Visiting Essaouira during Ramadan 2026: everything you need to know

The Holy Month of Ramadan is a time of great religious significance for Muslims, and involves fasting from dusk until dawn (this means no food or drink, including water). Many local businesses close during this time, and for non-Muslim visitors to Essaouira, Ramadan perhaps doesn’t seem like an ideal time to visit and enjoy all the things to do in Essaouira.

You may be wondering if all restaurants, food shops, and activities are closed in Essaouira for Ramadan? How should you behave during Ramadan? Can tourists purchase alcohol during Ramadan? Are tourists welcome to Essaouira during Ramadan? Is Ramadan really the best time to visit Essaouira, or should you visit another time?

We have personally visited Essaouira a number of times during Ramadan, and can answer these questions for you. So read on.

You may also be interested to read: Visiting Essaouira during Eid al-Adha

When is Ramadan 2026?

For 2026, Ramadan in Morocco begins in the evening of Tuesday, 17th February and will continue for 30 days until Thursday, 19th March, although these dates a subject to slight change according to moon sightings.

This holy month of fasting follows the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, beginning and ending with the appearance of the crescent moon. As the Muslim calendar is slight shorter that the Gregorian calendar, Ramadan begins 10–12 days earlier each year.

What is Ramadan?

Ramadan is an extremely important and sacred time for Muslims. This a time for Muslims to practice self-restraint, abstinence, prayer, discipline, patience and gratitude by refraining from food, drink (including water), smoking, and sexual activity from sunrise to sunset. In doing so, they will strengthen their faith and improve their character through cleansing the body, mind, and soul, and learn to let go of grudges, arrogance, vanity, and other poor traits. There is an emphasis on charity, benevolence, compassion, and kindness.

Muslims rise before sunrise to pray and have a small meal (Suhoor) before the morning prayer (Fajr), which begins the fasting day. The fast is broken with Iftar, after sunset prayer, where Muslims gather in their homes or mosques to feast with friends and family.

The end of the Ramadan fast is celebrated as Eid al-Fitr, the ‘Feast of Fast-Breaking’, which is one of the major religious holidays of the Muslim calendar. During this time, there’s a party atmosphere as friends and family come together to feast during the day.

It’s also worth noting that not all Muslims fast during Ramadan. There are special dispensations for children and elderly, as well as those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, menstruating, or ill.

How should non-Muslims behave during Ramadan

Non-Muslim visitors to Essaouira are responsible for enabling a suitable environment for Muslims to observe Ramadan. You are not expected to join in with the fasting, but please show respect to those who are.

Dress conservatively with your knees and shoulders covered (women do not need to cover their heads and children are fine in shorts); check out our guide to what to wear in Essaouira. Also, we recommend you abstain from smoking, drinking, or eating, whilst walking around Essaouira, as well as public displays of affection (although with children, this is fine) so as to be respectful.

Whilst your at your accommodation, you are free to do as you wish, and most hotels will be serving alcohol.

What can visitors to Essaouira expect during Ramadan

Essaouira is open to tourists and visitors during Ramadan. Almost all accommodations will be open, including the Essaouira hotels, who will be operating usual services (although you may struggle to find staff around prayer time).

Some businesses will be closed, or have significantly reduced opening hours (this includes the Essaouira surf schools and other activities). However, over the past few years, more and more businesses are staying open during Ramadan as Essaouira has become quite the tourist hotspot. So you will still find local shops open, we well as restaurants in Essaouira. Indeed, some readers reported back to us that last year Essaouira actually felt rather busy over Ramadan, especially in the afternoon. Accordingly, tourist businesses decided to stay open as usual to take advantage of influx of visitors of Easter.

You will also still be able to find places to buy food. Muslims still eat during Ramadan! The food markets will be open to stock up on fruit, veg, and bread, as well as the local countryside markets (including Had Draa and Ida Ougourd). Plus, there’s also the large Carrefour on the main road into Essaouira selling Western items .

However, please note that all alcohol shops in Essaouira (including Carrefour) close for the entire month of Ramadan, and often close a few days beforehand.

For any stalls and shops open during Ramadan, you will find that just 5 minutes before sunset, everyone will quickly rush to shut up shop and head off for prayers and Iftar. This is not the time to pop out for milk.

Then after sunset prayers, many Muslims will head to the beach with their friends and extended family to enjoy Iftar.

We recommend buying breakfast items the evening before. Moroccans tend to go to bed very late during Ramadan so food stores stay open late at night. This means that they’re never open in the early morning; 11am at absolute best.

The benefits of visiting Essaouira during Ramadan

We used to say that Ramadan is a great time to visit a quieter and more peaceful Essaouira. However, if recent years are anything to go by, Essaouira is still actually on the busy side. Although we believe that this may have more to do with Ramadan coinciding with Easter for 2024 and 2023. And it’s no way near as busy as the high season months of July and August. In the early mornings there are still relatively few tourists around.

However, whether it’s quiet or a little busy, visiting Essaouira during Ramadan enables you to witness a truly sacred time of year in the Muslim calendar.

A very nice benefit of visiting Essaouira during Ramadan is that there are no building works taking place around the Medina. At other times, there is often some sort of building work going on, especially close to the Jewish quarter. But over Ramadan, this all stops. So you are guaranteed that there won’t be any hammering or drilling happening to disturb your peace.

Is it worth visiting Essaouira during Ramadan?

Not if you want to party and shop till you drop. But Essaouira isn’t really that kind of place.

But if you want to experience something very special, that only happens once a year, then definitely.

Visiting Essaouira (or anywhere in Morocco) during Ramadan can sometimes require a fair bit of preparation with stocking up on food when shops are open. Self-catering accommodation is a good idea.

However, if recent years are anything to go by, it’s pretty much business as usual in Essaouira during Ramadan. A few places may be shut, but the main thing to note is that all the locals will shut up shop and disappear for iftar.

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