Salut Maroc

The building at the furthest tip of the medina was a merchant's house in the 18th century, then a consulate, then nothing for decades. British owner Helen Howat bought it, restored it, and opened Salut Maroc in 2019 with ten rooms each designed around a different Moroccan city — Fez, Marrakech, the Sahara — in hand-beaten copper bathtubs, zellige floors, and an approach that is more pop than riad-precious. The hotel sits where the old city walls meet the Atlantic ramparts and the bronze cannons still face the ocean, which gives the rooftop restaurant views that no other hotel in Essaouira can claim. Independent travel press called it the world's most creative hotel. The Gnawa musicians play in the square below most evenings.