The surfy north African beach resort you’ve never heard of
Along the southwest coast of Morocco, where the Sahara meets the sea, an obscure adventure destination has been slowly growing in popularity. The Oued ad-Dahab — or Rio de Oro peninsula, a name that comes from almost a century of Spanish colonisation here — is a sliver of land that juts 25 miles into the Atlantic, forming a shallow natural lagoon. On this narrow finger of land, the dusty town of Dakhla has been an outpost for Bedouins, traders, whalers and pirates since the 12th century.
Although it’s relatively unknown to most travellers, a few intrepid surfers have been coming to this remote part of Western Sahara since the late 1990s for one very specific reason: the wind. The Moroccan Olympic windsurfer Rachid Roussafi is most often credited with popularising water sports in Dakhla after noticing immense potential in the region’s steady trade winds and enormous, flat-water lagoon.
And the winds here are, indeed, relentless. On my first morning at the kitesurfing resort Oasis212, I pull open the glass terrace doors of my lagoon-view chalet and a gust blows the shade off a lamp inside. Over the course of my five-day stay, the breeze is strong and constant. The winds are so good here that in April Oasis212 partnered with the renowned German water sports operator Ion Club to open a new surf school, offering kitesurfing and windfoiling in world-class conditions.
And the breeze isn’t just good for water sports.
“It makes for natural cooling in the rooms,” says Amine Tajmouati from Oasis212. “We don’t need to use air conditioning, which helps us keep the resort eco-friendly and mindful of the delicate desert environment here.” The resort also harnesses the powerful Saharan sun for electricity.
Tajmouati had contacted me a few months before to invite me to Dakhla because he’d read about my specialisation in astrotourism and dark skies and wanted me to come see the stars in Western Sahara. I often write about places far from light pollution where you can still see a starry night sky, and deserts offer great conditions.
But Oasis212 is far from my normal geographical beat. First of all, it’s in Western Sahara. That’s Morocco, isn’t it?
The situation in Western Sahara is, in a word, complicated. It has been variously described as the world’s longest-running active conflict and “Africa’s last colony”. The United Nations classifies Western Sahara as a “non-self-governing territory”, with about 80 per cent of its total area administered by Morocco.
Here, a little history is necessary. Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975. When Spain withdrew, Morocco to the north and Mauritania to the south divided the territory between them, but both claims were challenged by the Polisario Front, an independence movement by the indigenous Sahrawi people seeking their own state. Mauritania later withdrew, and today Morocco controls most of Western Sahara, though a 1,600-mile fortified sand wall known as the Berm separates it from territory to the east held by the Polisario Front.
The UN has consistently pushed for a solution to the 50-year dispute, and Morocco’s present proposal is to fully integrate Western Sahara as a region with devolved, self-governing powers, while Morocco retains sovereignty, defence and foreign affairs. To that end, Morocco has started pouring money into developing it as a tourism destination.
Driving through town after arriving at the tiny Dakhla airport, there is plenty of evidence of Moroccan investment: a wide new road, a couple of shiny, just-built petrol stations and numerous hotels and apartments under construction.
Heading northeast around the top of the lagoon, I pass into an older area with a few windsurfing camps and small hostels built into the sandy cliffs, and dozens of colourful sails out on the water, indicating that the surfing is good today. But then it’s good every day in Dakhla.
Driving south down the mainland coast, development drops away as I follow the single-carriageway National Route 1 into the desert. If I kept driving, I’d reach the Mauritania border in about three and a half hours. Instead I pull into the low-slung bungalows at Oasis212, which sits on an empty patch of beach facing west across the lagoon towards the town.
What you need to know
- How do I get there? Most British travellers fly with Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca (from £322 return; royalairmaroc.com). Ryanair flies to Dakhla from Madrid twice weekly (from £27 return; ryanair.com)
- Who will love it? People interested in visiting a little-known part of the world. And anybody with a passion for water sports
- Insider tip A great book on the region is Stories of the Sahara, a lively autobiographical account of life in early 1970s Western Sahara written by the Taiwanese travel author Sanmao, while she was living there with her Spanish husband, José Maria Quero y Ruíz
Hitting the waves
Kitesurfing is the main event here but Ion Club also offers traditional surfing and stand-up paddleboarding, as well as wingfoiling, where you stand on a small board and hold an inflatable sail, picking up speed and eventually lifting off the water.
“It feels like flying,” says Sofie Jochems, a solo traveller from Belgium whom I meet over generous plates of couscous and tagine for dinner one evening. “I came for kitesurfing but I found I love the wingfoil even more.” Sofie is staying at Oasis212 for two weeks, the only holiday she’s taken in five years.
I ask why she chose to use her one holiday to visit Dakhla and she tells me that she’d already been kitesurfing in more popular destinations in Europe, such as Portugal.
“I heard from Ion Club that they were opening a new centre here. They said it would be relaxing and unhurried, which sounded perfect. Some of the other kitesurfing resorts get really busy. This is like a true getaway,” she says.
For health reasons, I can’t try the kitesurfing, so I opt instead to have a splash in the lagoon. I find a deserted section of beach just north of the resort’s surf launch point and have the place to myself, finding the water to be pleasantly warm and very shallow, although the strong breeze is instantly cooling and blows sand around.
The hotel also has a Moroccan hammam, modern spa and daily mindfulness and stretching classes to help you wind down after big days on the water.
Heading out into the desert
One morning Tajmouati and I hop into an SUV with the local Sahrawi guide Jamal Hanoune. He speeds south for a while and then veers off-road and out into the desert. We pass Martian-like desert landforms sculpted by millennia of the same winds that make kitesurfing so good here. Descending a small hill, we pass a set of tanks and troughs where a few camels are having a guzzle, and before us spreads an oasis of green bushes, reeds and mud. This is the Imlili Desert, a sebkha, or salt depression, where several natural pools stay year-round and have mysteriously filled with a unique species of fish.
“No one really knows why the pools don’t dry up or how the fish got here. Look closely,” Hanoune says, pointing into one of the pools, which is full of clear water and small fish. “There are little holes in the bottom of the pools. We think there is an underground water system that the fish use to move from pool to pool.”
Later, we drive to La Dune Blanche, or the solitary White Dune, which rises 15m out of a tidal flat next to the Atlantic. I climb to the top, battling the wind, which whips the sand into wave-like ribs. From the top, the ocean spreads away in a turquoise expanse dotted with the bright sails of kitesurfers and wingfoilers gliding on the breeze.
The next day I join Karim Habibi, or Krimo as everyone calls him, for a walk down the beach. Krimo is a Dakhla local and jack of all trades, giving kitesurfing lessons, guiding fishing excursions and generally being an expert on the local area. He points out the white oval shells of cuttlefish, a seafood that is highly prized thanks to Dakhla’s clear, unpolluted waters.
Finally we reach a local oyster farm consisting of a couple of shacks and a bunch of mesh racks in which the molluscs are harvested. Krimo exchanges a few words with the fisherman, who offers us a large handful of oysters. We sit on a sandbank and crack them open, slurping them down fresh.
Under the Saharan stars
On my final night I take a drive after sunset with Krimo and Hmami, Hanoune’s son, to scope out a stargazing spot. We stop first at a sign indicating the Tropic of Cancer — the line around Earth that marks the northern boundary of the Tropics — and take a few photos of the stars. Then we press on further into the desert, away from the headlights and rumbling tyres of the national road.
Eventually the glowing lights of Dakhla town and fishing vessels just offshore drop away and the desert spreads flat and black before us. We pull into a small dirt lot off the road and shut off all the lights. The Milky Way appears, rising in an arc to the east. Hmami starts lighting a few coals for Sahrawi tea, a strong, silty and sugary brew that warms us against the wind, which continues to blow across the inky night. I shoot a few pictures of Krimo’s silhouette against the starry sky, and then we sit on cushions, leaning against the car and, using a combo of broken Spanish, French and English, tell stories of the night sky. Hmami points out a triangle of stars to the north — not a constellation familiar to me — which he says the Sahrawi people use for navigating through the Sahara. We talk about the immense distances across the cosmos and sip our tea, staring at the sky until it’s time to head back.
Dakhla may not cater to those looking for a fly-and-flop, sunlounger destination, but for intrepid travellers seeking somewhere off the beaten track with adventure and a sense of wildness, it is the perfect choice.
All recommendations within this article are informed by independent expert editorial opinion. This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue. Where a “Book now” button appears, it may direct you to our in-house travel agency, Times Holidays, or to one of our affiliate partners
Megan Eaves was a guest of Oasis212, which has full-board doubles from £124 (oasis212.com). Fly to Dakhla via Madrid
Our Times Holidays advisors are on hand to help you book your very own fully customisable version of Megan’s itinerary, tailored to your specific interests
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