Adventure & Thrills 5 November 2026 8 min read
Essaouira by bike and electric moped: the four routes that actually work
The medina is walkable end to end in an hour, and the Marrakech road is a car journey. In between sits a band of coast and hinterland, fifteen to thirty kilometres deep, that nobody writes about and that suits two wheels very well. A plain bike, an e-bike, a licence-free electric moped: each opens a different radius. The difficulty here is neither gradient nor distance. The municipality's highest point is 50 metres. It is the wind that decides, and it can blow at 50 to 60 km/h, more than twice the speed Morocco's new rules allow an electric two-wheeler to reach. Here are the four routes, and the right direction to ride them.
Contents
- The wind picks your direction, your legs do not
- The four routes out of the ramparts
- Bike, electric moped or engine: what each one buys you
- Diabat, the one-hour ride that never disappoints
- Sidi Kaouki, the trap of an easy ride out
- Heading north, the exact opposite exercise
- The hinterland, where a bicycle stops
- Helmet, licence and the two legal texts to know
The wind picks your direction, your legs do not
Sources disagree about the exact point of the compass, and it makes no difference at all.
- Wikipedia describes a north-east trade wind on this coast, the charki, blowing year round, building from mid-March to mid-September, reaching force 7 at times, and turning unsteady in winter.
- A watersports spot database gives north-west as the prevailing direction in the bay, with 25 to 35 knots on most summer days and 20 to 30 in winter.
- A touring cyclist who rode this coast loaded simply recorded a fresh northerly, with strong northerlies forecast for the following day.
All three put the wind in the northern half of the compass, and the consequence is the same: ride south and it pushes, ride north and it holds you back. The rule fits in one line, ride out into the wind and home with it behind you. It feels wrong, because the beaches you came for are the ones to the south. Our monthly averages in km/h are in the wind guide, and when to visit covers the climate.
The four routes out of the ramparts
Diabat and Bordj El Berodabout 5 km
Straight line: bridge over the Oued Ksob unavoidable
Surface: tarmac then sandy track
Wind on the way out: behind you
Cap Sim dunes15 to 20 km
Straight line: final approach on track
Surface: tarmac then soft sand
Wind on the way out: behind you
Sidi Kaouki
Road distance one way: 25 km, 27 km on a touring cyclist's odometer
Straight line: 17.7 km
Surface: tarmac, first 7 km on a busy main road
Wind on the way out: behind you
Moulay Bouzerktounnot recorded
Straight line: 17.3 km
Surface: tarmac, coastal road, two to four lanes
Wind on the way out: in your face
The figure worth keeping is the gap between the two middle columns on the Sidi Kaouki line. Seventeen point seven kilometres as the crow flies, twenty-five by road: a detour of 1.4 to 1.5 times the straight line, because you cannot follow the shore. You turn inland to cross the Oued Ksob, then come back down to the sea. And the symmetry is almost exact: Moulay Bouzerktoun sits 17.3 km away in a straight line, the same distance, but on the other side of the wind. The shoreline in between is described in our beach guide, and the Sidi M'Barek coastal walk shows the stretch no wheel will ever cover.
Bike, electric moped or engine: what each one buys you
Plain bicycle
Realistic day radius: Diabat and back, about 10 km
Minimum age: depends on the child's size
Licence: no
What stops it: headwind and soft sand
Vintage electric moped
Realistic day radius: Sidi Kaouki, argan groves, canyon
Minimum age: from age 10
Licence: advertised as licence-free
What stops it: deep track sand
Quadtracks and dunes
Minimum age: confirm when booking
Licence: guided
What stops it: almost nothing
Buggytracks and beaches
Minimum age: confirm when booking
Licence: guided
What stops it: narrow lanes
4x4 ridethe far hinterland
Minimum age: confirm when booking
Licence: with a driver
What stops it: almost nothing
The electric moped is the machine this coast was waiting for: vintage styling, advertised as licence-free, open from age 10, with packages from 420 Dhs for one rider and 630 for two, up to 1,950 and 2,940 Dhs by duration. Its routes cover what a bicycle cannot reach: ramparts, harbour, Diabat, argan groves, Berber villages, canyon, Sidi Kaouki, palm oasis. Past that point it is the quad, the buggy or a 4x4 ride, written up in our quad and buggy articles. One thing not to discover on arrival: the medina is entirely pedestrian, no machine belongs inside it, and it is best seen with a guide. Travelling with a toddler, start with our under-three guide. And if two wheels are only half a day inside a wider plan, our sports week lays it out half day by half day.
Diabat, the one-hour ride that never disappoints
This is the route nobody regrets: about 5 km south of Essaouira, immediately south of the Oued Ksob.
- The ruin above the river mouth is Bordj El Berod, a watchtower roughly a kilometre west of the village. It has an outing of its own.
- The river mouth is one of the places where Eleonora's falcon is seen, a worthwhile stop even without binoculars. With binoculars it becomes the birdwatching outing, 2.5 hours and 300 Dhs.
- Do not go along the beach. The river is crossed at the bridge, and the sand of the main beach cannot be ridden.
- The municipality tops out at 50 metres, so nothing here deserves to be called a hill.
On the way back the harbour is on your route, and that is where the traditional fishing trip sets off. On horseback or on a camel the same landscape reads differently, out to Cap Sim for a full day at 1,000 Dhs, with the horse from age 8.
Sidi Kaouki, the trap of an easy ride out
Twenty-five kilometres south, 4,335 inhabitants at the 2004 census, and a reputation as an easy outing. It is easy, in one direction only.
- A touring cyclist who rode it logged 27 km and called it a short, easy stage. The first seven kilometres run on a busy main road, then the turn towards the coast makes the riding pleasant.
- Past the village a paved coastal road carries on south, and the Berber villages inland are served by unsealed roads.
- The trap: the outbound leg runs downwind and will feel nearly flat. The return is twenty-five kilometres into it, at the hour the wind is strongest. To fix the hour you have to turn back, our sunset times month by month set the deadline you cannot push past.
Two ways round it, and neither counts as giving up. Flip the day: surf or walk in the morning, motorised ride home in the afternoon. Or settle the return before you leave, on the town bus from Bab Doukkala, in a shared grand taxi, or with a private transfer that will take the bikes. The spot is surfing, and our guide to the spots by level says which one is yours. For the cost, our real prices do the arithmetic.
Heading north, the exact opposite exercise
Moulay Bouzerktoun lies 17.3 km away in a straight line, on a north-north-east bearing, which is almost exactly the axis of the trade wind. A village of 5,969 inhabitants at the 2004 census, it is known to windsurfers for one reason: the charki blows there all year and reaches force 7 at times.
- You get there on the coastal road linking Essaouira to El Jadida, paved, two to four lanes, with Atlantic views along much of it.
- The right way to ride it is the reverse of Sidi Kaouki: leave early while the wind is light, and come home with it in the afternoon.
- If you are going for the water rather than the road, this is windsurfing, kitesurfing and wingfoiling country, and the wind bites harder than in the bay.
And if you are weighing this coast against another, our Agadir comparison settles it with figures.
The hinterland, where a bicycle stops
The Cap Sim dunes sit 15 to 20 km south. No bus serves them, the final approach is on an unpaved track, and there is no marked trail, no signage and no visitor centre: navigation is on you, strong wind lifts sand to eye height, and agreeing a return with a driver before you set off saves hunting for a car where there is no phone signal. On a bicycle, soft sand ends the conversation, and the other formats take over.
- Sandboarding turns the very thing a bicycle suffers from into the point of the outing.
- The Sidi M'Barek valleys and oasis are walked in 1.5 to 2 hours for 350 Dhs, with no ascent, and the outing is advertised from 2 to 80 years old.
- The thuya walk fills a day, 9am to 2.30pm, for 500 Dhs and some sixty metres of climbing.
- The argan forest is the hinterland the electric moped routes cross, and our argan oil article tells you what is worked there.
On days when the wind is unusable, our rainy day plan B and the pottery workshop pick up the slack without losing anything.
Helmet, licence and the two legal texts to know
4, moderate breeze20 to 28 km/h
What a headwind feels like on a bike: you ride, but you pay for it
5, fresh breeze29 to 38 km/h
What a headwind feels like on a bike: the return becomes real work
6, strong breeze39 to 49 km/h
What a headwind feels like on a bike: cut the ride short
7, near gale50 to 61 km/h
What a headwind feels like on a bike: call it off, or come home another way
The helmet first. Arrêté no. 2857-10 of 25 December 2010, amended by arrêté no. 4359-12 of 28 December 2012, sets the standards for helmets on mopeds, motorcycles, motor tricycles and motor quadricycles, for riders and passengers alike. Check the label inside the shell: it should read ECE 22, in practice 22.05 or 22.06, or the Moroccan NM mark, sometimes DOT. A helmet with no marking is not an approved helmet.
Then the status of electric machines, which is very recent. Decree no. 2.24.393, adopted by the Government Council on 19 June 2025, places electric scooters and electric bicycles in the moped category as soon as their maximum speed by construction exceeds 6 km/h without exceeding 25 km/h. It requires the homologation set out in article 49 of law no. 52.05, rear reflectors, a white front reflector, a horn audible from at least 50 metres and speed-limiting devices. The decree fixing the conditions for riding them on public roads is still going through approval, so the traffic rules for these machines are not all settled.
Why any of this matters on holiday. Because in December 2025 the transport minister pointed out that motorcycles are involved in 60% of road deaths in Morocco, and that 95% of the machines put through roadside speed testing had modified engines. Our electric moped is advertised as licence-free and open from age 10: ask the question when you book, wear the helmet you are handed, and if the road worries you, take a rental car or a transfer instead.
Relief that never tops fifty metres, a compulsory detour over the Oued Ksob bridge, and a wind that can travel twice as fast as your machine. Those are the three things that actually decide your day.
Tell us how many you are, how long you have and how far you want to go, and we will set the route the right way round, the one where the wind works for you.
