The Atlantic Coast

One doesn’t tend to immediately conjure up seaside resorts when thinking of Morocco but there are hundreds of miles of glorious and mostly empty, beaches along the country’s beautiful and varied Atlantic coast.

Oualidia is an attractive seaside fishing village between the sea and a picturesque lagoon; the lagoon is famous for its oysters and home to flamingos, cormorants and terns.

Essaouira, Morocco’s most relaxed coastal resort and a top spot for windsurfers, is easily accessible by car from Marrakech. There are few formal ‘sights’ but it’s a great place just to walk around, exploring the ramparts, the harbour and the souks or wandering along the immense windswept beach.

It was the Jewish traders who once formed the majority of the population and it was they who transformed Essaouira into Morocco’s most prosperous city in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its whitewashed and blue-shuttered houses and colonnades, its wood workshops and art galleries, its boat-builders and sardine fishermen, all provide a colourful backdrop to the mile upon mile of empty beach.

The Massa lagoon, on the coast around 40km south of Agadir, is part of the Souss- Massa National Park. Possibly Morocco’s most important bird habitat, its biggest attraction is the rare bald ibis, the revered religious icon of ancient Egypt.

A sandbank blocks the mouth of the Massa forming a lake which is connected to the Atlantic only during high tides. Enormous sand dunes run along the southern edge while the northern shore is fringed with mud banks and flat areas covered with glassworts.

The immediate area of the lagoon is a protected zone, closed to visitors, but you can get in some rewarding bird-watching on the long, wild beach and rolling sand dunes at Sidi R’bat. The best times to visit are March to April or October to November.