Oualidia: The charm of a seaside resort
Cooperating and Moroccans especially enjoy this charming resort. The city is also known for its seafood, especially oysters famous Oualidia. Its good hotels are a nice step on the coast.
Around Oualidia
Oualidia is a few miles a part from Safi, the largest fishing port in Morocco known for its sardines, it also exports phosphates, textiles and ceramics. The traditional Moroccan Market in medina is good place to shop for Moroccan pottery, decorated vases and tiles, Moroccan tajines, plates and other traditional Moroccan artifacts that are cheap compared with destinations like Marrakesh.
National ceramics museum has a collection of traditional sculpted, molded and engraved Moroccan ceramics and It is located in the 16th century Kechla Citadel built by the Portuguese, who occupied Safi from 1508 to 1541.
Oualidia Accommodation
Riad Dar Beldi, douar moulay adessalam, Oualidia, +( 212) 6 62 06 18 65
This Riad is a charming family owned Moroccan guest house with an interior gardens and courtyards, owner lives in premise.
La Sultana Oualidia, Parc a huitre 3, Oualidia, +(212) 5 24 38 80 08
La Sultana is a small luxury hotel, it is a bit expensive, and it is situated in a good location surrounded by the most breathtaking natural beauty, and offer views over the lagone.
According to the New York Times: “It’s just about communing with nature: fishing, surfing, kayaking or birdwatching,” said James von Leyden, a British expatriate who built a house overlooking Oualidia’s lagoon, which is filled with pink flamingoes, migrating herons and the occasional surfer.
Mr. Von Leyden and his family spend about four months a year at Villa La Diouana, their charming riad on the sea; the rest of the year it is rented by savvy Morocco insiders, like the French handbag designer Laetitia Trouillet.
The British writer Danny Moynihan and his wife, Katrina Boorman, an actress, fell so in love with the area that they bought property in 2004. This year they are completing an eight bedroom eco-property. (It will also be available to rent.)
The kasbah of El Walid. This seaside village is named after its founder, Sultan Walid El saadien. There he built in 1634, a kasbah designed to defend the access port located in the harbor.
Swimming. Two half-moon shaped dunes with a rock in the middle, close the lagoon. The beach is particularly safe even if the two inlets communicating with the ocean are dangerous.
Step cuisine. On weekends, the hotels are often fully booked. Apart from its site, the city is indeed famous for its oysters whose culture has developed in the fifties. Here you can enjoy many other shellfish such as clams or sea urchins.
- The old city walls are the remains that can be seen hanging on the cliff there.
Oualidia is a small coastal village located between the Moroccan cities of El Jadida and Safi and only two hours from both the pink city of Marrakesh and the economical capital of Morocco Casablanca.
The seaside Moroccan village of Oualidia is known for its bird watching, blue water beaches, farmed oysters, and distinctive village quietness. That’s exactly what’s so special about the town. Oualidia is a great place for beach sports lovers, kayaking, fishing, surfers and windsurfing will not be disappointed, the village gets a bit busier during summer months, but for the rest of the year, it is very much quit. Several type of birds can be found in the sea side village of Oualidia and it includes: avocets, cormorants, flamingos, redshanks, godwits. Birds are usually migrating from sub Sahara Africa and Europe.
For a great seafood meal, head to the the seaside fish restaurant L’Ostrea which serves Oualidia’s famous oysters. L’Araignee Gourmande is a great seafood restaurants as well, several types of oysters are farmed in Oualidia including French, Japanese oysters, and cupped oysters. Oysters were brought under the French protectorate in 1950s.
