worth the...

Take care when you are there as it is a secluded place. My wife got pushed into the bushes and groped when she was on one of the dunes. We hadn’t seen anyone around for the time we were here so this was so shocking. This happened around 2:30pm in the afternoon.

As for the place it is beautiful, with trash on some dunes. But our experience here was severely marred by...

Una playa que merece MUCHÍSIMO la pena visitar. Algo alejada de la ciudad y mucho del turismo, se encuentra a unos 35 minutos saliendo por la puerta norte de la Medina. Es una playa de arena fina y dunas, amplia, solitaria (en abril) con solo algún pescador y algunas personas paseando. Para bañarse genial porque el agua no cubre y es todo arena sin piedras. Se puede pasear sin ningún problema. En cuanto al camino de ida a la playa, a mí me resultó muy interesante pese a algunos comentarios que se leen por aquí. Yo recomiendo ir por la Av. Moulay Hicham, que es un polígono industrial que sí, está sucio, pero es muy local y con trabajadores, totalmente alejado de la Essaouira turística y cuidada de la Medina, pero igual de interesante. Y a la vuelta, hacerlo por la Av. Al Akaba, también muy local e interesante. La playa en sí puede estar algo sucia en algunas partes por encontrarse donde se encuentra (cerca del polígono) y por las mareas. Desgraciadamente no es algo propia de esta playa...