Fun things to do in Agadir

Hi, I see you are arriving in just 2 or 3 days time or it means April? If its April then you are in Morocco for beautiful springtime and a day trip out would be greatly recommended - also from your stop at Casa too as there are lovely areas up that way that have prolific springflowers around the place

As for Agadir, Agadir is great as a base for day trips - Id recommmend if you have a decent hours to call a day a trip to Tafraoute is lovely and you would get a lot for your time and money doing a very good circuit down to Tiznit though not necessarily stopping there and over Col kerdous to Tafraoute, the landscape all the way is beautiful and back on up to Agadir, you might even have time to stop in at Souss Massa if it is April it would worth making the time - or to Taroudant which has quite a bit to see and you could do a drive out into the mountains near there to see berber villages
- and as John above says up to Essaouira which is a nice drive along the coast but you may have tired of seeing coastlines by then!

Immouzzer in the hills to a waterfall is a nice half day trip. As for herbalists and not going to them I have a tip in my Agadir on a good business who sells good quality argane oil which is very good souvenir or opportunity to obtain when in Morocco - it is becoming well appreciated for its omega content and other qualities. There are actually lovely products made in MOrocco famed for its roses, olive oil, almonds, mint, and so on - the women have been using these as important beauty/cosmetic and cooking products for many many years so a big part of their culture.

Have a look around VTers pages for ideas on these places Ive mentioned - and I have a few tips in my pages as well.

I was recommended and given the phone number of Bouchrib who has a taxi service/car company for day trips and longer trips rather than just a grande taxi service - he apparently has 5 cars in his fleet - his phone number is 00212661178061 -

also good friends from Norway and Morocco have a good friend who Ive met who has a grande taxi and can do day trips away, a very nice guy and reliable who you could also ring and see if hes available to take you away for the day - you would need to ring him the day before - 00212661281023 - his name is Abdallah Gebo

Let me know if theres anything further you need help with, I have further contacts if needed who know Taroudant and Tafraoute very well/live there etc which is a bonus for getting places to eat and shopping such as Tafraoute which is famed for its colourful babouches and interesting shaped tagine pots, also argane concoctions.
all the best

In a modern town, betting in tourism you need diversity to occupy the visitors.

Agadir is not very reach in that area but, if you travel with kids, a small and poor zoo near the beach is always a different solution for an afternoon less attractive to swim.

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There is a litle train that drives tourists around central Agadir (sigtseeing). It looks really fun but it´s all crap.

Don´t take the train it was nothing special about it and you don´t see anything that havent seen alredy.

You could get a shared taxi (in preference to grand taxi) from El Batwaar and have this all to yourself. As always, you need to ask the price and maybe haggle a bit but generally speaking the shared taxis are far better value but not at all comfortable.
Essaouira is a lovely place but the bus (2.5 hour journey) only goes once a day at about 8:30am from the Gare de Autobus (bus station) near Souk al Had. The fare is 60Dh one way and you can only get a return ticket once there so get this immedialtely on arrival. The bus back to Agadir departs at about 4:15pm and although it doesn't sound long, this is enough time to explore, shop and have lunch.
Other popular places are Taroudant, en-route you will see the famour tree climbing (or "flying") goats, Tiznit and Tafraout will include a trip up into the mountains with marvellous views.
In Agadir you must go up the kasbah (fortress) where you will have panoramic views of Agadir and the Atlantic Ocean. One other place about 20 minutes from Agadir by taxi is Inezgane, a real Moroccan town where few tourists venture and is unspoilt in this sense. Most of what is sold in Agadir at high prices is made here so you could do your shopping at much reduced cost. One word of advice - few people here speak English (except the dreaded herbalists of course!) so be prepared to use hand signs, unless you speak French of course.

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Excellent collection of Berber jewellery, pottery, a few carpets and wooden doors from local kasbahs.

Well displayed with information given on the items and where they are from. Also very good photographs and interesting displays of local culture and sites of interest in the area including the Berber tribes that live in the mountains nearby.

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The Marina, at the far end of Agadir beach bust before the port and fish market, is a fairly new and very expensive project for the locality.

Now a new residential complex but also marina for rather expensive yachts and boats and quite a number of designer boutiques and shops occupying the rooms at ground level. There are a few cafes and restaurants here too of course.

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Early each morning the hauls of fish that are caught overnight are brought in to the fishmarket for auctioning - you can attend the auctions each morning and it is best to arrive early. At the fishmarket fish can be bought as you would at a shop with its given price but mainly its a place where there are many small sit down eateries - all known by their given number - so you can make your choice and sit down for a meal of freshly caught fish or seafood.

Its buyer beware though and it is best to make sure you understand the deal you are accepting before you let food be put before you and start eating (we got badly ripped off at the Sale fishmarkets by not clarifying exactly what the price was before eating and got hit with a 180 lunch bill just for 2 people!) - we have never been ripped off here at the Agadir fishmarkets but have always given our custom to the same place at Number 26.

Knowing where you are going - such as to where you want to eat etc - means you can enjoy the busy atmosphere here and just watch their carrying ons trying to 'catch' customers etc!

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The rebuilding of Agadir after the earthquake in 1960 gave opportunities to a generation of new Moroccan or Moroccan-born architects. Jean- Francois Zevaco, being a supporter of the architecture of Wright and Le Corbusier, was one of them. In Agadir he built some public buildings like the Fire Station and the Post Office.

For his courtyard houses, as part of the huge reconstruction effort after the disastrous earthquake in 1960, he got the Aga Khan prix in 1980. These courtyard houses were ingeniously planned, compact, middle-income houses in 17 units of single-storey row houses with cleverly designed private patios, inexpensive to build, easy to maintain and suited to the life-style of an urbanised middle-income Muslim population. The jury cited the project for its "response in plan form to climate and, in a broader sense, to the demands of privacy. The exploration and development of the courtyard form for urban housing point a way towards appropriate unassuming design solutions in the heterogeneous character of contemporary Muslim cities."

I didn't see these houses, but had a look at the public buildings like the modern postofffice and the firestation in the citycentre of Agadir. By the use of lots of rough concrete it's called brutalist architecture.

The fire station has a 32 meter high drying tower which stands immediately within the gate of the building. The post office is part of the architectural ensemble adjacent to the Agadir town square. The postoffice is a three-storey structure. On the ground floor the concrete canopy looks like a giant letterbox which shields the entrance leading into the public service area.