Legzira Beach: A Gentle Guide to Morocco's Red Arch

Some beaches ask you to walk them end to end. Legzira asks something easier: sit down, and let the sea do the moving.

This wide ribbon of sand lies on Morocco's Atlantic coast, roughly 10 km north of the little town of Sidi Ifni, in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region. Behind it rise cliffs of deep red sandstone; ahead, the ocean pulls back twice a day to uncover flat, mirror-bright sand. When the light turns gold in the late afternoon, the whole cliff face glows like embers.

Legzira is famous, and rightly so. But most visitors arrive in a hurry, take their photograph and leave. Our gentle angle is the opposite: come for half a day, time your visit to low tide, take one slow stroll, and spend the rest of it in a chair with mint tea and the sound of the Atlantic. It is one of the few celebrated sights in Morocco that rewards doing very little.

A little history

For centuries this stretch of coast was known mainly to fishermen and to the Ait Baamrane, the Amazigh (Berber) people of the surrounding hills. The nearest town, Sidi Ifni, has a stranger story: it was a Spanish enclave, occupied in earnest from 1934, declared a Spanish province in 1958, and handed back to Morocco in 1969. That is why the town still wears white Art Deco buildings, rounded balconies and a faintly Iberian air, unlike anywhere else in the country.

Legzira itself became internationally known for two enormous natural arches, carved out of the cliffs by thousands of years of Atlantic waves. In September 2016, after cracks had appeared earlier that year, the more slender of the two collapsed into rubble. News of it travelled around the world.

It is worth knowing this before you go, because a little sadness still hangs over the place in travel articles. In truth, the beach has lost none of its drama. A second, sturdier arch still stands, and the fallen one has left a scatter of red boulders that the sea now polishes. Legzira is simply a landscape still being made.

Legzira Beach once had two natural sandstone arches; one of them collapsed in September 2016.

What to see

The standing arch

The surviving arch is the reason most people come: a thick span of red sandstone with the ocean running beneath it, tall enough to walk through comfortably. Reaching it means a level walk along the sand from the main cluster of guesthouses, and it is only passable when the tide is out. Check a tide table for Sidi Ifni before you set off, or simply ask at your hotel, as the staff know the day's tides by heart.

The cliffs and the fallen arch

Even if you never reach the arch, the cliffs themselves are the show. They shift from rust to rose to near-purple as the sun moves, and the sea has sculpted their bases into smooth, flowing curves. The rubble of the collapsed arch lies part-way along the beach and is oddly moving to see up close.

The low-tide mirror

At low water the sand flattens into a shallow film that reflects the cliffs perfectly. This is the photograph everybody wants, and it requires no climbing at all, only patience and dry feet.

The sunset

Legzira faces west. On clear evenings the whole amphitheatre of rock catches the last light. Many visitors watch it from a terrace table rather than the sand, which is by far the more comfortable option.

Legzira beach, with its red cliffs meeting the Atlantic.

A day trip nearby

Two genuine outings sit within easy reach, and both make good half-days.

Sidi Ifni, about 10 km south, is the obvious one: a fifteen-minute drive. Come for the white-and-blue Art Deco streets around the old Spanish square, the fishing port and the promenade above the sea. It is a flat, walkable town by Moroccan standards and pleasantly free of hard selling.

Mirleft, roughly 10–15 km north, is a smaller, slower village with a laid-back main street and a string of coves below it. It suits a leisurely lunch more than a full day.

Further afield, Tiznit lies around 60–70 km north, about an hour's drive, and is known for its silver jewellery souk and encircling ramparts. That one is better as a stop on the way to or from Agadir than as a return trip in a single day.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• The descent is the main obstacle. The road ends at a car park on the clifftop, and a steep stairway leads down to the beach and its guesthouses. If stairs are difficult, ask your driver about the vehicle track that slopes down towards the beachside accommodation; some hotels arrange to bring guests and luggage down. Arrange this in advance rather than on arrival.
• Sleeping at beach level removes the problem entirely. Staying in one of the small guesthouses on the sand means you step straight out onto the beach, with no climb at all.
• Let the tide decide your timing. At high water the sea reaches the cliffs in places and the walk to the arch is cut off. Going at low tide turns a scramble into a flat stroll.
• The sand is soft and uneven. Walking sticks sink; flat, closed shoes with grip are better than sandals, especially near wet rock, which is slippery.
• The Atlantic here is cold and the currents are strong, with no lifeguard service. Paddling at the edge is the sensible limit.
• Mornings are often foggy, a well-known feature of this coast. Afternoons are usually clearer and warmer, so plan the walk for after lunch.
• Bring what you need. There are cafés and small hotels at the beach, but no pharmacy, no bank and patchy phone signal. Sidi Ifni has ATMs and pharmacies.
• Shade is scarce. A hat, sunglasses and water matter even on cool, breezy days, because the sea wind hides the strength of the sun.

Legzira beach near Sidi Ifni, Morocco.

What to eat

This is fishing country, and the menus are refreshingly simple. Expect grilled fish of whatever came in that morning, often served with bread, salad and a wedge of lemon. Sardines are a local staple and are usually grilled over charcoal; they are cheap, plentiful and very good.

You will also find seafood tagines, calamari, prawns and sometimes a rice dish that owes a little to the Spanish years in Sidi Ifni. Inland Amazigh cooking appears too: vegetable tagines, harira soup, and bread served with argan oil and amlou, the sweet almond-and-argan paste made in this part of Morocco.

The drink of the day is mint tea, poured from a height and sweeter than you expect. Ask for it light on sugar if you prefer. Portions at beach restaurants tend to be generous and service is unhurried, so allow well over an hour for lunch and treat it as part of the afternoon rather than an interruption to it.

Where to base yourself

You have three sensible choices, and they suit different travellers.

On the beach at Legzira is the most atmospheric and the least physically demanding once you are there: you wake to the sound of surf and need no stairs to reach the sand. Accommodation is simple guesthouse standard rather than luxurious, and quiet after dark.

Sidi Ifni, about 10 km away, offers more hotels, restaurants, pharmacies and banks, plus the pleasure of the town itself. It is our usual recommendation for a stay of several nights, with a taxi out to Legzira for the afternoon.

Mirleft is the middle option, small and relaxed, a short drive north.

Agadir, some 150–160 km north, works only as a day-trip base, and that means four or more hours in a car. If your knees and back prefer shorter journeys, sleep closer.

The coastline at Legzira, Morocco.

Getting there

Legzira beach near Sidi Ifni.

Our verdict

Legzira is one of those rare famous places that has become gentler, not harsher, with fame. There are no ticket queues, no touts, no timed entry. There is a car park, a staircase, a handful of low buildings on the sand, and then a kilometre of red cliffs doing what they have done for millennia.

For travellers over 60, the honest calculation is this: the beach is flat and easy once you are on it, but getting down to it is not, and the one arch worth walking to is only reachable at low tide. Solve both by sleeping at beach level, or by arriving mid-afternoon on a falling tide with a driver who will wait.

Do that, and you get a very good afternoon indeed — a slow walk out to the arch, a plate of grilled sardines, and a cliff face that turns from rust to fire as the sun goes down. We would go again tomorrow, and we would not hurry.

The surviving natural arch at Legzira.

“At Legzira the cliffs keep the colour of evening all day, and the sea decides when you may walk.”

Photo credits

• MA.GN.Sidi Ifni Legzira Beach 2018-08-13 739 16x9+R 8192x4608: NOTE: This image is a panorama consisting of multiple frames that were merged or, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• MA.GN.Sidi-Ifni Legzira-Beach Stone-Arch 756 16x9-R 5120x2880: Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The unforgettable Legzira beach - panoramio: Angela Stefanoni, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• MA.GN.Sidi-Ifni 2018-08-13 Legzira Beach 682: Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Legzira, Morocco - panoramio 2: karel291, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Legzira beach2: Walter Rodriguez, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Arch legzira - panoramio: angelius1979, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons