Review: Kasbah d’Eau, Sidi Kaouki, Morocco

“Et voila!” Announces our taxi driver, with justification, as we pull into the magnificent Kasbah d’Eau. A beach castle perched high above Morocco’s Atlantic coastline booked for our winter escape by Fleewinter.

Fleewinter has put together our personalised programme of flight, transfer and hotel. Recommending an itinerary that will show us an authentic Morocco, far from madding crowds, infuriating rug sellers and belching mopeds. 

Created from local sandstone, cooling in summer, warming in winter, Kasbah d’Eau, is a boutique hotel of just 17 rooms and suites, with art house design. A calm double-height central atrium pulls in the light, illuminating vivid contemporary abstract art that contrasts with solidly traditional dark furniture.

Surf schools outnumber shops in a village with a population of around 5,000. Here Africa disappears in mists and mirages into Atlantic rollers.

Fleewinter’s Morocco experts know this land well, recommending unique experiences: horse-riding on the beach, taking a camel ride to an argan-oil farm, a hamman, having lunch with a Berber family, a Moroccan cookery lesson and yoga.

The welcome

If ever there is a boutique airport it is Essaouira Mogador where we’ve passed through immigration, collected our luggage and picked up some Moroccan Dirham in less than 20 minutes.

Fleewinter has arranged for a driver to meet us. Within 40 minutes of landing, we’re sipping mint-tea and nibbling cake at the sumptuous Kasbah. In our Seaview Suite, luggage already delivered, a sultan-size bed and bath are romantically adorned with crimson rose petals. Honeymoon romantic.

The room

The Sea View Suite’s large sliding doors give panoramic views of horses galloping through the surf, dogs frolicking, goats grazing in the Trade Winds whipped sand dunes and surfers searching for the ultimate gnarly wave. A day bed awaits on the balcony to absorb the scene or you can sit at the dining table for sunset pictures. 

A dark wood marquetry cabinet consumes all our clothes for the week. A sofa, desk and bedside cabinets are lit by brassy Arabian lamps. Mihrab recesses, both aesthetic and functional, host candles.  A minibar, plus Netflix and Prime on the television, are reminders that notionally we are still in the 21st century. The large burnt orange rug may have seen action as a flying carpet in a previous life …

The bathroom

Pure Moroccan indulgence: a deep bath with more mihrab recesses for  candles and a superb rainfall shower. A sumptuous bathroom finished in local style with polished tadelakt plaster.  And this bathroom has a sea view with a window that looks through the suite. 

If you fall in love with the aromas of Sens de Marrakech toiletries, often created from argan oil, you can buy some to take home from the Kasbah’s boutique. 

The facilities

Ancient cedar doors salvaged from Agadir, representing both hospitality and heritage, decorate the walls of the restaurant. 

At breakfast, Berber omelettes with a tomato sauce, served in a tagine, tell of one historical strand. Whilst crepes, cherry picked from years of French colonialism, represent another slice of Moroccan history. The Moroccans knew that French rule, particularly their patisserie, wasn’t all bad news. 

Less than half an hour from Essaouira’s fishing harbour it’s no surprise that a starter of prawns and avocado salad, fish of the day, grilled squid and octopus tagine are the stars of both lunch and dinner menus.

After breakfast some guests get no further than a swimming pool that has infinity views of the Atlantic but there’s also a mini-gym and a spa.

The location

We are around a dozen miles south of Essaouira, three hours north of Agadir and in a surfers’ seventies time-warp. 

Sidi Kaouki is where Bondi Beach meets Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s Road to Morocco – but with more camels, dogs, donkeys, goats and horses than surfers. 

A squat shrine to the 19th century Sufi saint, Sidi Kaouki, desperately in need of many licks of paint, overlooks mile after mile of raw and rugged beach. Surf schools outnumber ships in a village with less than 5,000 inhabitants. Here Africa disappears in mists and mirages into Atlantic rollers.

Take a bus ride into Essaouira for a French take on Moroccan architecture. Djerbs through the medina are straighter and wider than in the usual Moroccan souk. They were thoroughfares built to defend the port when it was viral for France’s Indian Ocean trade.

Other nice touches

The Kasbah is designed for those moments when Time shrugs and relaxes with a mint tea, selecting a book from the library, settling into a game of backgammon, cards or chess. 

As well as curating the sun loungers and driftwood-style sofas by the pool, the pool attendant sets up a group of sun loungers, exclusively for Kasbah guests, on the beach. Take your Kasbah beach bag onto the sands to claim your spot. 

Download the Vamoos app and log in for your itinerary, the Kasbah and what is on offer around Sidi Kaouki.

The cost

Rooms with breakfast, begin from £140, based on two people sharing.

The best bit

Far from Morocco’s crowds, Fleewinter’s Kasbah d’Eau invites guests to experience an authentic and timeless Morocco. Every member of the Kasbah’s team is Moroccan, providing softly spoken Arabic hospitality, warm and discrete.

For a journey into Berber life, camels sedately take us from the Kasbah d’eau towards the hills and Hussain’s family home, passing Argan trees whose roots seek out water 100-feet beneath the arid scrub desert. 

After a lunch of Moroccan salad, chicken tajine, ring ghoriba biscuits and mint tea, Hussain’s mother shows how to grind the liquid gold of Argan oil. Nothing is wasted. If the camels don’t eat the left-over husks they are burnt for winter fuel. 

The final verdict

In the depths of a grey UK winter amongst headlines of flooding, storms and frosts, our perfectly curated Fleewinter holiday to Morocco is more than just a retreat, Sidi Kaouki is a sanctuary for the soul. A chance to discover, explore and reset.

As we wait for our flight home it is impossible to resist a visit to the Fleewinter website. Where can we flee next? The Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia, The Indian Ocean, The Middle East or more Africa? 

Disclosure: Our stay was sponsored by Fleewinter and the Kasbah d’Eau.