Essaouira or Meknès?

I have 8 days in Morocco in early-mid November. Fly into Marrakech, out of Rabat, definitely visiting Marrakech and Fes (~3 days each).

I figure I can comfortably do one day trip, and I am trying to decide between Essaouira (from Marrakech) or Meknès (from Fes).

Can anyone help me compare and contrast these two cities? Thanks!

The size of the city of Essaouira is more adapted for a day trip than Meknes but one is a old walled city close to the Atlantic and Meknes is inside the country.
It will be better to stay in Meknes at least for a night because you have much more to see than for one day.
If I need to choose, I choose Meknes. I visited both.

Michel

....... you have eight days and mention five locations.! In November useful daylight is down to ten hours and a possibility of some rain.
Marrakech is a Berber city a place of fun and sin, Fez an Arab city reputed to be the cultural and religious heart of Morocco. Marrakech is probably the most visited city on the continent since Cairo lost its place, so you'll be tripping over tourists and touts, in Fez less and a different type of tourists, sounds and feels different , in general people of lighter skin colour and not as intrusive or as bullish as in the other place, also seem to be better dressed in traditional clothing.

However, back to your itinerary, to make the best of your short time consider dropping Fez this time, from Marrakech go to either Essaouira or/and El Jadida and then on to Rabat, the Capital city is overlooked as a tourist site which is pity as it is a good place to visit, easily reached from Marrakech and El Jadida by train, bus or shared grand taxi. I'm mindful of the short daylight possible rainy-day where a city visit offers lots of indoor stuff to see and do.
http://looklex.com/morocco/rabat.htm ....... a good city experience without hoards of tourists.
http://looklex.com/morocco/jadida.htm ..... a quite seaside village typically Moroccan
http://looklex.com/morocco/essaouira.htm .....proportionally more tourists here in this small town on day-trips from its bigger neighbour Marrakech.

http://reversehomesickness.com/africa/taxi-fares-morocco/
http://www.oncf.ma/

This organisation is found in both Fez where it originated and Marrakech, a good place to find out about cultural stuff, shows and events etc. ... http://cafeclock.com/

I do not think that Fes is worth 3 days (and touts there are worst from whole country).
So Meknes is worth a trip.
You can even think about another day for trip to Volubilis that is rather nice and near of Meknes.

I am back few weeks from Marrakesh and number of tourists feels higher then in Paris or London or New York so 2 days are fine.
Essaouira still get hords of tourists, but in night its nice quite place.
So stay thete a night is worth.

Again Rabat is nice place where you will not meet 100ths of buses of tourists a day.
And I like Casablanca as well, although you will most skip it on this trip.

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