Anza (Jan 24)
—- Introduction to Anza —-
I really didn’t know what to expect about this place, so I came here with a completely open mind…
…it blew me away!
Anza, is about 30km from Agadir in the southern half of Morocco.
It’s one of those places that might not appeal to everyone, but for me it has left a massive imprint that’ll stay with me forever. I also met so many people who share a similar view of the world – especially at the surf house I stayed.
So this is the story of a short four day trip, where I got to experience some amazing sunsets, did some surfing, went on some great treks and ate some awesome food. But the best bit was the people I met, travellers and locals alike.
I also did it on a bit of a budget. And I’ll share some hints and tips at the end.
— The journey to Anza —-
I managed to secure a RETURN flight to Agadir out of Gatwick for £17.98 – as soon as I saw the price I bagged it – why wouldn’t I?
And it’s amazing what can be squeezed into a 40x30x20 carry on bag to avoid additional cabin bag charges!
So with a bargain already in my back pocket, I booked myself a treat at The Number 1 Lounge in the South Terminal. Four courses later (and God knows how much fizz) I headed to the gate where the aircraft was being boarded – bang on time.
It is my first time with “Wizz Air” and no complaints so far. It’s a bit like Ryanair, but without the trek to Stansted and the passive aggression… that said, like all budget airlines, if the small print is read carefully and the rules are followed it’s difficult to go wrong.
It’s a three and half hour flight to this North African coastal destination by air and the pre booked taxi from the airport cost more than the flight here. That’s mad! But arriving here after dark and so late into the evening it was my only practical option. It’s a 45 minute journey to my accommodation by car, and I didn’t want to faff around with buses and hadn’t worked out cheaper options (unlike my return trip – some great tips for lowering taxi fares at the end of this blog).
—- Surfhouse Anza —-
I was able to secure a room at the Surf House, Anza, a popular place a mere stone’s throw from the beach and short hop by bus to the city centre. The weather looked good for the next three of four days, with highs of 28°C and night time lows of 14°C.
I was pleasantly surprised and a tad relieved to find a broad mix of people staying here, a wide and eclectic collection of travellers from all over the world, Australia, the US, Slovakia, Germany, France, Spain, Chile, Columbia and the UK to name but a few. I was definitely the oldest, but not by far!
Some had come for the surfing, others simply to experience the chilled ambiance and beauty of the region, or to use it as a base to explore the wider area.
The town of Anza didn’t immediately strike me as being architecturally pleasing on the eye, unlike Marrakech or Essaouira, but then again it doesn’t have hoards of tourists either. But…it DOES have charm in abundance, in particular the “Surf-House”, which is quaint, rustic, homely and an ideal launching pad to explore this region. It is also unbelievably welcoming with some amazing people working here, so much so it took me a few days to work out that a few of them were not other guests! They’ve taken “chill” to the next level!
I checked in and headed for my room. Yes, a room not a a dorm. I guess at my age I’m too young to stop exploring, but really a little too old to stay in a dorm! My twin room was on the first floor of this rustic travellers accommodation and it was ideal, basic but clean, warm and cozy.
—- Magical sunset —-
So, my first full day arrived and after watching the sun rise from the roof terrace I joined Martin and Emily on a late afternoon trip to the sand-dunes, about 40 minutes up the coast.
The dunes here merge with the sea, so it is an amazing spectacle, especially as the sun starts to descend.
We took a guitar, lit a fire and watched a stunning sunset, and that was after trying our hand at sand boarding with Brahim, our guide for the afternoon. I say guide loosely as he quickly became a friend to the three of us.
We chilled, played and sang songs late into the evening arriving back to the surf house at about 10:30.
On the way to the dunes we had earlier walked through what I can best describe as a sandstone barranca leading into a cove – a stunning natural feature created by storm water.
—- Paradise valley —-
By way of an example of how things just clicked into place…The day before I had met a guy called Mathias and lady called Mona, she is almost the same age as me and both are from Germany, traveling separately and alone. We all wanted to go to Paradise Valley, which although a little bit of a tourist trap, still has a magical beauty we didn’t want to miss. Our plan was to do things a little differently as the Surf House was only able to lay on trips to this destination for groups of six or more, and as we didn’t have the numbers we decided to go it alone! So I joined them along with Emily – another German lone traveller (I’d met the day before).
Our trip took us via two taxi companies to the base of the valley where we plotted a route to the top of the canyon. We had to switch taxi companies at Aourir as different taxi firms have authority to trade different routes. This is when I discovered that both Mona and Mathias possessed an amazing talent for bartering the best price with locals – often beating them at their own game. Their brutal approach to negotiation meant we got some amazing prices, like a 20 Dirham price (per person) trip to our destination at Paradise valley (that’s about £2 for a 40 minute journey). Mind you the taxi we ended up in had about 20 boxes of “bees” on the roof rack which made for an interesting trip. Just as well we all liked bees!
We got to the valley long before the masses arrived and headed for a the highest point of the canyon. Here, there is a deep water ravine we could jump and swim in. For almost 40 minutes we had the place to ourselves – before the first large tour-group (of many) arrived. It was wonderful jumping in and swimming in the cool water as the heat of the day was starting to build, and having the place to ourselves for such a long time was magical.
As Mona has a dodgy knee, she elected to walk back via the main footpath we came up, which by now had ever increasing numbers of people on it. Mathius, Emily and I followed the more precarious water route at the bottom of the canyon. We met about 45 minutes later at a pre determined meeting point. Yes it took us a little longer but we were rewarded by some spectacular views. We hardly saw another person on our trip back down. We then grabbed a spot of lunch before heading for the main road and to plot our route home. As luck would have it a passing car stopped and asked if we needed a taxi – knowing how much it should cost we agreed a price, and returned back home.
When we got back to the surf house, I got talking to Martin and Emily who convinced me to try out surfing lessons the next day. How could I not? It’s only been a 33 years since my last surfing lesson – a longer period than both of them have been living on this planet…
—- Surf day —-
So the next day we met up with Brahim again – whose real passion in life, and proper job is to teach people how to surf.
So we donned our wetties, had a warm up and headed for the surf… I’d like to stop at this point and leave anyone reading this with the impression I knew what to do with a board – ripping, turning, cutbacks, barrels, and so on….. However, it was more like a swimming lesson with my arms and legs aching so much after the first few hours of trying valiantly to master the board. And there was me thinking snowboarding knowledge would be an advantage… well perhaps if I could stand up!!! Well I did manage it on occasion, probably every third or fourth attempt. However, despite spending four or five hours in the water being dragged around at the behest of currents and tides, when I did catch a wave and glide in I had a smile on my face that you could see from the shore! Great fun, and a wonderful way to watch the sunset too.
— The Souk —
The three of us took a short break from surfing during the height of the sun and heat of the day. We headed for the weekly town souk which was HUGE.
What struck us all was the freshness, colours and smells of the produce which, unlike what is on offer in supermarkets back home, had been locally farmed, picked and transported and hadn’t spent days or even weeks in transit (or doused in chemicals to keep them “looking” fresh). We bought samples of many items and consumed them over the coming days! And yes they tasted a good as they looked and smelt.
Mid way through our trip to the Market I convinced Martin to join me in trying out some street food, some barbecue fish with freshly cut tomatoes, sprinkled with salt, onions and a spicy side dressing. Now that may sound appetising BUT it was in a corner of the market which looked more like an abattoir, with cats, flies and filthy tables and chairs… I reasoned with him that the cook had a queue of local market traders waiting to be served, and so was unlikely to be serving up dishes that would kill his clients, so our fish was ordered, went onto the barbecue and we sat down and ate what we discovered was a delicious snack for under £1.50 – best buy of the week.
—- Mona’s vegan dish —-
After we’d showered following the sunset surf, we headed back to the surf house, where Mona had produced an amazing vegan dish for six of us, all ingredients purchased from the market earlier. Two gastronomical treats in one day. I was one happy bunny!
—- Final day —-
My final day, and I spent most of it with Robi, a Colombian, Panamanian on a break from working for the NHS back home and on the same evening flight out of Agadir. We headed for the beach, spending most of the day taking it in turns to go for a swim. We were joined by three girls from Spain and Chile who had recently checked in to our surf house, and after a chin wag, Robi and I headed back for a shower and to grab a taxi to the airport. I ordered a taxi using an app called “inDrive”, which is similar to Uber in Europe, or Grab in Vietnam. We got a good price but the driver let slip that “inDrive” is not legal In Morocco, so I’m guessing unlike Grab or Uber the drivers aren’t licensed or insured, so perhaps I might give that a swerve next time, or use the App to give me a price that can be used for bartering!
—- Hints and Tips —-
So if you’ve got this far thank you, and just to give you an idea of the price for this short break it was IRO £166.25 all in for the entire trip (excluding the premium lounge charge – which was a treat). The breakdown is as follows:
Flights = £18 return via Wizz (hand luggage only)
Accommodation Surf House Anza = £52.75 for four nights (twin room – dorms are cheaper).
Six hour + Sand dune experience via surf house = £20 approx
Taxi Trip to Paradise Valley (DIY trek) = £7.50
Surf lesson and all day board and wetsuit hire via surf house = £28
Food and Drink = less than £40
SIM – I usually buy a local SIM at the airport and stick it into my “travel phone”, a cheap Android I purchased for international travel last year – I then hotspot across to my Apple/i-phone. So long as I have 4G or better on the travel phone I have my own personal WiFi for the entire trip. I also find that more secure than popping onto public Wifi too (for banking, or making bookings). Local SIMs are usually available from the airport desks, often they are free, and you can then buy a package which will last a month, and depending on data size, these usually start at about €10. This is so much cheaper than risking roaming charges which can quickly mount up depending on the country you are in. However, as this was such a short trip I obtained a Vodaphone Pay as you go SIM (for zero cost in their Southampton branch) and then paid for and added an “8 day around the world extra” for £15. This meant I could turn on the travel phone “immediately” I touched down, hotspot across and access my taxi company and hotel without queuing and purchasing a local SIM. This worked out marginally more expensive, but was way more convenient.
Taxis – Download “inDrive” app as soon as you land in Morocco in order to find out what the going rates are for taxi trips (they change dramatically at night and peak periods, like Uber). You can then use this baseline data to negotiate a good rate with a standard non metered taxi. Apparently, inDrive works in Marrakech, Fez and Agadir. Note – the App is not legal and driver could be fined (not sure about passengers)!
Excursions – We did Paradise valley without a guide, so I can’t comment on how the organised trip via surf house was. However, I’d strongly recommend booking the sand-dune sunset experience and surfing lessons through surf house. The former was magical and Brahim made the whole experience special, bringing firewood and chilling with us for he evening which lasted for hours after sunset. He was also an excellent surfing coach – it’s just a shame I’m an old git with dodgy knees!
It was so great meeting you, loved reading this!
Such great memories. 🙂