VAN ADVENTURES IN MOROCCO

Morocco, in North Africa, is known for it’s beautiful weather, tasty tagines, and awesome surf, and just a short ferry away from Spain it was a no brainer to head there for a road trip in the van after exploring Portugal. These are my top recommendations and tips for a road trip in this epic country!

DRIVING TO MORCCO FROM SPAIN

There are lots of options to for getting the ferry over from Spain - it will just depend on your budget and where in Spain you are coming from. We booked our crossing via Direct Ferries, and chose the Algeciras to Tanger Med route. it cost us approx £200 return for 5 weeks in Morocco. Top tip: if you have an early ferry like we did, you can park the van pretty much next to the port. It’s a little noisy but perfect for an early start!

The ferry crossing is about 90 minutes [you can literally see Morcco from Spain!], and on board you need to head to the passport kiosk to get your passport stamped. When you arrive in Morocco you will go straight to customs where you have to show V5C form and passport. You will be given a piece of paper which you have to show to police on roads if you get pulled over (which we did a lot!) so keep that paper safe!

You will drive on past customs, to some more kiosk type things, where you can purchase your insurance for your vehicle. This is a legal requirement in Morocco, and annoyingly you can’t get full party, but it’s a legality to have it so we got third party, which was £150 for 2 months.

I also recommend waiting until you get to a petrol station to buy your local sim card, as we got ripped off from a guy selling them at this kiosk!

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

This trip was mainly about surf for me, so there are plenty of other things to do, like explore Marrakesh, head to the Atlas Mountains, go sand boarding in the dunes etc, so bear in mind that the below are my top recommendations based on the fact that we were by the coast looking for waves a lot of the time!

We were keen to get down to the surf spots but Essaouira was 8 hours from Tanger Med so we broke it up with a stop off in Oualidia which I had found on a blog post to be famous for its fresh oysters! We went to Ostrea restaurant which is located on an oyster farm right on the lagoon - we got there just in time for sunset and had fresh oysters as the sun was setting over the water. We went into the town and paid 40Dh (about £3) to stay in a motorhome area in the centre - no facilities just a guarded place to park up. I was a little nervous being a new place but there were 5 other vans there, and it was great!

We then drove to Safi along stunning coastline completely littered with untouched waves. There is a point break at Safi which Tate surfed with a couple of locals. Then we made the 2 hour drive to Esseouria and had some lunch, and a mooch around the centre. It’s quite built up and hard to park so we drove on 30 mins to Sadi Kauki (which has its own beach and surf) and stayed at a cute campsite on the beach called Camping Sadi Kauki. Cost 90Dh for the night. 

We were keen to get to Imsouane so left early and drove towards Agadir through the Argan country. The road was incredible - the scenery so baton but covered in Argan trees, and we were lucky to see the famous climbing goats! I also bought some Argan oil from a lovely Moroccan man for 40Dh on the side of the road.

Imsouane is a popular surf spot in Morocco, with one of [if not the] longest wave in Africa! There are two surf breaks here, the Magic Bay one [good for longboarders] and Cathedrals on the other side. Imsouane is a tiny fishing village, so there isn’t much to do there other than surf, and eat at a few of the restaurants and cafes. Happy Bay did a great breakfast [and the view across the bay is stunning], and Olo’s is another good spot for food. Imsouane has a very laid back vibe, and we loved it, apart from the crowds. The popularity of this place as grown massively, and unfortunately there are just so many people in the water! But still worth a visit for that long ride! Top tip: take cash with you as there are no ATMS here!

After Imsouane we decided to head down to Sidi Ifni after meeting some people who had told us about the good waves. Unfortunately the swell wasn’t working for us and we weren’t blown away by the quiet town. Mirleft is also very small and there isn’t much going on, but we did enjoy a traditional [and private] hammam massage here at the Le Jardin d'Orient spa.

We then made our way to Taghazout which is where we spent the majority of time, driving to and from the many surf breaks around the area. The main town is very busy with lots of restaurants, cafes, co working spaces and shops, and a beach break. We had some good food in a couple of the spots here; Red Clay Cafe [great breakie], Teapot cafe [great menu, and they are also a co working spot], and Windy Bay [also a co working spot and restaurant over looking the beach]. For any digital nomads out there, I loved Windy Bay for a day of work. It cost me 10 euros to have super speedy wifi, my pick of a desk or classic Morocco pouf, and use of the printer etc.

Desert Point

For surf there are loads of options around the main town. You have Anchor Point [which is extremely localised!] within walking distance, and Mysteries right next to it. Then as you follow the coast you have La Source, Killers, Camel Point, Desert Point, Draculas and Boilers. To the other side of the main town you also have Devils Rock, Banana Point, Banana Beach and more! All of these surf spots offer a wave for everyone, from beginner to pro. My favourite had to be Desert Point - which is about a 10 minute drive from the main town. For this reason maybe it is less busy, and was a great place to park the van for the night - right on the cliff with the most perfect sunset view!

We also stayed overnight at Anchor Point - you pay an extra 10Dh to the guards to stay the night. This felt a little safer just because we were closer to the town and buildings, and there was an official guard [although whether or not we actually stayed for the entire night I’m not sure!].

There are a few campsites in the area too, including Atlantica Parc which was our favourite. It was approx 130Dh for the night, but the facilities were excellent - and was the perfect place to do laundry, fill up with water [not drinking FYI!], empty the toilet, and of course have a hot shower!

A few other top tips:

• Agadir Souk was fun to mooch around for a morning! It is on every day, and sells things from spices, rugs, fake Gucci bags, etc. - you name it, they have it!

• Timlalin Dunes [ on the way to Taghazout from Imsouane] is where you can do some sandbarding, but unless you have a baord yourself or do a guided tour, you can’t do it. We had a little walk arond the dunes which was ncie, but nothing amazing. For the proper sand dunes experience I guess you’d need to go further into the Sahara!

• Happy Calamar is a restaurant near Atlantica Park in Taghazout with an amazing fish selection that they cook fresh on the grill! I had prawns, and a tagine which was so yummy. Make sure you try a tagine when in Morocco!

Desert Point - where we stayed overnight near Taghazout