The short answer
Three days suits most people. Two full days is the comfortable minimum for the medina, a palace or two and a garden. Three lets you slow down and add a hammam or a cooking class. Plan four or five days if you want day trips, and treat the Sahara dunes as a separate trip of two or three days.
In more detail
Marrakech is compact but tiring. The souks, the heat and the noise mean most visitors manage two or three sights a day before they want a riad courtyard and a pot of tea. Counting sights alone makes a city of this size look quicker than it is.
A sensible shape for a first visit is three nights in the city plus one or two day trips. Each excursion wants its own day: the Atlas and the Ourika Valley, an evening in the Agafay desert, or the drive to Essaouira on the coast. Agafay is the exception, as it fits into an afternoon and evening.
The Sahara is where plans go wrong. The big dunes at Merzouga are about 560 km and 8 hours 30 minutes from Marrakech by road, over the Atlas. That is a two or three day round trip with a night in a desert camp, not a day out. Decide early if you want it, because it changes the length of the whole trip.
Good to know
- 1 day: a highlights stopover.
- 2 days: the comfortable minimum for the city.
- 3 days: the relaxed standard, with time for a hammam.
- 4 to 5 days: the city plus one or two day trips.