Agadir: A Gentle Guide to Morocco's Kindest Coast

Most guidebooks give Agadir a paragraph and move on: a beach resort, they say, modern, not very Moroccan. We would like to make the opposite case, gently.

Agadir is the flattest, calmest, most walkable city in Morocco. Its pavements are wide and even, its streets were laid out with space in mind, and its winter afternoons are warm enough to sit outside in shirtsleeves while much of Europe is scraping ice off the windscreen. For anyone who has found the medinas of Fes or Marrakech beautiful but exhausting, this is the Moroccan city that finally lets you breathe.

There is a reason for all that space, and it is a sad one. Everything you walk through here was built after 1960. Knowing that story changes the way the city feels — it turns a pleasant promenade into something quietly moving.

A little history

Agadir is an old Atlantic port with a long memory. A fortress was raised above the bay in 1540 by the Saadian sultan Mohammed ech-Cheikh, and for centuries the town below traded in sugar, almonds and oil from the fertile Souss plain behind it.

Then came the night of 29 February 1960. A moderate earthquake — around magnitude 5.8, but very shallow and directly beneath the town — shook the city for roughly fifteen seconds. In that quarter of a minute most of Agadir fell down. Somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 people died, close to a third of the population, making it the deadliest earthquake in Moroccan history.

King Mohammed V took the decision not to abandon the site but to rebuild, a few kilometres south of the worst-hit ground, using earthquake-resistant construction and a modern plan of broad avenues and generous open space. The Agadir you walk through today is that second city, grown over sixty-odd years into Morocco's largest seaside resort. The old kasbah on the hill was left as it fell, and the hillside below it is a memorial. It is worth pausing there before you order your first mint tea on the corniche.

Agadir beach photographed in 1989, as the rebuilt resort was growing.

What to see

Agadir's sights are few but generous, and they are spread along a bay rather than tangled in alleys — which is precisely the point.

Kasbah Agadir Oufella

The ruined fortress of 1540 stands about 236 metres above the sea, and the view from its walls is the finest in the region: the whole curve of the bay, the port, the white city and the hills behind. The site has been restored in recent years, with laid-out walkways and viewpoints. Entry has traditionally been free, though arrangements change.

The cable car

The best news for anyone who no longer fancies a steep climb: a cable car now links the lower city to the kasbah hill, rising over roughly 1.7 kilometres in about six or seven minutes. Cabins are enclosed and level to board. It turns a strenuous hill into a pleasant outing and, honestly, the ride itself is half the pleasure.

The beach and the promenade

A wide crescent of pale sand runs the length of the city, backed by a paved seafront walk lined with cafés and restaurants. It is flat, well surfaced and generously benched. You can walk twenty minutes or two hours, and there is always somewhere to sit down with a coffee and watch the Atlantic do its work.

Souk El Had

One of the largest markets in Morocco, enclosed behind walls and divided into sections: spices, olives, argan products, pottery, fabric, fruit. It is busy and it is big, so go in the morning, pick one or two gates, and do not try to see all of it. Even an hour gives you the smell and colour of the Souss.

The marina and the port

At the northern end of the bay, the marina is an easy, level stroll with moored boats and open-air cafés. Next door, the working fishing port still unloads its catch each morning — the reason the fish on your plate tastes the way it does.

The beach and harbour of Agadir, at the northern end of the bay.

A slow day on the corniche

If you take only one piece of advice from us, take this: give Agadir a whole unstructured day.

Start late. Walk a stretch of the promenade in the soft morning light, when the sand is being raked and the joggers have gone home. Sit somewhere with a view for a long breakfast — bread, olives, orange juice pressed in front of you, and amlou if they have it. Read for an hour. Walk a little more.

In the afternoon, when the Atlantic breeze picks up, move inland a street or two where it is warmer and quieter. Then come back for sunset, which here is a genuine event: the light goes gold, the whole promenade fills with families walking slowly, and nobody is in a hurry at all. This is the thing Agadir does better than anywhere else in Morocco, and it costs nothing.

The paved beach promenade at Agadir, flat and easy underfoot.

A day trip nearby

Three easy options, all doable with a driver or a small-group tour that collects you from your hotel.

Paradise Valley lies roughly 60 kilometres north-east, about an hour by road: a palm-lined gorge in the foothills with clear rock pools. Be honest with yourself here — reaching the pools involves uneven rock and some scrambling. Many travellers over 60 enjoy the drive, the argan groves and a riverside lunch, and skip the final descent. That is a perfectly good day out.

Taghazout, about 20 kilometres up the coast and half an hour away, is a small former fishing village turned surf town. Flat seafront, fish grills, wide beaches, good for a lazy lunch.

Souss-Massa National Park, south along the coast roughly 30 to 50 minutes away, protects estuary and dune habitats and is one of the last strongholds of the rare northern bald ibis. Much of the visit is done from a vehicle with short, level stops — the gentlest of the three, and lovely in spring.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The ground is kind. Central Agadir is flat, the promenade is paved and even, and pavements are wide. This is the least demanding Moroccan city we know for anyone with tired knees or a walking stick.
• The two exceptions are the kasbah hill and the souk. Take the cable car for the first. For the second, expect crowds, uneven patches underfoot and no seating — keep the visit short.
• Stay on or just behind the seafront. Hotels along the bay put the promenade, the cafés and a beach view within a few flat minutes. Staying inland means a taxi every time.
• Sea breeze, not heat, is the usual surprise. Even in summer, Agadir's Atlantic wind can make late afternoons cool. Pack a light jacket and a scarf, even in July.
• Summer sun is still strong. Midday in July and August is best spent under shade; hat, water and a rest between noon and four.
• Petits taxis are cheap and everywhere. Agree the fare or ask for the meter before setting off. They are far easier than long walks in the heat.
• Rooms with lifts and step-free showers exist in the larger seafront hotels but cannot be assumed — always confirm in writing when booking.
• Agadir is relaxed about dress compared with inland cities. Beachwear is for the beach; light, covering clothes are more comfortable and more respectful everywhere else.
• Pharmacies and private clinics are plentiful in the city centre, and English is widely spoken along the seafront, alongside French and Arabic.

The long sandy beach at Agadir, Morocco.

What to eat

This is Atlantic Morocco, and the cooking reflects it. Fish tagine is the local signature — sea bream or sole simmered slowly with tomato, peppers, preserved lemon, olives and chermoula, the garlicky herb marinade that defines Souss coastal cooking. It is lighter than the lamb and prune tagines of the interior, and far easier on the digestion.

At the fishing port and along the beach you will find grills where you choose your fish and it comes back charred, salted and squeezed with lemon. Grilled sardines are a local habit and a very good one.

Inland, the Souss plain gives you the rest of the menu: Amazigh vegetable tagines, cooked simply with olive oil and light spice; almonds; regional honey; and above all argan. The argan tree grows almost nowhere else on earth, and the culinary oil pressed from its kernels is nutty and golden. Try amlou — argan oil blended with ground almonds and honey into a spread — at breakfast, with bread. Finish, as everyone does, with sweet mint tea poured from a height.

Getting there

Our verdict

Agadir will not give you the storybook Morocco of blue alleys and carved cedar doors. It gives you something else, and for many travellers over 60 it is the more valuable gift: a warm, level, unhurried place where you can be in Morocco without being tested by it.

Come for the winter sun, stay on the seafront, ride the cable car once for the view, eat fish that was swimming that morning, and let the days go slowly. Then look up at the hill above the bay and remember what this city did — flattened in fifteen seconds and rebuilt, patiently, into somewhere people come to rest.

That is not a resort. That is a quiet act of hope with a beach attached.

Sunset over Agadir beach in summer.

“A city that fell in fifteen seconds, and rose again facing the sea.”

Photo credits

• Beach of Agadir from Kasbah of Agadir Oufella: Abdeaitali, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Agadir beach 1989: JopkeB, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• 02-beach-harbour-agadir-morocco: Elmschrat, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• 01-beach-agadir-morocco: Elmschrat, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Beach of Agadir 07: Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Agadir Beach Sunset Summer time: Hatim.laajini, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons