Vacation Destination of Maria Callas and Mick Jagger in the 60s?

"Spangled seas, hot sun, freshly-squeezed orange juice. There are few early morning pleasures quite so seductive, especially when it's miserable back in England. It is easy enough to find such joys in California, but that is an 11-hour flight and an eight-hour time change away. The beautiful little Moroccan port of Essaouira, with temperatures that do not drop much below 22c even in January, is California practically on our doorstep. The huge hotel rooms, the dazzling light, delicious food and the year-round sporty lifestyle catering for windsurfers, golfers, horse riding enthusiasts - everything smacks of Malibu this side of the Atlantic. But the town also has a fascinating history and such beautiful medieval architecture that it was used in Orson Welles's award-winning film of Othello. There is even an Orson Welles square. I have been going to Morocco ever since the early Sixties. The combination of lingering French sophistication from the days of the protectorate, the flavours of the hot African south, the geometric Arab designs coupled with the romance of the nomadic Berber tribes make it irresistible. I know this beautiful country from the writers' city of Tangiers, in the North, to Goulimine, the gateway to the Sahara, but I have come late to Essaouira, midway down on the Atlantic coast between Casablanca and Agadir. What a wonderful place to have saved till last. It was discovered in modern times by rich European hippies. Musicians from Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix to Maria Callas, came here in the Sixties to immerse themselves in the local beat." [Source] Looking for a place to stay in Essaouira? Check out the Maria Callas suite at the Riad Lotus O'Marine after the jump.

For more information about the hotel, click here.