Tours in Agadir

Agadir is the one Moroccan city with no old town. An earthquake flattened it in 1960, and what stands now was laid out afterwards in straight lines. That makes it a resort rather than a monument. The draw is the bay.

The beach runs ten kilometres in a crescent facing south-west, sheltered enough to swim and sunny most of the year. Winter days sit around twenty degrees while Marrakesh turns cold at night. The water does not follow. The Canary current keeps it near eighteen, so surfers wear rubber in August.

What there is to see is strung along the coast and up into the hills behind.

• Agadir Oufella — the old kasbah wall on the hill above the port, reached by cable car, with the bay laid out below.
• Souk El Had — a walled market of several thousand stalls: spices, argan, and second-hand everything.
• The corniche — the evening walk, fish grills, and the whole city out after dark.
• Taghazout — the surf village twenty minutes north, with Anchor Point and a beginner beach at Tamraght.
• Paradise Valley — a palm gorge an hour inland, with pools that shrink by the end of summer.
• Souss-Massa — the river mouth and national park south of town, flamingos in the shallows, horses along the sand.
• Taroudant — a walled town eighty kilometres east, sometimes called the grandmother of Marrakesh.

Activity here is bought by the half-day. Camels and horses go out along the river sand at sunset, and quad bikes run into the dunes behind the beach. A balloon lifts at dawn over the Souss plain.

Two things are worth knowing before booking. A Sahara day trip from Agadir means the dry country south of the Souss, not the great dunes, which are two days east. And Marrakesh in a day is three hours out and three back.

Practical

• Season. Winter is the point here: twenty-odd degrees by day while the interior freezes at night. Summer stays in the high twenties rather than the forties.
• The water. Around eighteen degrees in summer and not much less in winter. Swimmable in a dash, better in a wetsuit, and every surf school hires them.
• Wind. Afternoons blow hard off the ocean, which is why the umbrellas lean inland and the morning is the calm half of the day.
• Getting here. Al Massira airport is 25 km east. No train comes south of Marrakesh, so it is a bus, a transfer or a hire car.
• Souk day. Souk El Had shuts on Mondays and is busiest on Friday and Sunday.
• Dress. The beach strip is relaxed. The souk and the streets behind it are a working Moroccan city, and covered shoulders save you attention.