Agadir is Morocco's principal beach resort, a planned city rebuilt from scratch after a catastrophic earthquake in 1960 killed around 15,000 people and flattened the old town in seconds. The result is a city of wide boulevards, concrete hotels, and almost no traditional architecture — which is precisely what distinguishes it from everywhere else in Morocco. If you come expecting a medina, you will be disappointed. If you come for the beach, you will not be.
The beach is 9 km of clean, gently shelving sand along a sheltered Atlantic bay, with reliable surf and a climate mild enough for swimming from April through October. The resort strip along Boulevard du 20 Août is dense with all-inclusive hotels catering mainly to north Europeans, particularly Germans and Scandinavians. The city fills up in winter as well as summer, which says something about the weather: Agadir has over 300 sunny days per year and rarely sees frost.
Away from the beach boulevard, the city has a more ordinary Moroccan character. The Talborjt neighbourhood, the original settlement area after the earthquake, has cheap cafes, simple restaurants, and a less touristic atmosphere. The Souq El Had is one of the largest walled markets in Africa — 13 hectares, over 6,000 stalls — where locals actually shop. On a hill north of the city, the ruined Kasbah offers the best panoramic view of the bay and the coastline stretching south. The Museum of Amazigh Culture provides an excellent introduction to the Berber culture of the surrounding region.
Agadir's greatest practical virtue is accessibility. It receives more direct European flights than almost any other Moroccan city, and it sits within easy reach of some genuinely rewarding places: the ancient walled city of Taroudannt, the limestone gorges and pools of Paradise Valley, the flamingo lagoons at Massa, and the windswept port city of Essaouira further north. As a base for exploring southern Morocco, Agadir is more useful than it is beautiful.