The Jungle Beach Club: the prettiest café in Anza, Agadir

I'm writing this post sitting on the terrace at The Jungle Beach Club, in Anza, a little coastal village just north of Agadir, with a cappuccino in front of me, the sound of the waves in the background and Gabor out in the water having his surf lesson.

I'll tell you how to get there, what the food is like, what it costs, and a secret this beach keeps that almost nobody knows about.

Fancy trying surfing in Anza? It's one of the best beaches in Morocco to learn on.

Surf lessons in Agadir

Where is The Jungle Beach Club?

It's in Anza, an old fishing quarter about 10–15 minutes by car from the centre of Agadir. It's also only about 15 minutes from Taghazout, one of Morocco's best-known surf destinations. Anza shares that surfy atmosphere that made Taghazout famous, but it has held on to something far more authentic: fewer tourists, more local life and a much slower pace.

The Jungle Beach Surf & Yoga Club is a café, a restaurant, a surf school and a yoga school, all of it right on the seafront.

The practical bits:

• Address: Projet Social, 9 BIS, Anza, Agadir 80000.
• Bookings: by WhatsApp, on +212 639 23 97 64. Worth booking if you are a group or coming to eat.
• Website: thejunglebeachclub.com (the full menu is there).
• Instagram: @thejunglecafe.anza
• There is another Jungle in Ahangama, Sri Lanka, with the same concept.

Getting there: a taxi from Agadir is a short, cheap ride (agree the fare with the driver before you get in).

We are staying at The Riad by Blue Waves, in Anza, and we have surf and yoga lessons booked for our stay. Every morning they pick us up at the riad and bring us down to The Jungle Beach Club, and we spend the morning here between the surfing and the yoga. Some days we have walked back to the riad instead, which is lovely, and takes about 25 minutes along the front.

I love this place for getting the laptop out, ordering a good coffee and writing articles for this blog. The views are incredible.

A place that could have been lifted straight out of Ibiza

The first thing that catches your eye at The Jungle Beach Club is the decor. It is all lovely, and beautifully put together. Wood, natural fibres, plants, sand tones and linen textiles everywhere. There are corners piled with cushions, and lots of small touches that give the place real personality and make it feel welcoming without being over the top.

There is a big outdoor terrace looking straight out to sea, perfect for breakfast or a drink after a surf, and a very pleasant indoor area for windy days (which here is most afternoons) or if you would rather work in the shade.

Anza beach

Anza beach is right in front of the place, and it is well known among surfers. All morning you see people coming and going with boards, surf schools out teaching, and travellers who have come looking for the laid-back feel and good vibes you find in this part of Morocco.

This beach also hides something almost nobody knows about: there are fossilised dinosaur footprints in the rocks. You can only see them at low tide, so check the tide tables and go for a wander out across the reef.

Surf and yoga

The Jungle is not only a café, it is also a surf school and it runs yoga classes. And it has one of the best beaches in Morocco to learn on right in front of it, with waves all year round. If you are a beginner, always go with a school: there are reef sections and the currents can be strong.

Book your surf lesson or day trip in Agadir here, with local instructors and all the kit included.

What can you eat at The Jungle Beach Club?

Although plenty of people come purely for the coffee, the menu is fairly wide and the whole philosophy is a healthy one. You will find breakfasts, bowls, tacos, burgers, salads, hummus, pastilla, smoothies, speciality coffee and several vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

And it is not just a pretty menu, because on their website they set out the principles behind it:

• Local produce, from farms and suppliers in the area.
• No single-use plastics.
• Nothing deep-fried, and no drowning things in oil.
• Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options.

We came for breakfast and thought the coffee was genuinely good, which in Morocco is not always easy to find.

Is it expensive?

Yes, it is expensive by normal Moroccan standards. To give you an idea, a few metres away is Café Sliman, where a full breakfast costs 32 MAD (~€3) and comes with amlou, butter, honey, olive oil, an omelette and a drink.

In fact, I said as much to Gabor: I felt awful about coming all the way to Morocco and ending up somewhere this touristy, paying what I would pay in Spain for a coffee and surrounded by Europeans.

But you also have to understand what you are paying for. It is not just a coffee, it is the setting, the views, the atmosphere, the music, the decor, the quality of the produce and that feeling of being in the coolest spot in Anza.

If you are a digital nomad

This is a great place to work from. There is wifi, plug sockets in some areas, big tables, and nobody gives you a funny look for staying a good while as long as you keep ordering.

Practical tips before you go

• Book by WhatsApp if you are coming to eat, at the weekend, or as a group
• Bring cash. Card payments only start at 100 MAD (~€10).
• Check the opening hours on their Instagram before you go, as they can change in low season.

Would I recommend it?

I loved this place, and I have spent hours here. The atmosphere is relaxed, everyone seems to arrive without any rush, there are surfers coming in and out of the water, soft music, people working on laptops, very Instagrammable breakfasts. It is one of those places where it is very easy to feel at home.

But there was also a moment when I looked around and said to Gabor: this does not feel like Morocco.

And I do not mean that as a criticism of The Jungle, quite the opposite. The concept is beautifully done and I completely understand why it has become so popular. It is just that when I travel, I am looking for places that feel more authentic.

I like sitting on a terrace where there are barely any tourists, ordering something without quite knowing what the menu says, hearing conversations in another language, tasting flavours I could not find anywhere else. I like feeling that I am actually in the place I travelled to. Here, that feeling fades a little.

It could be Ibiza or Bali, and the prices are closer to a European beach club than to Morocco.

That does not mean it is not worth coming, because The Jungle really is a fabulous café. I just think it would be a shame to travel all the way to Morocco and only see places like this one.

My advice is to do both. Go to The Jungle one morning, enjoy the breakfast, the coffee and the views, and then head out and discover the other Agadir. Walk into a café where the only people in there are locals, try a home-cooked tagine, or just get lost in the streets and let the place surprise you. That is exactly how I found Café Sliman, a café in Anza I ended up going to every single day, and which I will tell you about in another post very soon.