Marrakech, Morocco
Souks, riads, and the Sahara a day's drive away. Spring and autumn are perfect; July is a furnace.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $90 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Popular Arts Festival July
Folklore in the Badi Palace
Marrakech Film Festival December
Red carpets in the medina
Worth knowing
Cash dirhams run the souk, the taxis and the tipping. Cards work in Gueliz restaurants and hotels. The dirham is a closed currency, so you change on arrival rather than before you leave.
money · editorial
The medina lanes are not reliably mapped and unsolicited guidance is a paid service whether or not that was mentioned. Dress with shoulders and knees covered, and expect to bargain for everything in the souk.
know before · editorial
High summer, when the heat makes the medina unwalkable from late morning onwards. Ramadan reshapes the day and most of the food trade moves to after dark.
when not to go · editorial
Inside the medina in a riad for courtyards and the call to prayer, Gueliz in the new town for wide streets and restaurants, Hivernage for the hotel strip, the Palmeraie for space outside the city and a taxi for every errand.
where to stay · editorial
Walking in the medina, where cars cannot go because the lanes are too narrow. Petits taxis for the new city, a driver or a bus for the mountains and the desert.
getting around · editorial
Marrakech has its own airport, about fifteen minutes from the medina. The desert is a separate expedition: a full day over the Atlas to the Zagora dunes, longer again to Merzouga.
getting there · editorial
Quests
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Jemaa el-Fna
By day it is a square; after six it becomes a whole city of stalls and drums.
Koutoubia
Seventy-seven metres, from the twelfth century. Nothing in the city is allowed to stand taller.
Jardin Majorelle
The cobalt blue that Jacques Majorelle registered as a colour of his own.
Ben Youssef Madrasa
One hundred and thirty student cells around a courtyard of marble and cedar.
Bahia Palace
One hundred and fifty rooms built in fourteen years, and no two alike.
The Saadian Tombs
Walled up for two centuries and found again in 1917 from an aerial photograph.
See
Enter the Jardin Majorelle right at opening time
Eat
Eat tanjia, the Marrakech men's dish, not the tagine on the menu
A slow-cooked tagine
Two hours in clay, with the conical lid sending the steam back down.
Harira
Tomato, lentil and chickpea soup. It is what breaks the fast.
Mint tea poured from height
The higher the pour, the better the foam. It is technique, not spectacle.
Moment
Be in the Jemaa el-Fna at sunset, when the smoke from the stalls goes up
The square changing its use at six in the evening
In twenty minutes the stalls go up whole. Stand still and watch.
Get lost in the medina on purpose
No map for an hour. You will come out; everyone comes out.
Trail
Toubkal
4,167 metres, the roof of North Africa. Two days, with a refuge halfway.