At only 30 minutes from the busy city of Agadir, there is a little magical town: Taghazout. A Moroccan beach resort, where everything revolves around surfing. The local men do not wear long robes, but surf shorts and dreadlocks, and you can see surf chicks walking around with their surfboards under their arm. We stayed for four nights in this nice village. In this diary blog, I tell you all about our time in Taghazout.
Spending three wonderful days in Taghazout, Morocco
After a tensive hour at the car rental company in Agadir (I’ll tell you more about it in another blog) we drive out of the city in the direction of Taghazout. On our way, we see a great sunset, with the characteristic golden markings that you see nowhere else than in Africa.
It is already starting to dawn when we enter Taghazout. After a few sharp turns on dusty, unpaved roads, we arrive. With our luggage on our back, we walk towards our hostel Salt and Surf, where we are kindly welcomed by the German Laura. Together with her Moroccan friend Yassine she started this hostel a year ago. After she shows us our tiny room, we walk upstairs to the roof terrace. This hostel is on the edge of the village, just up the hill. This location provides a great view of the city with the sea in the distance. We stand still, breathe the salty sea air and relax. Yeah! We are in Morocco, in Taghazout, at the beginning of a road trip that we have been looking forward to!
Click here for my Taghazout travel guide. With the best hotels, restaurants and information about fun activities!
Day 1 in Taghazout: exploring the small village
The next morning we wake up slowly. We haven’t slept that well, our room is in the common hall and it was quite noisy. When someone rings in the middle of the night, the bell sounds throughout the hostel, and that happened quite often. Oh well, we have a vacation, so time enough to rest. We eat breakfast together with the other guests on top of the roof terrace. It’s so good! Hot fresh bread, pancakes and sweet Moroccan mint tea. But the best thing is Amlou, a kind of liquid peanut butter made from almonds and argan oil. Really divine! The rest of the morning we spend relaxing. We sleep a bit more, I write a blog about New Zealand and Ries is studying for his motorcycle exam.
Restaurants on the boulevard
Around lunch, we decide to explore the village. The white-blue houses of Taghazout are built against a hill, this means many stairs and steep slopes that you descend on your slippers. At first glance, everything looks rather run down. Pieces of stairs are missing, houses are sometimes collapsed or not finished and on the main road, nothing is paved. But because of the beautiful colours of the houses, and the many flowers that grow everywhere, it is a very nice village. We discover that there is a big road that goes through the village. On this main road are a number of restaurants, supermarkets and hotels, but the nicest part of Taghazout is close to the sea. On the boulevard, you will find all the cute houses, a small beach and many terraces. This is also the most touristy part, but it is that busy.
The beach in Taghazout
South of the city is a large and wide beach. This is also the place where everyone surfs. The waves are not too high, and perfect for beginners. To get here, you climb over an unfinished road and crumbled stairs. Especially with a surfboard, this can be quite a challenge. They are busy building over here, cranes are everywhere, and you see bulldozers with material driving around. I am afraid that the quiet Taghazout will be transformed into a huge tourist beach resort in a few years, but this is probably inevitable.
Having lunch with a view
We have lunch at World of Waves and decide to walk towards the famous hotel Amouage. This is one of the most luxurious hotels in the area and it is stunning. Everywhere there is beautiful art, there is an infinity pool and in the garden are all pouffes and seats where people are relaxing. You won’t find backpackers here, but yuppies who come to learn to surf but want to do this in a bit of luxury. Every evening, a large dinner is served, which you can also attend as a non-guest (for a fee). Amouage is part of Surf Maroc, a company that not only has different accommodations here but also offers surf camps. We are here to book a massage for tonight, and to make an inventory of the options for yoga.
Curious what our favourite Morocco hotels? Read all about it in our hotel guide!
Massages in Taghazout
In the evening we enjoy the massages at Amouage. It’s not cheap, but this is to celebrate that I’ve got a promotion, so that’s why I think we deserve it! Then we have some food at L’Auberge. Everyone recommended this restaurant, but it’s very disappointing. The food is tasting really weird and we decide it might be better to not empty our plates. Later we hear that one of the guests of our hostel had food poisoning the same evening over here, so it’s a good thing we didn’t finish our plates. Ries is still hungry, so we end the evening with dinner 2: a pizza from Windy Bay.
Day 2 Taghazout: taking some surf lessons
After another amazing breakfast, we pack our stuff. We have booked a surf lesson at our hostel and together with our surf instructor, we walk towards the beach. After practising on the sand, we are ready to go into the water. We have surfed in Bali before, but that is already half a year ago and a refresh course might help us. Unfortunately, at the first wave I take, I make a big crash and I end up on my hand. It does hurt a lot, but I think it is not that bad and so surf for another hour. In retrospect, incredibly stupid, later in the Netherlands, it appears that I have bruised my thumb, something I will feel for weeks. For Ries, the surfing goes much better and after two hours of lessons, he is able to stand up on every wave that comes by.
Must do: a visit to the Merzouga Sahara in Morocco!
Yoga classes in Taghazout
We say goodbye to our teacher, leave our boards with the lifeguards, walk towards the city for a quick lunch and then book an evening yoga class at Amouage. Then we walk back towards the beach, where Ries surfs for a couple of hours and I just relax and enjoy myself with a book. It is only day 2, but I am fully in vacation mode, love it!
And again, we start our evening at hotel Amouage, where we do a super nice yoga class on their rooftop terrace. While I am standing in the downward-facing dog, I hear the waves hit the rocks, the ultimate holiday feeling! After yoga, we have dinner at restaurant Dar Josephine, an amazing place with good food. We end up chatting with other guests for almost an hour about the history of this town and how much it has changed already in the last few decennia.
Day 3 Taghazout: a visit to Paradise Valley
Our last day here in Taghazout already. We get up early and start the day with breakfast at World of Waves, after which we take the car and drive to Paradise Valley. This is a valley with small, crystal clear lakes. The road to it is spectacular, we drive through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains and pass all kinds of gorges and rivers.
Then we can park the car and we have to walk the last part. After a beautiful hike of about half an hour, we arrive at the various blue lakes and waterfalls surrounded by palm trees. We are early (11 o’clock), but it is already quite busy here. The water is clear, but the lakes are small and many people swim in it. It is pretty hot, so we decide to go into the water ourselves, which is freezing cold. After an hour of relaxation, we pack our things and walk back. Nice to have seen, but not as amazing as I was expecting.
Back in the Taghazout, we eat something and then walk towards the beach. Ries rents a surfboard and goes surfing for a couple of hours, I relaxed, read my book and enjoy the sun.
Is Marrakech part of your itinerary? Check out this Marrakech travel guide!
No not again! Food poisoning in Taghazout!
In the evening when we are packing our things, my belly suddenly starts to rumble. Yes, food poisoning. Not that strange, Morocco is known for the chance of food poisoning and well, I just have to look at infected food and I’m already ill. The rest of our last evening and night is not very relaxed. Add to that a Moroccan wedding party which is going on all night, just a block away and you can imagine: I didn’t sleep at all! Lucky: the shared bathroom of this hostel is opposite our room, so I only had to sprint 2 meters each time ;-).
The next morning at 08.00 we start driving, both a bit tired and shaken. There are 7 hours of driving scheduled and we do not look forward to that. Fortunately, our next destination is a beautiful place in central Morocco. Are you wondering how we got there? Read more about it here
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