Is Taghazout still a surf village, or has it changed?
The short answer
Taghazout is still a functioning Berber fishing village with world-class surf breaks, but major resort development (Fairmont, Hilton, Riu) has transformed the coastline south toward Tamraght. The original village and its surf culture remain intact. Surf season runs September–April, with December–March offering the best swells. Board rental around 80 MAD/day; beginner lessons from €30.
Both. That's the tension, and everyone who's been here longer than a week can feel it.
Taghazout is a Berber fishing village 19 kilometres north of Agadir, home to the Ida Oufella tribe for centuries. Fishermen still launch blue wooden boats from the beach every morning. The original village — whitewashed walls, narrow paths, wetsuits dripping from rooftop lines — sits on a rocky headland above some of the most consistent right-hand point breaks in the Atlantic.
Surfers found it in the 1970s. Musicians found it earlier — Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones passed through in the late 1960s, drawn by cheap sun and open coast. For decades it stayed small: backpackers, surf camps, a few cafés, the occasional campervan colony on the beach.
That changed. **Taghazout Bay** is Morocco's flagship coastal tourism project under the national Vision 2030 strategy. A 615-hectare development stretching south toward Tamraght has brought Fairmont, Hilton, and Riu properties. A 5-kilometre beachfront promenade connects the old village to the new resort zone. Golf courses, co-working spaces, yoga studios, vegan brunch cafés — the infrastructure of a global beach destination.
The village itself still feels like a village. The fishing boats still go out. The main street is still one road of surf shops and tagine restaurants. Anchor Point — the legendary right-hander that can carry you two kilometres — still breaks the same way it always has. The surf season runs September to April, with the best swells between December and March.
What's different is the framing. Taghazout is no longer off the radar. Board rental runs about 80 MAD per day. A two-hour beginner lesson starts around €30. Accommodation ranges from 150 MAD hostel beds to €400-a-night resort rooms. The village and the resort exist side by side — two economies, two rhythms, sharing the same coastline.
The local worry isn't whether tourists come. It's whether the thing that made tourists come — the pace, the scale, the salt-air simplicity — survives the success.