Taghazout is a laid-back surfing town made up of a small strip and beachfront, with winding corridors of density packed residence on either side.

Once a hippie spot, it’s now a surf destination popular with 20 something backpackers and nomads.

It’s hot, dry and dusty as you’d expect being close to the Sahara desert. It also has French colonial influence in language and food.

Positives 👍

• Surfing (why else are you here?)
• Tiny town, laid-back to the point of being horizontal. No pushy sales tactics.
• Good nomad social scene for its size. There aren’t many official events but it’s not hard to meet people.

Negatives 👎

• Food poisoning is common.
• Limited co-working options.
• Not much to do in town other than surf.
• A limited number of good cafes and restaurants. Tagahzut has a lot for it’s size but most aren’t great. If you’re here for longer than a week or two you’ll be going to the same places a lot.
• It’s popular with holidaymakers so there’s a higher turnover of people than more nomad focused places.
• The town is dedicated to tourists. Of course this had benefits, but you won’t find much in the way of local culture and eateries. It’s not super expensive but you are paying the tourist premium.
• Most places are cash only and there’s no ATM in town.
• Slow and unreliable service. Taghazout is my karmic punishment for making fun of the service in Eastern Europe. Food can take hours and it’s not uncommon for items or entire orders to be forgotten. In one fast food bar the server was casually helping himself to my chips as he plated up my food.
• So many flies! Some cafes I wouldn’t even go to as you’re constantly bothered 🪰

Food poisoning 🤢

Nearly everyone I spoke to got sick at some point. The lucky ones only felt peaky for a few days, the worst were out for a whole week. Some risk of stomach upset comes with the territory but I'm pretty well travelled I've never seen this to be as much of an issue as it was here.

Surfing 🏄‍♀️

A surf lesson including transport, equipment hire and a basic packed lunch is €35. We were out 10am - 4pm so it would be hard to also fit in a full work day.

I went with Original Surf Morocco and Adventurekeys and had good experiences with both.

Consider getting zinc sunscreen which is surprisingly expensive but more water-resistant. Even the locals wear it so don't be a hero (I'm looking at you, English people).

Alternatively you can walk to Panorama Point if you don’t need a lesson and know how to read the tides. The website everyone uses for this is Magic Seaweed. Search for "panorama point". 3 or more stars means the waves are good and ideally you want low wind.

Dating 😘

It’s a social place but the men heavily outnumber women (damn surfers with their six packs).

Locals are very active on Tinder but most are only looking for pen pals. Many women live with their families until they get married so staying the night is out of the question. I did hear reports of “one day stands”. For this you need to have your own apartment rather than a hotel where they may be seen by the staff.

Hammam 🫧

A Hammam is a Moroccan bathhouse. You’re washed, rubbed in various oils, and then left to marinade corpse-like on a stone slab. It was quite relaxing but not as fun as the baths in Budapest or Tbilisi.

I also had a very average massage but my female friends were more impressed with theirs (the masseuse seems to always be your gender).

Alcohol 🍺

Most places don't serve booze but it's not banned and you can get it from supermarkets in Agadir.

For nightlife Seaside has a DJ on fridays but it ends at 11pm. Munga's is a bar and open a bit later. Both serve alcohol.

Accommodation 🏘

I paid €800 for my own apartment but it was the nicest place I saw on Airbnb with two private terraces. Co-living works out cheaper if you need a co-working space, but my friends staying at Adventurekeys had a lot of complaints about cold showers, dodgy wifi and a sauna of a co-working space.

The best deals can be found by asking around and haggling. I heard of people paying half my Airbnb price for allegedly nice places. Contact me if you want the number of a local fixer.

Coworking 👩‍💻

Co-working is about €10 a day with discounts for a month block. The only place to offer me a free trial day was Adventurekeys.

Adventurekeys

Co-living and co-working with a fun social vibe. There’s a nice terrace for hanging out in the evening and organised surfing and yoga.

Some people are staying for a month or more but many are here for shorter holidays. As a result it doesn’t have quite the same community feel of some other co-livings, but the social side here was one of things I liked most about Taghazout.

The main co-working room at the top of the building bakes in the sun and didn’t have any cooling (I’m told fans are coming soon). Many of my friends were staying and had co-working included but still had to work from cafes to escape the heat.

There are other rooms you can work from but the wifi wasn’t always reliable and there weren’t many proper desks.

Sun Desk

Sun desk is very popular and can book up months in advance. I only managed to get one day there but I liked what I saw. The facilities aren’t amazing but are a bit better than Adventurekeys.

People seemed to be staying longer and there was more of a nomad focus vs holidaymakers.

Windy Bay

Above the cafe is a small co-working space.

Positives 👍

• The only place with AC.
• You're almost on the beach and can hear the waves lapping below.

Negatives 👎

• Least sociable co-working space.
• Not great seating and not quite big enough for the number of people.
• Even with the blinds drawn the sun is blinding making it hard to read on a laptop screen.

Teapot cafe

There’s a small room for co-working above the cafe which you don’t need to pay for if you order a meal. It’s also my favorite cafe for food so I came here most days.

There’s no separate rooms for calls so it can get noisy, but all sins were forgiven when I tried their homemade kombucha.

Cafes ☕️

Red clay - good vegan food and coffee.

Teapot Cafe - good food, charming staff and a (sort of) co-working space upstairs (written about above ☝️)

Windy Bay and next door World Of Waves - both are decent but there are so many flies I didn’t go here much (Windy Bay’s co-working space was fine).

Cafe Tayoughte - cheap and cheerful but decent quality cafe by the beach.

Panorama Restaurant - as the names suggests great views.

Restaurants 🍽

Restaurant Taghazout Chez Titrite - my favourite restaurant. I was here so much I earned the nickname "Tajine Machine". Service can be slow (especially for big groups) but it's worth it for the food.

Susnet - known as the best burgers in town, they also do mean crepes.

Dar Josephine - slightly more expensive French / Moroccan food but well worth a visit.

Taghazout Tajine Palace - cheap Tajines by the mosque.

Day trips 🚐

Agadir

Agadir is 30 mins away by bus or taxi (€15 per car). One day is enough to see most things.

• Souk (market)

• Take the cable car up to the fort

Paradise Valley

An "oasis" about an hour away with those fish that eat your dead skin if that's your kink.

Misc ❓

The cheapest taxi I found from and to Agadir airport was €30 which was through Adventure keys. I imagine you could get it a bit cheaper in Taghazout if you were prepared to haggle at the taxi rank.

There are small convenience stores but no supermarkets. You can buy bread and some fruit but the fresh produce is limited.

There’s a food market in the car park on tuesdays.

The wifi is often unreliable so get a sim card at the airport or in town. It's €10 for 10GB.

Conclusion 🏁

Apologies for the negativity dear reader but I didn’t love Taghazout. Surfing was fun but you’re at the mercy of the conditions and when there aren’t waves there isn’t much else to do.

Without good co-working I wasn’t very productive. The place has a laid-back charm but after a bout of food poisoning this was lost on me.

Most of my friends had an OK time so I’m probably being somewhat of a grinch, but none of us will be hurrying back to Taghazout.