Last November, I spent a few weeks in Morocco. First, I took a one-week vacation to attend the MINOMA festival. Afterwards, I did a two-week workation, mostly staying in a pleasant fishing village on the coast called Taghazout. This was my second time in Taghazout, having stayed at a couple of other colivings/hostels previously, including MINOMA’s pop-up coliving that they did in the mountains. However, this time, I managed to get a space for the first time, staying in the highly popular SunDesk coliving space, which I’d heard a lot of great things about. They are recommended by the fabulous Sun and Co coliving space, so I knew they must be worth checking out. Autumn is high season, when you’ll struggle to get a space if you book too last minute, since it’s a lot of sun-chasing European workationers coming to escape the lowering temperatures of their home countries. I personally booked almost a year in advance when I knew there was a chance I’d be back in Taghazout. I stayed for two weeks at SunDesk and I really enjoyed it! I had so much fun that I forgot to post about it at the time, haha! So here is my review!
SunDesk consists of a main building that houses most of the community’s bedrooms, as well as the coworking space, kitchen and common areas. In addition, there is a secondary building a couple of minutes away that has some extra bedrooms, bathrooms and its own kitchen. I’m aware that SunDesk also has luxury apartments right on the beach, though I never went there to be able to comment on them. My bedroom was in this second building on the rooftop (the house is three floors in total), which meant opening the door to fresh air and lovely views! My room was fairly small but cosy, comfortable, and secure. My only small disappointment was that there was no desk or a proper bedside table. I worked my way around the desk thing by just using the storage unit as a standing desk, which happened to be the perfect size for it! Plus, right outside of my bedroom, I could also just go and sit on the couch by the small table to do some work there.
There are plenty of good workspaces in both buildings and strong, reliable Wi-Fi that never interrupted my work. Even though I was sleeping in the secondary building, my housemates and I in there still had access to enter the main building as and when we pleased, since that’s where all the main activities took place. The coworking space there is lovely, well-equipped and has stunning views of the village and coastline.
I love the location of SunDesk coliving, which is within a short walking distance of the beach and close to many restaurants and amenities in Taghazout, itself a very small and walkable village. The windows and rooftops of both buildings offer such beautiful views of the village and coastline!
I was intrigued by the way that SunDesk runs its community. They don’t do weekly co-creation community meetings like Sun and Co and Chateau do. What anchors the community is that the hosts schedule regular mealtimes, which make a great opportunity to meet everyone, chat, and organically plan what we’re doing for the week. They put on a free breakfast every weekday in the top-floor mezzanine, where everyone sits on the floor around low tables, proper Moroccan style. The buffet breakfast is cooked by the lovely in-house cooks, offering a variety of options such as breads, spreads, pancakes, fruits, muesli, eggs, yoghurts, juices, teas and coffees. In addition, there was also an optional lunch available, which cost around the low price of around €3, which made it a no-brainer for me to take up. It was always a specific meal, and the hosts would always let us know beforehand in the coliving WhatsApp group what it was, to help us decide if we’d like to opt in for it or not. Lunch options I had included soup and msemmen (Moroccan crepes), rfissa (msemmen with lentils and meat – loved this!), tagine (a typical must-have meal in Morocco), gratin, and couscous (another Moroccan standard food). And on top of this, the coliving hosts also put on a weekly paid BBQ for one of the dinners, which had a great turnout when I was there. The meals were all very delicious, and what a convenient service to have to save time from cooking as often.
I liked having the owner, Magda, and her hosts, Manale and Nadia, around physically every day – it gave a personal touch and made it easy to ask if I needed anything. They were always super helpful and friendly and provided an all-round brilliant service! Not to mention, they’ve fostered a great community of colivers here, many of whom are returners, that I’ve had the pleasure to get to know and hang out with regularly. Outside of the mealtimes, the activities I joined that were put on by fellow colivers were meals at local restaurants, as well as playing card games and watching a movie together. And some people did yoga sessions and surfed together (Taghazout is a very popular place for surfers). Skillshares and masterminds didn’t seem to be as much of a thing here as they are at other colivings – SunDesk is a bit more casual that way. However, there’s nothing stopping you from offering something and putting it in the WhatsApp group if you want. There’s also a board in the main coliving house with polaroid photos of each current member, their name and a bit about them and what they can offer to the community.
I’m glad to say that SunDesk really does live up to the hype. Awesome coliving you’ve created, Magda! It was the perfect base from which to stay in Taghazout and explore this wonderful area. If I return to Taghazout, this is the only place I would want to stay. I hope to be back soon!
