Marrakech Travel Guide

Few cities announce themselves as clearly as Marrakech. Long before you reach the old walls, you notice the colour: a warm, dusty pink that the Moroccans call red, running through ramparts, houses, minarets and even the newest apartment blocks. On a clear winter morning the peaks of the High Atlas rise white behind it all, so close that they seem to belong to the city. Then you step through a gate into the medina and the senses take over: the call to prayer echoing between minarets, the scent of orange blossom and cumin, the clatter of handcarts, the hammering of coppersmiths and the endless, good-humoured negotiation that is the soundtrack of the souks.

Marrakech has been a capital, a caravan city, a royal residence, a refuge for artists and, more recently, one of the most visited cities in Africa. It can be intense, especially on the first day. It can also be wonderfully gentle: a shaded courtyard where the only sound is a fountain, a rooftop at sunset with swallows wheeling overhead, a quiet garden laid out by a twelfth-century ruler. Learning to move between those two moods is the real art of visiting Marrakech, and this book is designed to help you do it.

A city of layers

The Almoravids, a dynasty of Saharan origin, founded Marrakech in the second half of the eleventh century and gave it the walls that still define it. Their successors, the Almohads, raised the Koutoubia minaret, which remains the city’s great landmark. Later the Saadians built palaces, tombs and a famous religious college, and the Alaouite sultans and their ministers added grand residences and gardens. In the twentieth century a modern European-style quarter, Gueliz, grew up outside the walls, and painters, designers and writers made the city their own.

All these layers are still visible, often within a few minutes’ walk of each other. You can see the ruins of a sixteenth-century palace in the morning, browse contemporary design shops in the afternoon and eat snail soup among the crowds of Jemaa el-Fna in the evening. Few cities in the world compress so much history into such a walkable space.

The character of the city

Marrakech is the capital of the Marrakech-Safi region and one of the largest cities in Morocco. It sits on the Haouz plain, a broad, dry basin watered for centuries by ingenious underground channels and by streams flowing down from the mountains. The population is a mix of Arabic-speaking Marrakchis and Amazigh (Berber) families from the High Atlas and the south, and you will hear Moroccan Arabic, Tashelhit and French on the same street.

The city has a reputation for humour and hospitality. Marrakchis are known across Morocco for their quick wit and love of conversation, and the old city still works as a dense network of neighbourhoods, each with its mosque, fountain, bread oven, hammam and corner shop. Behind the tourist souks, most of the medina is residential, and life there follows the rhythm of school runs, prayer times and family meals.

Who Marrakech suits best

• First-time visitors to Morocco who want history, architecture, markets and food in one compact destination.
• Short-break travellers, thanks to direct flights from many European cities and a wealth of sights within walking distance.
• Garden and design lovers, who will find historic royal gardens, a famous painter’s garden and a lively contemporary design scene.
• Food lovers keen to explore street food, slow-cooked specialities and cooking traditions.
• Walkers and mountain enthusiasts looking for a comfortable base for the High Atlas valleys and peaks.

Marrakech is less suited to travellers who want complete calm all day long, or who dislike crowds and bargaining. Even then, it can work beautifully if you choose a quiet place to stay, plan your medina visits for the morning and keep the afternoons for gardens, a hammam or a trip into the mountains.

How to use this book

The chapters follow the order in which most people plan a trip. We start with history, because the medina makes far more sense once you know who built what and why. Then come the practical chapters on arriving, moving around and choosing a neighbourhood, followed by the main sights, the quieter corners, ready-made itineraries, food, customs and shopping. The final chapters cover day trips, practical information, useful phrases and a checklist.

Throughout the book you will find three kinds of highlighted box. Local tip boxes share what our team has learned on many visits to the city. Good to know boxes explain customs and practical details. Avoid this boxes point out the most common mistakes. We deliberately do not print prices, exact opening hours, phone numbers or the names of hotels, restaurants and shops. They change too often, and an out-of-date figure is worse than none. Instead we tell you what to expect and what to check locally.

Give Marrakech time and a little patience, and it rewards you generously: with craftsmanship you will see nowhere else, food cooked with real care, gardens that feel like secrets, and the unforgettable sight of the Atlas glowing pink above the rooftops at the end of the day.