Marrakech or Agadir for a Golf Holiday?

Marrakech and Agadir are Morocco’s two golf capitals, and most first-time visitors have to choose between them. The short answer: Marrakech for the golf variety and the city, Agadir for the weather and the coast.

Both are excellent. Both have championship courses, direct flights from most of Europe and hotels at every level. What follows is the honest comparison we give our own guests on the phone — including the months when one is clearly the better choice.

Marrakech vs Agadir at a glance

	Marrakech	Agadir
Courses within reach	~10 within 30 min	5 within 40 min
Course character	Desert, parkland, resort	Coastal, links-influenced, resort
Winter high	18–20°C	21°C
Summer high	38–40°C	26–28°C
Atmosphere	Historic city, souks, restaurants	Beach resort, promenade, relaxed
Non-golf days	Medina, Atlas day trips, desert	Beach, surf, Paradise Valley, Essaouira
Golf passes from	€280 (3 rounds, Bronze)	€280 (3 rounds)
Best months	October–May	All year

Which city has the better golf courses?

Marrakech, on variety. Around ten courses sit within half an hour of the centre, and they play very differently from one another: the desert-style strategy of Assoufid, the water and sculpture of Kyle Phillips’s Al Maaden, Cabell Robinson’s classic Amelkis, the Nicklaus-designed width of Samanah, the manicured Fairmont Royal Palm and the century-old Royal Golf Marrakech. You can play five rounds in five days without repeating a style of golf.

Agadir, on setting. Five courses, and one of them — Tazegzout, a Kyle Phillips design on the cliffs above Taghazout Bay — is the most spectacular round in the country. Soleil offers 36 holes across two contrasting courses, Ocean plays through eucalyptus and argan, and Dunes gives you three interchangeable nines. Everything is flatter, greener and more forgiving than Marrakech, and there is almost always a breeze.

Our ranking of the 12 best golf courses in Morocco covers each of them in detail.

Which has better weather?

Agadir, if you want consistency. It sits on the Atlantic, and the ocean holds it between 21°C and 28°C in every month of the year. Marrakech is inland at the foot of the Atlas, and swings much harder: idyllic from October to May, then 38–40°C through July and August, when the only sensible tee time is the first one.

That gives you a simple rule:

• June to September: Agadir.
• October to May: either, with Marrakech the more interesting of the two.
• December and January: Agadir is the warmer bet by two or three degrees, which matters at 8am.

Our month-by-month guide to golf in Morocco has the full picture.

Which is better off the course?

This is usually what decides it.

Marrakech is a thousand-year-old imperial city. After your round you can be in the Jemaa el-Fna square in twenty minutes, eating in Guéliz, buying rugs in the souks, or heading to the Atlas Mountains for the day. Non-golfing partners are never short of something to do, and the restaurant scene is the best in Morocco.

Agadir was rebuilt after the 1960 earthquake and is a modern beach resort: a long sandy bay, a promenade, seafood restaurants, and a calm, low-key pace. It is not a cultural destination — for that you take a day trip to Essaouira or Taroudant — but it is far more relaxing, and the beach is genuinely good.

For hotels, Marrakech offers the widest spread, from medina riads to golf estates — see where to stay for golf in Marrakech. In Agadir, most golfers stay along the bay or up at Taghazout: the Tikida Golf Palace, the Sofitel Agadir Thalassa Sea & Spa or the Hyatt Regency Taghazout Bay for the closest access to Tazegzout.

Which is better for non-golfers?

Marrakech, comfortably — and this is the factor that decides more trips than the golf itself.

A non-golfing partner in Marrakech has a walled medina full of souks, the Jardin Majorelle and the Yves Saint Laurent museum, hammams and spas on every street in Hivernage, cookery classes, and day trips into the Atlas Mountains or out to Essaouira. There is enough for a full week without repeating anything.

In Agadir the answer is the beach, and it is a very good beach: six kilometres of sand, a safe promenade, thalassotherapy spas along the bay, and surf schools up at Taghazout. Beyond that, the excursions are day trips — Paradise Valley, Taroudant, Essaouira — rather than things on the doorstep. If your partner wants to be busy, choose Marrakech. If they want to read a book by the sea while you play, choose Agadir.

Our excursions and leisure tours cover the non-golf days in both cities.

What about Rabat as a third option?

Worth knowing about, even if it rarely wins outright. Rabat is Morocco’s capital, and Royal Golf Dar Es Salam — the Robert Trent Jones Sr. course that has hosted the Hassan II Trophy since 1971 — is the finest championship test in the country.

What Rabat lacks is depth: one great course and a handful of others, rather than the ten-course rotation of Marrakech. Most of our guests treat it as a two-night add-on rather than a base, often combined with El Jadida and the Gary Player links at Mazagan an hour down the coast. See the Rabat destination guide for how that itinerary looks.

Which is better value?

They are closer than you would expect. Agadir passes run €280 for three rounds, €355 for four and €449 for five. In Marrakech, the entry-level Bronze tier starts at €280 for three rounds, and the Platinum tier — Fairmont Royal Palm, Assoufid, Al Maaden or Akenza, Samanah, Royal Golf Marrakech — runs to €575 for five.

Hotels are where the difference shows: Agadir’s beach resorts, many of them all-inclusive, tend to undercut equivalent Marrakech properties, particularly in summer. Compare both on the golf passes page.

Getting there

Both have international airports with direct European flights. Marrakech Menara (RAK) is around 15 minutes from the city centre and is the busier of the two, with more routes and more frequency. Agadir Al Massira (AGA) is roughly 30 minutes from the bay and 45 from Taghazout, with fewer routes but generally quieter arrivals.

Between the two: 250 km, about three hours on the A7 motorway.

Or do both

The A7 is the reason a growing number of our guests stop choosing. A seven-night, two-centre trip works cleanly:

1. Three nights in Marrakech — Assoufid, Al Maaden and Royal Golf Marrakech.
2. Transfer day down the A7, with an optional stop in Essaouira for lunch and the Mogador course.
3. Three nights in Agadir — Tazegzout, Soleil and Ocean, finishing on the coast.

You get the desert and the ocean, the imperial city and the beach, in one week. See our multi-centre golf tours for how we normally structure it.

The verdict

Pick Marrakech if you want the strongest course rotation in Morocco and a city with real depth to it. Pick Agadir if you are travelling in summer, want the sea within sight of the fairway, or simply want a quieter week. Pick both if you have seven nights and want the trip you will still be describing next season.

Tell us your dates and handicaps and we will send a costed itinerary for whichever direction you lean.