Surfing options (NOT UK)

[funkygibbon71]

Thinking of taking the family for surfing holiday, somewhere outside of the UK.

Options seem to be Morocco, Portuguese Atlantic, Canary Islands and SW France.

Does anyone have recommendations? We're all beginners (2 DS and me); a resort that isn't too Club 18-30 would also be preferable.

Cheers!

biarritz, we saw lot of people surfing, there was also a surf school on the beach

Try Googling Western Australia , especially Margaret River. Lovely place to be.

A lot of the surfers I know go to Portugal, but they're all surf instructors etc - you don't necessarily want to learn in a place with big surf!!

When I looked for us I came up with
Atlantic Coast in Portugal
Biarritz
Morocco
& one of the Canaries (sorry, can't remember which)

Biarritz is a nice, family resort but I don't specifically know what the surfing scene is like there. Anglet is a smaller resort a little further down the coast which always used to have a good rep for surfing.

Other than that, I'm trying to remember the name of a resort in Portugal, in the Algarve, that friends have enjoyed - begins with C or S!

I'm not a surfer but Essaoiura (sp?) in Morrroco was absolutely awesome when I camped there 15 years ago!! (Possibly not that helpful!!)

And Cap Ferrat in France (not far from Bordeaux) is really beautiful and has lots of other things to do nearby as well.

Essaouira is lovely, I agree. Lots of good cheap food, good cheap accommodation but quite a different holiday to a Portuguese family-style resort or similar - now old are your kids, OP?

we have been to biarritz - villages south of the city such as bidart and guethary are very pretty if a city isnt your thing. I have also been looking for the same thing and portugal (peniche, sagres) and spain's costa da luz (conil de la frontera) are possibilities for us next year. ive discounted the canaries at the moment as it seems to be a lot of reef breaks and not the sort of scenery im after, thats a personal thing though!

a particular resort I have been looking at is the RIU on playa barrossa close to conil de la frontera on costa da luz, southern spain. its.huge, but the my kids would love it! beach looks gorgeous!

migrant that's exactly what I was going to say! Margaret River is lovely OP. Great wine too...

You might be best off asking on the Magic Seaweed forums - there are some people with families there. I could ask the surfers where they go (Portugal, Morrocco, Indo, Mentawi islands, Oz - all places friends have travelled to to surf) but they go looking for big waves and barrels - where really you have no chance of learning to surf in that, you'll just spend the time getting mashed.

We're going to the north coast of northern Ireland to surf this summer, but that's probably a bit chilly for you!

Recommend Seven Island Surf in Fuerteventura. They were excellent and overall it was quite a cheap holiday.

Lacanau-Ocean is good, in SW France. The resort I know best is about a 15-minute bike ride from the ocean though. You could just rent a house in town I guess?

Many thanks for everyone taking the time to respond (sorry my response is late).

Probably now looking at next year, when two sons will be 10 and 9, still brave enough to try anything once. Biarritz sounds great and might be handy for low cost airlines, with the addition of having more things to do for Mrs funkygibbon (who won't be surfing). However, I've bumped into someone at work on this week who has a villa on Portuguese Atlantic coast, with good amenities and the added benefit of a lagoon on the other side of sand dunes for calmer water (but have currently forgotten the name of the location).

Cheers again!

My SIL and her kids almost 13, almost 11 and just 9 have been trying out surfing the last two years. The found Ile De Re/Vendee area had big enough surf for them to cut their teeth on and see if they liked it. Messanges, Hossegor in SW France are great but can get very big like Biarritz. So can Fuerte and Portugal for Europe destinations. And often big = nasty rips too. There's small surf in Florida and the Carolinas too if you are heading to the US at all.