Over the years Taghazout has changed a lot. What started off as a hippie destination in the sixties has now transformed in to the surf capital of Morocco, but also the main Winter destination for most of Europe’s surfers.

When the King Mohamed VI came in to power, he made a point of announcing 6 major tourist sites across the country. The primary goal of the sites was to bring up the areas around them and provide a focal point for the development in a way to ensure that no part of the Kingdom was being left behind.

After a couple of false starts, the Taghazout Bay development, arguably the jewel in the crown is finally looking like all the glossy brochures. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a huge building site, but 2 hotels are now open, the golf course is open and the bulk of the roads and landscaping is well underway. It no longer requires a vivid imagination to see how fabulous a development this could be.

Taghazout itself is constantly changing, the average building has grown by a couple of storeys since I have been living here. More importantly a host of new amazing new places have opened up. Sure, some of it means more competition, but in general all it means is that there is more fun stuff to do when you come to Taghazout. There are new restaurants opening up every month, a highlight is the World of Waves cafe just 100 meters along the water from the camp building. A new restaurant is opening up 20 meters further on, and Hash Point has completely transformed into the dining destination for the area for all the Moroccans each weekend (seriously, there are queues of people going up to the road trying to find a table).

Whilst out, I managed to get a few snaps of Panoramas going all the way up to Devils Rock. The sheer scale of the development is crazy, but as you can see the view point from the new walkway (cycle path as well) is epic. The sol house hotel is already open with their swimming pool right behind the beach on panoramas, then further down they are saying a new Fairmont hotel will be opening up as well.

All in all, the development of Taghazout bay must be a good thing. More people in the area are getting jobs, for visitors there is just so much more to do and see. The only downside (and it is a big one) is the environment is getting dragged and dropped as a plaything. Huge amounts of earth are being shifted to aid concrete blocks going up as near to the sea as possible. As a Westerner living in their country, I am not sure I am in a position to criticise this though as frankly this is their chance to develop their country for themselves. They’ve already learnt the lessons of the South of Spain and this whole area should be sensational (or even more sensational) in the next few years.