The women-only dorms
Both SurfsHUB hostels have a dorm that only women sleep in. In Taghazout it has four beds in bunks and a bathroom of its own, in a converted village building in the centre of the village. In Tamraght it has six beds in bunks and a bathroom of its own, on the hill above the village, with the garden and the roof terrace outside the door. Bunks are two high, never three; linen and towels are provided and changed mid-week on a 7-night stay. You ask for the dorm in the notes on the booking form. If you would rather have a room to yourself, a private room on a Solo booking is €20 per room per night; the rooms page shows every room at both hostels, with photographs.
Coming alone
Solo travellers make up a large share of our guests, and the week is built for them. You book Solo, you arrive on the day that suits your flights, and you are not the odd one out at a table of couples: dinner at 20:00 is one long table and one menu a day, breakfast at 09:00 is on the roof, and the surf trip leaves after it with everyone in the van. By the second morning you have a coaching group of your own level and the same coach for the rest of the week, and in the evening there is daily yoga on the roof terrace and the video review before dinner.
How the coaching groups form
Groups form by level, not by sex: eight people per coach at most, beginners in one group and intermediates in another, sorted on the beach on the first morning. Our three coaches, Abdul, Hicham and Yahya, are men who grew up on these waves; Abdul, the head coach, holds the ISA Level 1 surf coaching certificate. A beginner starts at Devil's Rock in Tamraght, a sand-bottom beach break with a channel you can stand in, on a softboard, with the coach in the water beside her, and moves to Banana Point, the long soft right off the river mouth, when she can stand and ride. Board and wetsuit are included for the whole stay, and the wetsuit follows the month, from a 3/2 in winter to a shorty or rash vest in summer. How our coaching works, day by day, has the detail, and learn to surf in Morocco follows a first week from the whitewater to the first unbroken wave.
The hammam, and the questions about dress and alcohol
Tamraght has a hammam, the village steam bath, and after three days of paddling your shoulders will thank you for it. Men and women go at different times or into different rooms, as in every hammam in Morocco; ask at the hostel for that week's women's hours, and go with someone from your group the first time.
Dress is the question we are asked most by women booking a first trip to Morocco. On the beach and at the hostel, swimwear and board shorts are what everyone wears, and a wetsuit is a wetsuit. In the village street, shoulders and knees covered is the courtesy, for men and women alike: a T-shirt and shorts to the knee, or a light dress, is enough, and nobody expects more than that. Alcohol is not sold in Tamraght and is limited in Taghazout; you may bring your own to either hostel and drink it on the terrace, and the nearest shops that sell it are in Agadir. The evening is the roof, not a bar, which is a large part of why women travelling alone choose Tamraght.
Which hostel
For a first week, or for quiet nights, our Tamraght surf camp: the softest waves on this coast are eight minutes away in the van, the village has no bars and winds down by 22:00 on its own, and the women-only dorm there is the larger of the two, with six beds. For the points on foot and a livelier evening, our Taghazout hostel: Panorama five minutes away, Hash Point ten, cafés on the slipway until 23:00, and the four-bed women-only dorm. The two are fifteen minutes apart, the hostel van runs between them, and a stay can be split, at least 2 nights in each.
Booking: Solo, any week
On the booking page you choose the hostel, then Solo, then your level, then any arrival and departure dates from 3 to 28 nights; there are no fixed start days. In the notes field, write that you want the women-only dorm. You pay a 15% deposit by card through Stripe and the rest in cash on arrival, in euros or dirhams; the written confirmation comes by email within minutes, with the hostel address and the airport pick-up plan, and a driver from the hostel meets your flight at Agadir Al Massira. Cancel more than 14 days before arrival and everything comes back in full, and one date change is free up to 3 days before arrival. Coming with a friend? Two Together gives the two of you a private room of your own at €20 per room per night, or you both take beds in the women-only dorm on a Group booking.
The price, against a fixed-date retreat
A women's surf retreat usually sells one week, on its own dates, with a theme, a group that arrives together and a price for the whole week. We sell something plainer: a stay of any length from 3 nights, in any week of the year, at one per-person price that follows the level and the hostel and includes the bed, the daily surf trips with coaching, board and wetsuit, breakfast, lunch and dinner, daily yoga and the airport transfer both ways. As a beginner that is €150 for 3 nights and €350 for 7 in Tamraght, €180 and €420 in Taghazout; intermediates pay €180 and €420 in Tamraght, €210 and €490 in Taghazout. There are no seasonal supplements, so a week in the Christmas fortnight costs the same as a week in May. What you give up is the programme built around a group; what you keep is the choice of week, the choice of village and the company of whoever else is at the table that night. The few things outside those figures, the flights, the insurance and the Imsouane day, are listed beside them in what a surf camp in Morocco costs. When you have your dates, book the Tamraght hostel as Solo and ask for the dorm.
