The Lambourne family surf holiday.
What do you do as a family of 6. Four kids aged between 8 and 15 years. A mum who likes to chill and read, may be with a few cocktails and a bit of local culture to visit. Dad loves his board sports and isn’t one for sitting around all day. Did we find the perfect family surf holiday.
The challenge was to find somewhere to go for October half term that keeps us all happy. Now with access to the myriad of options I can search through Travel Counsellors, there were a lot of possibilities. Though we weighed them all up and ended going to Taghazout, Morocco and all had a super lovely time.
Taghazout is on the lower west coast of Morocco, facing straight out towards the Atlantic. It gained notoriety as a firm destination on the hippy trail in the 60’s and 70’s, but it’s prime location for catching the Atlantic swells gives the area some great consistent surf. These days It’s a popular surf destination with a number of breaks around the local area, giving options for all level of surfer. Taghazout itself is pretty small, think big village more than town, and has in the past had a pretty bad reputation for cleanliness. However they have put in a lot of effort and investment over the last few years, including rebuilding the whole sewage network throughout covid times. This means you can now find a small fishing village very much indicative of the old traditions of the area, populated by surfers and trendy travelers.
We stayed at the Radisson Blu, which is the closest to town of the new hotels that line Taghazout bay, to the south of the village. Its only 800m along the promenade or across the beach to the village, which means you get the ease of having the family in a nice hotel complex, but still close to town. It has direct beach access and is literally right in front of the bays beach break. There is a surf school based at the hotel who can sort lessons and board hire right there. Rather than rooms the hotel is made up of a number of little beach houses all on little stilts. They were built in accordance the Green Globe certification. One of the stipulations being that no trees were allowed to be cut down and only plants local to the area are allowed to be used. Which means some of the paths follow slightly organic routes, but that all adds to the feeling of being in nature as you move about the hotel. We stayed in a duplex, which is basically a small 2 bed apartment. The twins were sharing on a sofa bed but otherwise there was ample space for all 6 of us.
The restaurants and bar are all in a block next to the pool, with really nice food, all buffet but plenty of options and eat all you can. The cocktails maybe weren’t as good as they could be, though I’m pretty fussy about my drinks, though we found a nice bottle of Moroccan rose they had that kept us entertained.
We ventured out a couple of days, once to take quad bikes right up into the hills and stopped for tea with a family up in the hills. Although a little staged for us tourists, they were so welcoming and the bread and honey (all home made) was amazing and all a lovely insight to heritage of the area. We couldn’t deny the girls their desire to ride a camel, so headed in to Agadir one day for that. They were super nice and all was easy to organize, but we kind of just took a tour round the outskirts of the kings palace, which wasn’t the best terrain to explore. As much happy we did it , think now can tick the rode a camel box. Not something would look to do again.
All in all we all had a great time and would thoroughly recommend it. Anyone into their surfing or wants to get into surfing the area obviously has plenty to offer, but the beach and hotel would work for any trip combined makes for a great family surf holiday. If it sounds like the sort of holiday you would like too, please get in touch and I can let you know all the details.
