Dakhla: A Gentle Guide to Morocco's Windy Lagoon

Most stories about Dakhla begin in the air, with a kite. Ours begins on a chair.

Dakhla sits on a thin finger of sand that reaches into the Atlantic in the far south of Morocco, sheltering a shallow lagoon several tens of kilometres long. The wind blows here almost every day, the water turns from silver to turquoise as the tide moves, and the temperature barely changes: daytime highs hover around the low twenties Celsius in winter and the mid-to-high twenties in late summer. There is no punishing heat, no hill to climb, no medina to get lost in.

That combination makes Dakhla one of the easiest places in Morocco to simply be — a destination sold as adrenaline that works beautifully at walking pace. This guide is for travelers who would rather watch the kites than fly one, and who want to know honestly how comfortable the days will feel.

A little history

Dakhla is young by Moroccan standards. In 1884 a Spanish expedition landed on this peninsula and founded a small trading and military post called Villa Cisneros, named after a Spanish cardinal. A fort followed the next year, resupplied by ship from the Canary Islands, and for decades the settlement was little more than a garrison at the edge of the Río de Oro — the "river of gold" that gives the modern region half of its name, Oued Ed-Dahab.

Spain withdrew from the territory in 1976. Mauritania administered the area briefly, and since 1979 Dakhla has been administered by Morocco as the capital of the Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab region; the wider territory's status remains disputed internationally, though visitors today arrive on Moroccan domestic flights and find an ordinary, confident Moroccan provincial city.

And it is growing fast — well over 100,000 residents now, built on fishing, oyster farming and, in the last twenty years, tourism. You will still hear Spanish words in the market and see Hassani Arabic spoken under desert tents, but the city itself feels new: low buildings, wide streets, a long seafront promenade.

Dakhla, Morocco — the low-built modern city on its Atlantic peninsula.

What to see

Dakhla's sights are landscapes rather than monuments. There is no old town to tour, which is part of its restfulness: you look, you sit, you look again.

The lagoon

The lagoon is the main event. Protected from Atlantic swell by the peninsula, it is shallow, warm-looking and enormous, and it transforms twice a day. At high tide it is a sheet of blue; at low tide it becomes mirrors, sandbanks and mudflats where fiddler crabs work the shallows. Flamingos, herons and spoonbills feed along the edges, and dolphins are sometimes seen from boats. Any lagoon-side terrace will give you an hour of quiet entertainment for the price of a mint tea.

The White Dune

The Dune Blanche is Dakhla's postcard: a pale crescent of sand rising straight out of the water, roughly half an hour to forty minutes south of the city by road. You do not need to climb it. The view from the base — dune, lagoon, sky — is the photograph everyone takes, and the sand at the foot is firm enough to stroll on near the water's edge.

Dragon Island

A low island in the middle of the lagoon, named for its long, ridged shape. Boats and catamarans run out to it, and at low tide people walk across the flats. For most older visitors the pleasure is the crossing itself, with the water almost still and birds lifting off the sandbanks ahead.

The corniche and the fishing port

Back in town, the seafront promenade is flat, paved and long, with benches and cafés facing the water. Early evening is the moment: families walking, boats returning, the wind finally dropping. The fishing port nearby is busy and unpolished, and worth a slow look from the outside.

The Ad-Dakhla lagoon, sheltered from the Atlantic by the peninsula.

Watching the wind

Dakhla is one of the world's best-known kitesurfing and windsurfing destinations, and pretending otherwise would be odd. What nobody tells you is how good it is as spectator sport.

The wind is reliable through most of the year, strongest from spring into summer, and the kite camps line the lagoon a few kilometres outside the city. From a terrace you can watch dozens of coloured kites tilt across flat water, close enough to hear the lines. It is oddly hypnotic and entirely free.

If you want to be on the water yourself without learning a sport, ask your hotel about a lagoon boat trip or a small catamaran outing. These are calm-water excursions, not adventures, and morning is usually the gentler half of the day before the wind builds.

Kitesurfing on the lagoon at Ad-Dakhla.

A day trip nearby

The one excursion worth the effort is the Sebkha of Imlili, a salt flat roughly 100 to 130 km south-east of Dakhla — usually about one and a half to two hours each way by 4x4. Scattered across the bare desert are hundreds of permanent saltwater pools, some surprisingly deep, holding small fish in water that has no visible connection to the sea. It is a strange, silent place, and standing beside one of those pools with the desert stretching away in every direction is a memory that outlasts most museums.

Many operators combine Imlili with the White Dune and a stretch of empty coast, sometimes stopping at a warm spring along the way. Be realistic: this is a long day on rough tracks. If your back or hips protest at bumps, ask for a half-day version, request a front seat, and confirm the vehicle is a proper 4x4 with air conditioning.

A beach near Dakhla, on the Atlantic coast south of the city.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The climate is the kindest thing here. Mild all year, rarely above the high twenties Celsius, almost no rain. But the wind is constant: bring a light windbreaker even in summer, plus a hat with a chin strap and sunglasses against blown sand. The sun is strong even when the air feels cool.
• Choose town or camp, deliberately. Hotels on or near the corniche mean flat pavements, pharmacies, restaurants and taxis within a short walk. The lagoon camps 20 to 30 km out of the city are beautiful but reached by sand tracks, often with sandy paths between bungalows and the dining tent, and little to do on foot. If mobility matters, stay in town and visit the lagoon by taxi or tour.
• Sand is the only real obstacle. Dakhla has almost no stairs or slopes, but soft sand at the dunes and shorelines is tiring and unstable. Wear closed shoes with grip, use a walking pole if you normally do, and let someone offer an arm.
• Boat trips mean wet feet. Getting into a lagoon boat can involve a step down into shallow water. Ask about this in advance and request help boarding; quick-dry shoes make it painless.
• Fly rather than drive. Dakhla is very far from the rest of Morocco. The bus from Agadir takes around twenty hours or more. A two-hour flight from Casablanca is worth every dirham.
• Carry cash. There are banks and ATMs in the city, but camps, small cafés and desert stops often take Moroccan dirhams only.
• Check your insurance wording. Some travel policies and government advisories treat Western Sahara separately from the rest of Morocco. Confirm your cover before booking, and carry your usual medications with you — pharmacies are good, but specific brands may not be stocked.
• Pace the excursions. One big outing every other day, with lagoon-watching in between, is a far happier rhythm than three desert days in a row.

The Ad-Dakhla lagoon at low tide, when sandbanks and flats appear.

What to eat

Dakhla eats from the sea, and generously. The lagoon's oyster farms are the local pride: farmed in nutrient-rich water, sold at prices that tend to astonish visitors, and served simply with lemon at lagoon-side restaurants. If you are cautious about raw shellfish, ask for them grilled or gratinéed — a common preparation here.

Beyond oysters, expect whatever the boats brought in: grilled fish, fried calamari, octopus with garlic and lemon, shrimp, clams, and seafood tagine cooked slowly with tomato and coriander. Portions are large and cooking is straightforward rather than spicy, which suits most older palates well.

The local land speciality is camel — usually as a tagine or a gratin. It is lean, mild and slow-cooked to tenderness, and it is the one dish you will not easily find in Fes or Tangier. Finish as Moroccans do, with sweet mint tea, and note that alcohol is limited to certain hotels.

Getting there

Our verdict

Dakhla will not give you monuments, souks or shaded alleys. It gives you space, an almost unvarying mild climate, flat ground and a horizon that keeps rearranging itself. For travelers over 60 who find Marrakech exhausting and the High Atlas too steep, that is a rare and valuable combination.

Come for a week, stay in the city near the promenade, take one long desert day and one slow boat morning, and spend the rest of your time doing very little in front of the water. Dakhla rewards patience more than energy — which is, perhaps, the best thing you can say about any destination.

Sunset at Boutalha, in the Moroccan Sahara near Dakhla.

“Here the wind does the travelling, and you only have to sit and watch the tide rewrite the lagoon.”

Photo credits

• Sunrise in Dakhla, Morocco: YoTuT from United States, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Dakhla, Maroc: Tbo47, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
• FortecolorWestsaharaIII-30: Trincerone, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• FortecolorWestsaharaIII-36: Trincerone, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Plage près de Dakhla 4: Tbo47, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
• FortecolorWestsaharaIII-48: Trincerone, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Sunset Morocco Dakhla: JoelDMiller, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons