Travel guides
Plan a better Morocco trip.
Honest, practical guides from a Marrakech atelier — the questions every traveller asks, answered with real numbers and local knowledge.
57 guides available
Itineraries
Itineraries guides
Day-by-day routes our concierge builds, from first-timers to slow travellers.
ItinerariesItineraries · One week
Morocco Itinerary: 7 Days
A week is plenty to pair our home city of Marrakech with the Sahara, or to trace the imperial cities of the north. Here are two proven 7-day Morocco itineraries, both designed to start or finish in Marrakech — and how to choose between them.
ItinerariesItineraries · Ten days
Morocco Itinerary: 10 Days
Ten days is the sweet spot for Morocco — long enough to start in our home city of Marrakech and loop through the Sahara and the imperial north unhurried, with the Essaouira coast as an optional finish.
ItinerariesItineraries · Two weeks
Morocco Itinerary: 14 Days — The Grand Two-Week Route
Two weeks is enough to cover Morocco's full sweep and finish in our home city: the imperial cities of the north, the High Atlas, the kasbah road, a night in the Sahara, and a final flourish in Marrakech — all at a genuinely unhurried pace.
ItinerariesItineraries · Family
Morocco Family Itinerary: 10 Days with Children
A 10-day family loop out of Marrakech — the red city, the Sahara and the Atlantic at Essaouira — built around children's energy levels, attention spans and the small print of travelling with kids: pool riads, drives that never overstay their welcome, and the camel ride no child ever forgets.
ItinerariesItineraries · Trip length
How Many Days Do You Need in Morocco?
Seven to fourteen days is the Morocco sweet spot. Five days is a tight but workable minimum for Marrakech plus the desert; ten days is the length at which you can fold in the imperial cities, the Atlas and the Sahara without ever feeling chased by the clock.
ItinerariesItineraries · Road trip
Morocco Road Trip Guide: Routes, Tips & What to Expect
A Morocco road trip is one of the great drives of the world — the High Atlas passes, the kasbah road, the Drâa Valley palm oases and the Saharan pre-desert unfold in sequence. Here is how to plan it, what the roads are actually like and which routes reward a self-driver.
ItinerariesItineraries · Desert tour
Morocco Desert Tour from Marrakech: The Complete Route Guide
The desert tour from Marrakech — over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, through the kasbahs and gorges, and out to the Sahara at Merzouga — is one of the world's great overland journeys. This guide covers every stage, from day-trip to five-day circuit, with real timings and practical advice.
Planning
Planning guides
When to come, what it costs and how to shape the trip before you fly.
PlanningPlanning · When to go
The Best Time to Visit Morocco
For a Marrakech city break, spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) hit the sweet spot — sun-warmed days in the medina, cool enough rooftops at dusk, and perfect conditions for Agafay, the Ourika valley and an Atlas or desert day trip.
PlanningPlanning · Safety
Is Morocco Safe to Visit?
Yes — Marrakech is a well-trodden, welcoming city with a tourism industry built around visitors. The realistic day-to-day concerns are petty scams and the famous medina hustle around Jemaa el-Fna and the souks, both easily managed once you know the patterns.
PlanningPlanning · Visa & entry
Morocco Visa & Entry Requirements
Most visitors flying into Marrakech — including US, Canadian, UK, EU/Schengen, Australian, New Zealand and Japanese passport holders — enter Morocco visa-free for up to 90 days. You need a passport valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date.
PlanningPlanning · Money
Morocco Travel Costs & Budget
Marrakech bends to almost any budget. Mid-range visitors spend roughly US$80–150 per person per day; a private, riad-based city break with a driver-guide and day trips typically runs US$200–400+ per day depending on season and standard.
PlanningPlanning · Ramadan
Travelling in Morocco During Ramadan
Ramadan rewires the daily rhythm of Marrakech in ways that can be unexpectedly magical — a hushed medina by day that erupts into life after sunset, the cannon at Koutoubia signalling iftar, families streaming into Jemaa el-Fna. The trick is knowing what shifts and planning your days around it.
PlanningPlanning · Solo & Women
Morocco for Women Travellers
Huge numbers of women travel to Marrakech solo and in small groups every year. The city is safe, but the attention in the souks is real — knowing what to expect and how to handle it is the difference between a wearing trip and a thoroughly rewarding one.
PlanningPlanning · Family travel
Morocco with Kids: A Family Travel Guide
Marrakech works beautifully with children — riads wrap a private courtyard around them, camels in the Palmeraie enchant every age, and Moroccan culture is genuinely warm towards families. Pacing and planning are everything.
PlanningPlanning · Honeymoon
Morocco Honeymoon Guide
Marrakech is one of the world's most atmospheric honeymoon bases: private riad suites with plunge pools, candlelit desert camps an hour away in Agafay, rose-petal hammams in centuries-old palaces and a coast at Essaouira within easy reach. Here is how to build an unforgettable romantic trip around the Red City.
PlanningPlanning · Sahara
Sahara Desert Tour Guide: Merzouga, Chigaga & Zagora
Almost every Sahara trip starts here in Marrakech, and three desert gateways compete for your nights: Erg Chebbi at Merzouga for accessibility and grandeur, Erg Chigaga near M'Hamid for remoteness, and Zagora for the shortest run from the city. Here is how to choose, what the camps are like, and when to go.
PlanningPlanning · Trekking
Trekking the Atlas Mountains: Toubkal, Imlil & Beyond
Step out of the Marrakech medina and within ninety minutes you are standing beneath Jbel Toubkal — at 4,167 metres, the highest peak in North Africa. The High Atlas is the city's natural backyard: a single-day valley walk from Imlil, an Ourika afternoon, a village-to-village traverse or a full summit push are all reachable from a Marrakech base with the right season, a licensed guide and sensible preparation.
PlanningPlanning · Surf
Surfing in Morocco: Taghazout, Agadir & Imsouane
Morocco's Atlantic coast is the most reliable surf in North Africa — consistent September-to-April swells, mild winters, low costs and an easygoing culture centred on Taghazout, with the marathon right-hand point at Imsouane and gentle town beaches around Agadir. From a Marrakech base it is a roughly three-hour transfer to the lineup, which is why plenty of visitors pair medina days with a coastal surf escape.
PlanningPlanning · Marrakech
Things to Do in Marrakech: The Essential Guide
Marrakech is glorious sensory overload — a thousand-year-old medina, the cobalt of the Majorelle garden, the ritual of the hammam, candlelit rooftop dinners, and a square that reinvents itself every evening into one of the world's great open-air theatres. This is our insider map to where your hours are best spent, from the souks and the palaces to the day trips that fan out into the Atlas and the desert.
PlanningPlanning · Fes
Things to Do in Fes: The Essential Guide
Fes el-Bali is the largest living medieval city on earth — a UNESCO-listed medina of some 9,400 lanes, Marinid madrasas, the world's oldest university and the famous Chouara tanneries. Where Marrakech dazzles, Fes immerses: it asks for a good guide, unhurried days and real curiosity. Many travellers pair the two imperial cities on a single Moroccan loop.
PlanningPlanning · Chefchaouen
Things to Do in Chefchaouen: The Essential Guide
Chefchaouen — the blue city folded into the Rif Mountains — is far more than a photo backdrop. The medina is small, walkable and genuinely lovely; the surrounding peaks reward hikers; the food is distinctly Rifian; and the pace is the most unhurried in Morocco. It sits at the opposite end of the country from Marrakech, so most travellers reach it on a northern loop through Fes and Tangier.
PlanningPlanning · Essaouira
Things to Do in Essaouira: The Essential Guide
Essaouira is Marrakech's Atlantic release valve — the classic day trip or overnight from the red city, roughly 2.5 to 3 hours west. A fortified white-and-blue port of ramparts and gulls, a working fishing harbour, peerless grilled seafood, world-class windsurfing and a medina that is calm and genuinely liveable. After the intensity of the Marrakech souks, it feels like a long exhale.
PlanningPlanning · Agadir
Things to Do in Agadir: The Essential Guide
Agadir is Morocco's beach-resort capital — rebuilt from the ground up after the 1960 earthquake and organised entirely around 10 km of Atlantic sand, near year-round sun and package-holiday comfort. It is also the gateway to the Souss Valley, the argan forests and the Taghazout surf coast. From a Marrakech base it is a 3.5–4 hour drive south over the Atlas, and it answers a different question entirely from the medina city: sea and sun rather than souks and palaces.
PlanningPlanning · Rabat
Things to Do in Rabat: The Essential Guide
Rabat, Morocco's understated capital, trades the souk frenzy of Marrakech for UNESCO-listed monuments, a blue-and-white royal kasbah, Roman ruins and a calm, lived-in rhythm. It sits on the high-speed line that also feeds Marrakech, so it slots neatly into a wider loop built around the red city.
PlanningPlanning · Tangier
Things to Do in Tangier: The Essential Guide
Tangier has gone from the faded, edgy gateway of decades past to one of Morocco's most rewarding cities — kasbah restored, seafront rebuilt, and its legend as a haven for expatriate writers and artists proudly reclaimed. Far up on the Strait, it makes the natural northern bookend to a trip that starts among the Marrakech souks.
PlanningPlanning · Casablanca
Things to Do in Casablanca: The Essential Guide
Casablanca is Morocco's economic capital and largest city — a modern, cosmopolitan metropolis built on Atlantic trade rather than imperial history. Its centrepiece, the Hassan II Mosque, is one of the most extraordinary buildings on earth, and its restaurants, Corniche and Art Deco streetscape reward anyone who lingers. For many it is the gateway into the country before the high-speed line carries them south toward Marrakech.
PlanningPlanning · Ouarzazate
Things to Do in Ouarzazate: The Essential Guide
Ouarzazate — 'the door of the desert' — sits where the High Atlas gives way to the Saharan south, about 4 hours from Marrakech over the Tizi n'Tichka pass. It is the classic first stop on Sahara day trips and overnights out of the red city: the gateway to Aït Ben Haddou, Africa's most famous film set, the Drâa Valley and the Atlas Studios.
PlanningPlanning · Meknes
Things to Do in Meknes: The Essential Guide
Meknes — the fourth imperial city and the least visited — pays back the traveller who lingers: a UNESCO medina, the monumental gates and granaries of Sultan Moulay Ismail's 17th-century capital, and the Roman city of Volubilis 33 km north. It pairs naturally with Fes and Rabat on a northern loop that often bookends a Marrakech-anchored Morocco trip.
PlanningPlanning · Winter travel
Morocco in Winter: What to Expect & Where to Go
Winter (December–February) is an underrated season to visit Marrakech — winter sun in the city by day, snow glittering on the High Atlas just behind it, and cold, star-blazed desert nights on the Agafay or out toward the Sahara. Crowds thin, riad rates drop, and the red city is at its most comfortable for walking.
PlanningPlanning · Summer travel
Marrakech in Summer: Beating the Heat & Where to Escape
Summer in Marrakech (June–August) is genuinely hot, but with the right rhythm — early starts, a pool riad, late rooftop nights — the city still works. And the escapes are close: the breezy Essaouira coast, the cool Ourika Valley and High Atlas, and the Agafay desert at dawn and dusk.
PlanningPlanning · Solo travel
Morocco Solo Travel: An Honest Guide
Travelling Morocco on your own is rewarding, easy on the wallet and entirely doable — countless people set off solo every year. It asks for slightly sharper awareness than a group trip, but the freedom to set your own pace, and the encounters that follow, simply cannot be bought on a coach tour.
PlanningPlanning · Marrakech season
Best Time to Visit Marrakech
March to May and September to November are when Marrakech is at its best — warm but not punishing, long days, evenings made for a rooftop dinner. Summer is hot but manageable with the right rhythm; winter is mild, sunny and gloriously free of crowds.
PlanningPlanning · Sahara season
Best Time to Visit the Sahara in Morocco
For Sahara trips out of Marrakech, October to April is the golden window — comfortable days, cold clear nights and dunes raked by low golden light. July and August are brutal and best left alone.
PlanningPlanning · Beaches
Best Beaches in Morocco
Marrakech is landlocked, but the Atlantic is closer than you think — Essaouira, the classic beach escape from the city, is a three-hour drive west. From there Morocco's coast runs on for thousands of kilometres: Agadir's calm family bays, the surf breaks of Taghazout, the dramatic arches of Legzira and the warm Mediterranean coves of the north. Here is where to go, and when.
PlanningPlanning · Accommodation
Where to Stay in Morocco: Riads, Hotels & Desert Camps
In Marrakech the question is really 'riad or hotel?' — an intimate medina riad with a plunge-pool courtyard, or a full-service hotel out in Gueliz or Hivernage. Add an Agafay desert camp under the stars for a night and you have the makings of a perfect trip. Here is how the options compare and what to look for in each.
PlanningPlanning · Baby & toddler travel
Morocco with a Baby or Toddler: A Practical Guide
Bringing a baby or toddler to Marrakech is more straightforward than nervous first-time parents imagine — Moroccans dote on small children, a courtyard riad makes a safe and calm base, and the day-to-day logistics are manageable once you know the local rhythms. Here is how to make it work.
PlanningPlanning · When to go
Best Time to Visit Fes: Weather, Crowds & What to Expect
Spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) are the best times to visit Fes — mild weather, manageable crowds and ideal conditions for walking the labyrinthine medina. This guide breaks down what every season brings to Morocco's spiritual capital.
PlanningPlanning · Desert activities
Morocco Camel Trekking: How to Plan the Perfect Sahara Ride
A camel trek in the Moroccan Sahara is one of the most iconic travel experiences in North Africa. This guide covers the best locations, what to expect physically, how long to book and what a night in a desert camp really feels like.
PlanningPlanning · When to go
Best Time to Visit Chefchaouen: Season, Weather & Practical Tips
Chefchaouen is beautiful year-round, but spring (March–May) and autumn (September–October) deliver the best combination of mild weather, manageable crowds and perfect light for the city's famous blue-washed medina. Here is what each season brings.
Practical
Practical guides
Safety, visas, money, packing and the ground-truth that makes a trip seamless.
PracticalPractical · Packing
What to Pack for Morocco
Pack light, modest and layered. A Marrakech trip swings from hot medina days to cool rooftop dinners and genuinely cold Agafay or Atlas nights, so breathable layers, broken-in walking shoes and one warm top cover almost everything.
PracticalPractical · Transport
Getting Around Morocco
Within Marrakech you'll mostly walk the medina and grab petit taxis between districts. For the airport, the day trips and onward cities, the choice is between the train (to Casablanca, Rabat, Fes) and a private driver — and which you want depends on where you're headed.
PracticalPractical · Connectivity
SIM Cards & Internet in Morocco
Staying connected in Marrakech is cheap and easy. A local SIM or eSIM from Maroc Telecom, Orange or Inwi gives you fast 4G across the city for a few dollars; free Wi-Fi is standard in riads and cafés.
PracticalPractical · Getting there
Marrakech to Merzouga: Routes, Times & Transport Options
Leaving the red city for the great dunes of Erg Chebbi means covering close to 560 km — two solid driving days whichever line you take, yet the road south from Marrakech is among the finest in North Africa. Below: every option laid out, how the routes differ, honest timings and how to pick.
PracticalPractical · Pre-trip checklist
Morocco Travel Checklist: Everything to Do Before You Go
A full pre-departure run-through for a Marrakech-based trip: documents, bookings, money, health, connectivity and packing — everything to nail down before you board so the red city greets you without a single loose end.
PracticalPractical · Airport transfers
Getting from Casablanca Airport (CMN) to Your Destination
If your trip is built around Marrakech, the simplest route is often to fly straight into Marrakech Menara (RAK). But plenty of itineraries land at Casablanca Mohammed V (CMN) first — here is how to bridge the gap by train or private car, and reach your medina riad with the least friction.
PracticalPractical · Insurance
Morocco Travel Insurance: What You Need & Why
Even a gentle Marrakech city break benefits from travel insurance — for cancelled flights, a stolen phone in the souks or a stomach bug that needs a clinic. Add an Agafay quad ride, an Atlas trek or a camel evening in the dunes and the case becomes unarguable. Here is what to look for, what it costs and which activities need specialist cover.
PracticalPractical · Connectivity
eSIMs for Morocco: The Traveller's Guide to Staying Connected
Land at Marrakech Menara with a Moroccan data plan already live and you skip the SIM queue entirely — useful when you need to message your riad for directions into the medina the moment you step off the plane. Here is how eSIMs work in and around Marrakech, which to choose, and where the signal holds up on day trips.
PracticalPractical · Health
Is Tap Water Safe to Drink in Morocco?
Marrakech's tap water is treated and meets national standards, but on a short visit the sensible move is bottled or filtered water for drinking. The usual culprit behind a holiday stomach is not contamination but simply an unfamiliar microbial mix — easy to sidestep with a little care.
PracticalPractical · Dress code
What to Wear in Morocco: Dress Code for Travellers
Marrakech has no legal dress code for visitors, but a little modesty in the medina and souks — covered shoulders and knees — is respectful, keeps you comfortable in the heat and smooths every interaction. Here is exactly what to wear for the medina, the hammam, a rooftop dinner and the desert beyond.
Culture
Culture guides
Food, etiquette, craft and the customs worth knowing before you arrive.
CultureCulture · Food
Moroccan Food & Drink
Marrakech is one of the great eating cities of North Africa: slow-cooked tagines in the medina, the legendary food stalls of Jemaa el-Fna at dusk, rooftop dinners over the Koutoubia, and the endless ritual of sweet mint tea.
CultureCulture · Etiquette
Morocco Etiquette & Customs
A little cultural awareness goes a long way in Marrakech. Dress modestly for the medina, greet warmly, ask before photographing people in the souks, use your right hand, and lean into the unhurried rhythm of mint tea and conversation.
CultureCulture · Photography
Morocco Photography Guide
Marrakech is one of the world's great cities for a camera: extraordinary light, ochre walls, intricate palace tilework, and a landscape that runs from the souks to red Agafay dunes and the snow-capped Atlas within a single day. Knowing where to point the lens, when, and how to engage respectfully makes all the difference.
CultureCulture · Language
Moroccan Arabic & French Phrases for Travellers
Marrakech runs on Darija (Moroccan Arabic) in the souks and the street, and on French in restaurants, hotels and on the road signs — with Tamazight heard in the Atlas villages on your day trips. A handful of phrases opens doors in the medina that money alone never will.
CultureCulture · Shopping
Shopping in the Marrakech Souks: What to Buy & Fair Prices
The Marrakech medina souks are the beating heart of the city's shopping — a maze of dyers' alleys, spice piles, leather workshops and rug rooms north of Jemaa el-Fna. Knowing which lanes sell what, what a fair price looks like, and how to bargain with good humour turns an intimidating warren into one of the best afternoons of any Marrakech trip.
CultureCulture · Festivals & events
Morocco Public Holidays & Festivals
Morocco's calendar weaves together Islamic holy days that drift earlier each year with the moon, fixed national holidays, and a vivid programme of festivals — the Gnaoua World Music Festival just down the road in Essaouira, the Marrakech International Film Festival on the city's own doorstep, the rose festival of Kelaât M'Gouna. Reading the calendar helps you plan around the odd closure and catch Morocco's most colourful events.
CultureCulture · Souvenirs
Moroccan Souvenirs: What to Buy in the Marrakech Souks
The souvenirs worth carrying home from Marrakech are the ones made by hand and used for generations — a hand-knotted rug, a pair of soft babouche slippers, a pierced-brass lantern, a bottle of argan oil. This guide walks you souk by souk through the Marrakech medina and tells you what to buy, what to pay and how to spot the fakes.
CultureCulture · Culinary
Moroccan Cooking Classes: What to Expect & Where to Book
A Moroccan cooking class is one of the most immersive ways to connect with the country's culture — shopping in a souk for saffron and preserved lemons, then slow-cooking a tagine over charcoal. This guide covers what you will learn, how to choose the right class and what the experience actually involves.