Fleeing the Swedish Winter, Hello Agadir! | Morocco 2025 (1/8)
When we woke up early on a Saturday morning in Sweden, we were not only greeted by the start of the February school break. We were also greeted by a temperature of eleven degrees below freezing. But we had not planned to stay in Sweden and freeze during the coming week. No, instead we had our flight to Morocco this morning. It was time for us to look forward to a week in the coastal city of Agadir. It was time to head towards Northern Africa and the Sahara Desert for sunshine.
Our Booking
We started looking for trips for this school break in December of 2024. School attendance is mandatory in Sweden. As a result, we must travel during school breaks if we want to travel as a family. This usually means that travel costs increase significantly and places such as the Canary Islands were just not possible within our set budget. We had a look at package deals from companies like TUI, Apollo, and Ving. They inspired us to look closer at northern Africa. All three had quite good deals for a week in Morocco, either to Agadir or Marrakesh.
After finding a good package deal I dissected it. I found the same flight directly with Scandinavian Airlines and the same hotel at Hotels.com instead. This cut the cost by approximately 600 Euros. The flight from Stockholm to Agadir and back eventually ended up at 7.800 SEK (ca 700 EUR) while the all-inclusive hotel Valeria Jardin d’Agadir cost us 12.000 SEK (ca 1100 EUR). That is the total cost for two adults and a 7-year-old for a one-week vacation. We did opt for a cheaper hotel, because we wanted to feel OK for leaving it once in a while during our stay. We do love our excursions when traveling.
Scandinavian Airlines to Agadir-Al Massira Airport
Back to that cold morning in February of 2025. We woke up really early as our flight was at 09:10 am, and we usually have a 70-minute drive from Vagnhärad to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. We have to drive through Stockholm, so it is impossible to tell how long the journey will be. Road works or accidents can significantly increase the time. That meant that we left home already at 04:30 and drove north towards Stockholm,
Pre-paid parking at Arlanda Terminal 2 meant easy access to the airport, but a 15-minute walk to Terminal 5. We were soon sitting at McDonald’s having a not-so-healthy breakfast. Well, we had the time and needed food before our 5-hour flight.
The flight itself was very uneventful. We slept, we ate, and Little A played some games on her Nintendo Switch. Well, I believe that I slept even before take-off and didn’t wake up before our meal was served. A little bit more than 5 hours later we could see Morocco out the aircraft window.
Hello Morocco!
Entering Morocco with our Swedish passports was hassle-free. We were soon waiting for our bag and leaving the airport. As we were still dressed for the Swedish temperatures we had in the morning it was quite sweaty when the sun hit us with temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius. Let’s just say, we were melting as we purchased our bus tickets and found a bus towards Agadir and our hotel.
Yes, we decided to go with the bus upon our arrival instead of the usual taxi. It had two benefits, it was a little bit cheaper and we could buy our tickets at the airport and figure out the local currency Dirham at the hotel instead. With the knowledge after a few days that it is really easy to use Euros as well, yes we would probably have chosen a taxi instead. But it was still convenient with the bus as it stopped right outside of our hotel.
We had also equipped ourselves with an e-sim for data to check messages, the map, and other information during our visit to Morocco. This made it much easier when exploring, as it was possible to access information on the go. This also made us feel a lot more safe when traveling by the bus from the airport. We could in real time see the distance to the hotel.
A Windy First Evening in Agadir
It was quite windy and cloudy when we arrived at the hotel. The check-in process took quite some time, but we were eventually in our room and discussing the options for the evening. It was by now already 16:00 in the afternoon and we had a small snack in the restaurant before heading out to have a look at the long waterfront promenade of Agadir. It was only a short walk, as Little A was still quite tired after the long flight. But it was nice to get a feeling of the sea breeze as we looked out over the Atlantic Ocean.
The dinner buffet was served at 19:30 in the evening, quite late for us as we usually eat dinner a lot earlier. As we were tired, the late dinner resulted in us heading back to our room to call it the night right after finishing the desert. The rest of the adventure had to wait until Sunday morning.
Join Us as we Explore Morocco, read more here: Morocco 2025
