Essaouira, Morocco

Formally known as Mogodor, Essaouira is a walled medieval trading port on the Atlantic coast of Africa. It’s a charming little town with winding cobblestoned laneways and a gentle sea breeze that blows the stench of a thousand years’ worth of fish guts across the fortified ramparts. There’s half decent surf here too when the onshore wind drops, but that’s not often.

I’d never dipped a toe into the Atlantic so we had to come here. It’s also famous for a certain Game of Thrones scene where Tyrion Lanister gets his face sliced open in the siege of King’s Landing. There were no dragons, but we did see plenty of seagulls and there were a few war casualties left on the city walls…