Royal Clipper makes a maiden call at the port of Essaouira, Morocco, on the 16-night Westbound Crossing from Lisbon, Portugal, to Barbados, departing Oct. 28, 2010.

Portuguese, French and Berber architecture frame the maze-like streets of Essaouira, a western Moroccan city along the Atlantic Ocean. With its long beach, abundant seawater spa treatments and dramatic sunsets, relaxation is as easy to find as the northeast trade winds that create ideal conditions for watersports. Long considered one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast, archaeological research shows that Essaouira has been occupied since prehistoric times.

The Carthaginian navigator Hanno visited and established a trading post here in the 5th century B.C. Around the end of the 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D., Juba II established a Tyrian purple factory, processing the murex and purpura shells found in the intertidal rocks at Essaouira and the Iles Purpuraires. This dye colored the purple stripe in Imperial Roman Senatorial togas.

Today, the Medina of Essaouira is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage city as an example of a late 18th century fortified town. The medina is home to many small arts and crafts businesses, notably cabinet making and “thuya” wood-carving (using roots of the Tetraclinis tree), both of which have been practiced in Essaouira for centuries.

Essaouira also is renowned for its kitesurfing and windsurfing, and camel rides are available on the beach and into the desert band in the interior.