Simply Unwind at Oued Laou
Morocco is increasingly becoming a destination of choice for holiday-makers and adventure-seekers. This fascinating country has so much to offer, including the hustle and bustle of bigger cities, the exquisite serene beauty of the Sahara desert and the friendly atmosphere of smaller towns. There are also the charming remote villages, such as Oued Laou, which are only just starting to be discovered by visitors to Morocco.
Oued Laou is a fishing village on the Mediterranean Coast with just over 8,000 permanent inhabitants. The town is named after the Oued Laou River, which travels to the ocean from its source up in the Rif Mountains near the city of Chefchaouen. The drive to Oued Laou, either from Tetouan or Chefchaouen, takes travelers through some of the most dramatic landscape in Morocco’s least populated areas north of the Saharan regions.
One of the more popular features of Oued Laou is the lovely beach. Scattered with small fishing craft, this long stretch of sand, which goes on for kilometers, is a pleasure to walk along with the warm Mediterranean Ocean lapping the shore. Even when the town gets busier with holiday makers in the summer, because the beach is so vast, sun-lovers can always find a stretch of beach to enjoy away from the crowd.
Anyone looking for some company will not have to look far. The stretch in front of the town is always filled with Moroccans enjoying one another’s company. The people in Oued Laou are friendly and readily welcome visitors to join them as they enjoy a cup of coffee together. What better way could there be to experience the Moroccan way of life than directly from the locals?
There are two small hotels in Oued Laou, offering clean rooms and friendly service as well as restaurants with traditional foods and seafood specials on the menu. The campsite just outside the town is popular among Moroccan holiday-makers in the summertime and is a good way to make contact with Moroccan families. Oued Laou has no organized night-life, but in the summertime people generally stay up late, socializing in the coffee shops or down on the beach.
A visit to Oued Laou offers a taste of the quieter side of life in Morocco, where tourists can slow down and just enjoy being in this fascinating North African country.
