Saidia
A Long Mediterranean Sand Beach, Commonly Described As Around 14 Km, With A Purpose Built Marina Resort Behind It; The Main Summer Resort Of Eastern Morocco And Almost Entirely A Domestic One · Saidia, Oriental
Saidia is eastern Morocco's beach: a long flat run of Mediterranean sand, commonly described as around 14 km, between the mouth of the Moulouya river and the Algerian frontier, with the warmest sea in the country and a purpose-built marina resort standing behind it. For two months a year it is one of the busiest holiday towns in Morocco, filled with families from Oujda and Berkane and with Moroccan households driving down from Europe for the summer; for the other ten it is close to empty, the marina quiet and much of the beachfront shuttered. Both versions are worth knowing about before you travel six hours to get here. The best thing for a traveller rather than a sunbather sits next door: the Moulouya estuary, a protected wetland of lagoons, dunes and reedbed with genuinely good birdlife. Honest caveats: this is a domestic resort and almost nothing is aimed at a foreign visitor, the resort scheme behind the beach has had a difficult history, and Saidia is a very long way from anything else in Morocco.
Mediterranean beach and marina resort at the mouth of the Moulouya on the Algerian border, about 60 km north of Oujda, Saidia, Oriental, Morocco
The beach, the eucalyptus woods behind it, the marina promenade and the tracks out along the Moulouya flats are open at all hours and cost nothing. What has hours is the resort, and it has them for two months: through July and August the beachfront concessions, the marina restaurants and the summer cafes run from morning until very late, and from about late September much of that shuts for the year, leaving the ordinary cafes, grocers and grills of the old town working normal daytime hours. If you come outside the season, confirm your accommodation is actually open before you set out. Getting there: the practical route is a flight to Oujda, about an hour south, then a grand taxi six to a car at a fixed rate per seat, or a hire car from the airport, which is much the better plan for the estuary and the hills. ONCF trains and CTM and Supratours coaches reach Oujda rather than Saidia - confirm timetables. Rooms must be booked weeks ahead for August and hardly at all for the rest of the year.