Morocco
Sidi Ifni
Art Deco facades crumbling into Atlantic spray on a former Spanish colonial outpost.
The Art Deco facades are peeling, the Spanish street signs are fading, and the Atlantic pounds the cliffs below with a constancy that feels personal. Sidi Ifni was Spain's last colonial outpost in Morocco, handed back in 1969, and the town wears its abandonment with a kind of dignified melancholy. Fog rolls in most mornings. Fishermen work the rocks. The old airstrip is a football pitch. There is nowhere to rush to, and nothing trying to sell you anything.
Sidi Ifni was a Spanish enclave from 1934 to 1969, and its Art Deco architecture — a former consulate, a cinema, a church — reflects that colonial period. The town sits on cliffs above the Atlantic at the northern edge of the Anti-Atlas, roughly 170 kilometres south of Agadir. The fishing harbour, reached by steep steps cut into the cliff, operates a mechanical basket system to haul catches up to the town. Sunday's souk draws traders from surrounding villages. The town sees relatively few tourists, preserving an atmosphere of faded grandeur and unhurried Atlantic life. The climate is heavily influenced by the Canary Current, producing frequent fog and mild temperatures year-round.
Solo
The faded colonial architecture, empty beaches, and absence of tourist infrastructure create a solitude that feels chosen rather than imposed. A place for reading, walking, and thinking.
Couple
The melancholy beauty of a forgotten seaside town — sunset walks on empty clifftops, fish dinners above the harbour, and the romance of a place that time half-forgot.
- Art Deco buildings from the Spanish colonial era line the main avenue, faded but intact.
- The old Spanish port, connected to the cliffs by a now-disused cable car, rusts photogenically above the sea.
- A Sunday souk fills the streets with Berber traders from the surrounding Anti-Atlas.
- Atlantic swells break against the cliffs below town — visible from every seafront café.
Freshly caught sea bream grilled on charcoal at the old port, eaten with harissa and bread.
Spanish-influenced seafood paella at clifftop restaurants overlooking the Atlantic.
Staithes
England
Salt-blasted cottages crammed into a ravine so tight the sea is the only way out.
Ithaca
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Folegandros
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Astypalaia
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A butterfly-shaped island pinched at the waist where two wings of land barely hold together.
Massa
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Aït Bouguemez Valley
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The Happy Valley — terraced barley fields and mud-brick villages sealed by winter snow.
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A palm oasis sheltering crumbling kasbahs where storks nest and date palms outnumber people.