Marrakech has been on my bucket list for ages but its the kind of place I wanted to wait and do properly, but I'm so glad I've been now. It's probably the shortest plane ride from the UK you can take if you're looking for a complete culture shock - the city is a sensory overload, the sights, colours and sounds.
Before I went I did a lot of research and wanted to share what we enjoyed while we were out there and any tips we picked up along the way, as there's a lot of scary stories out there about Morocco - to the point where I was quite nervous to visit, but luckily everyone we ran into was lovely and we didn't really experience too much of the negativity associated with the city.
Where We Stayed
When we were in Marrakech we wanted to stay in a traditional Riad and ended up booking Ksar Kasbah after reading about it online. The Riad was everything we were looking for - it had a lovely rooftop for drinks, a beautiful central courtyard, the friendliest staff who bent over backwards for us. We did go for a wander around La Mamounia which is beautiful, but I'm glad we got to experience a traditional riad and would recommend Ksar Kasbah to anyone.
Breakfast was included in our stay so every morning the staff laid out a platter of traditional Moroccan baked goods, fruit, juice, coffee and tea which was lovely. Sometimes we ate this in the restaurant downstairs and sometimes we had it on the rooftop when the sun was shining, but it was great to have options.
The riad also has its own spa and hammam which unfortunately we didn't get a chance to use, but worth noting that it is there if you're looking for a more relaxing trip. They also offered to book us any tours we wanted to go on, and arranged all of our transportation if we needed it so we didn't have to barter with taxi drivers.
What We Did
Gardens - While we were in Marrakech we really got our garden fix, we visited more gardens that I usually would on a short trip however I'm glad we did as they provided a lovely bit of respite from the madness of the Medina, these were one of the few places I didn't feel like I had to constantly be on guard for pickpockets or people trying to lead me astray, so it was lovely to enjoy the gardens in the sun. We visited Le Jardin Secret in the heart of the Medina which was lovely, and also headed up to Jardin Majorelle to see the famous YSL gardens, although the museum was unfortunately closed for refurbishment. We also wandered around the gardens at La Mamounia with an ice cream before catching our flight home which was a lovely end to the trip.
On one of the days we booked a trip into the Agafay Desert. We booked this trip through Get Your Guide, who picked us up from right by our riad and drove us an hour outside of Marrakech into the desert. We first went on a camel ride which I wasn't the biggest fan of, before hopping on some quad bikes and roaming round the desert. When we booked we were told we would get an hour on the quad bikes but we had about 2 hours so we definitely got our moneys worth! After this they drove us to their camp where we sat round the camp fire before being served dinner from a traditional tagine. The day trip was great but I would definitely recommend getting a full nights sleep beforehand and making sure you eat a big lunch as we ended up being quite tired and hungry while waiting for dinner!
If traditional Moroccan interiors are your thing then definitely pay a visit to Ben Youssef Madrasa, the building is beautiful and you really felt like you were in another world. Entry costs 50dirhams and they only accept cash, there isn't a cash point anywhere near the building so definitely make sure you have enough before heading there.
There are two palaces to visit while in Marrakech, we didn't manage to make it to Bahia Palace but felt we got our pretty building fix from Ben Youssef Madrasa and El Badi Palace, which we did manage to visit. The grounds are lovely in the sunshine, and it gives you a good insight into what Moroccan royalty was like back in the day which was interesting, however most of the explanations are only in French so we struggled a bit - but the beautiful ruins made up for that.
We spent a lot of time exploring the medina and souks, we'd originally planned to just go once and have a look around/do our shopping, but pretty much everything requires walking through the souks so we ended up going there a lot. It's chaos and there is stuff going on everywhere, but also so interesting to look at all of the little market stalls and they really suck you in - I ended up doing a fair bit of shopping and having to buy a bag to take home as hand luggage to get it all home, but it was worth it for all the unique ceramics and the tagine I managed to get for only £6!
Things you should know before travelling to Marrakech
- Think about buying an eSim as some mobile phones won't work there, or they will charge you a lot to use your phone plan and data (mine was £6 a day whereas a eSim would have only cost me £9 for the whole trip).
- When it comes to dealing with the locals whether you're haggling in the souks or over a taxi, etc I think its best to just be firm and say no when you need to, they will then mostly leave you alone.
- Download a map and try to know where you're going before you head out. The city is very busy and overwhelming and if you add getting lost to that mixture it won't be a fun time. We'd also heard that people will try to show you were to go and give directions then demand money, luckily this only happened to us once in the time we were there and we managed to say no before it was too late.
- Some places only take cash so make sure you have a little stash of dirhams with you, all cash points charge you to get money out so it may be worth exchanging a little extra before you fly.
- This was also the first country I've been in where I've experienced the call to prayer, it was fascinating to see people stopping their day to file into the mosque, but not so great at 7am when it was waking us up daily...so you may want to check whether your accommodation is close to a mosque but its so loud I think you'll hear it regardless!
Have you got Marrakech on your list?
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