Safi is Morocco's pottery capital, a working Atlantic port city where craft and industry sit side by side. The Colline des Potiers — an entire hillside neighborhood of kilns, workshops, and showrooms — produces the distinctive blue-and-white glazed ceramics sold across Morocco. You can buy directly from the potters here at prices well below what you'd pay in Marrakech or Fez.
The city has Portuguese bones. A circuit of 16th-century walls still rings the medina, and Dar el Bahar (the Sea Fortress) stands on the headland at the ocean's edge, offering sweeping views down the coast. The Kechla Fortress sits at the top of the old city and holds the best panoramic views in Safi. The medina itself is unglamorous but genuine — this is a town Moroccans live in, not one dressed up for tourists.
The port handles phosphate exports and fishing, which means the waterfront is working infrastructure rather than a promenade. City beaches are industrial and best skipped. Head 11 km north to Cap Beddouza or 4 km south to Sidi Bouzid for clean Atlantic surf and sand.