RENTAL HOUSEHOTELfireplace, private Jacuzzi and terrace overlooking the lagoon. There’s a choice of three
restaurants, an indoor pool, and an infinity pool and spa – all set in beautiful landscaped
gardens. It was designed to have minimal impact on the surrounding environment; local
materials were used in the building and innovative technology reduces water use.
Villa La Diouana €€€
( 0666 55 16 46, in UK 00 44 7810 54 39 51; www.ladiouana.com; Quartier Moulay
Abdelsalam; up to 10 people per week from £1650, cottage/apt for 2 per night from £80;
) All you can hear at night from this stunning 1930s villa is the crash of the ocean and the wind.
High on a cliff with panoramic ocean views, the chic villa is simply but luxuriously decorated in a
mixture of traditional and contemporary Moroccan design. There is a three bed-roomed villa, a
lovely one-bedroom garden cottage and a studio flat with roof terrace, all surrounded by a
2323-sq-m garden with palm trees. The accommodation is rented out for the week and prices
include a maid and breakfast.
Hotel Thalassa €
( 0523 36 60 50; s/d Dh150/200, low season Dh100/150) The only hotel on the main drag
up in the town, this slightly dated place is better than you might expect, with bright, airy
whitewashed rooms that have old-fashioned, spick-and-span bathrooms. It’s good value but far
from the beach.
Information
You’ll find a bank, CTM office and internet cafe (per hr Dh10) here, and a Saturday souq when
people from surrounding villages come to town to sell their wares.
Getting There & Away
Local buses and grands taxis run at irregular times to El-Jadida (bus/taxi Dh25/25) and Safi
(bus/taxi Dh25/25). They leave from near the post office on the main road. CTM has an office
here and has a daily bus (Dh34) in either direction.
Safi
POP 285,000
An industrial centre and a thriving port for the export of phosphates, Safi is a lot less
picturesque than the neighbouring coastal towns, but it offers an insight into the day-to-day life
of a Moroccan city. Most tourists stop here en route to or from Essaouira to visit the giant
pottery works that take over a whole city quarter and produce the typical brightly coloured Safi
pottery.
The new town is pleasant enough with tree-lined boulevards and whitewashed villas, but the
alleys of the walled and fortified medina are more atmospheric to stroll through, and you often
have the sites to yourself. The beaches are famous for their impressive surf. The immaculate
sands north of town were the location for the 2006 Billabong Challenge and are said to have
some of the finest waves in the world. Just south of town the landscape is largely industrial and