Okay, so it was actually eight days, but it didn't sound as catchy.
Morocco truly is breathtaking. The colours, the textures, the shapes. Marrakesh is a mosaic of pink and red buildings with a new aroma waiting for you around every corner. The feel of handmade ceramics, carpets and towels in your hands. As you make your way through the constant buzzing of the markets, your senses are stretched to the max and you couldn’t be happier about it. That’s how we’d describe Marrakesh. Beautiful and chaotic all in one handwoven basket.
accommodation
You could spend hours researching the amazing Riads to stay at online (we know from experience), as there are so many beautiful places to choose from! To narrow down our search we actually did a lot of research through instagram to find some really cool Riads. We found an account called @riadlovers that helped us out a lot. Of course just because they're pretty, doesn't mean they're good Riads, so do a bit of extra research on tripadvisor to see what feedback past guests have left.
We stayed our first 3 night's at Riad Jemaa El Fna & Spa. On arrival we were greeted with smiles and traditional Moroccan mint tea. A very good first impression, and it was an impression that lasted. Staff were always friendly and more than happy to help with whatever we needed. They did try to sell us tours and activities, but we just politely declined and they took no offense. They also included a complimentary breakfast, which was a nice touch. Coffee, juice and pancakes with rooftop terrace views to get your day started. Not too shabby.
Comfort: 8/10
Staff: 8/10
Breakfast: 7/10
Vibe: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
We spent the next night at La Gazelle Hotel in the Dades Valley. This was the first night of our Sahara Desert tour with Marrakesh Tours, which we talk about further down. We stayed in a private room (upgrade option on tour) with a private bathroom. It was exactly what we needed after a long day of travelling.
The second night of our tour we spent camping in the Sahara Desert.. Yes, you read correctly, we got to camp in the Sahara Desert! It was probably more like “glamping” as we had electricity and running water. The bed was by no means comfortable and we didn’t get a great sleep, but the experience was worth it.
The following day we finished our tour and headed back to Marrakech, where we spent three nights at Riad Dihya. We stumbled across this Riad on Hostelworld. We had a private room with private bathroom, which was the same price as paying for two beds in a shared room for us. This Riad was definitely more of a hotel than a hostel. The staff were super friendly, the rooms were quite luxurious and there was a rooftop pool. The location was good as it was right in the medina, however you did have to go through a couple of dark alleyways to get there, which were quite creepy at night, so if you're travelling solo organise the hostel to meet you somewhere and escort you to the hostel. Otherwise it is fine during the day. Just have to have your wits about you and know the scams that people try to sell you, as with anywhere in Morocco.
Comfort: 7/10
Staff: 9/10
Breakfast: 10/10
Vibe: 7/10
Overall: 8/10
A little side note - in Marrakech there is a city tax for accommodation of about $4 per person per night. Sometimes this is included in your accommodation costs, but just so you know it is legit if they ask you to pay the tax when you go to check out.
transport
On arrival in Marrakech our Riad organised a private transfer from the airport to the Medina for €20 (approx. $30), which we were happy to pay at that time of night. It was stress-free and convenient. This doesn't usually fit into our budget travel persona, but in this case we just wanted to get to our Riad as efficiently as we could, and it was exactly that. Usually from the airport you can get a taxi from the airport for about 80-100 Moroccan Dirham (MAD), which is roughly $12-$15. Once we reached the Medina, we had someone from the Riad meet us, as vehicles are not allowed to drive through the Medina at night.
Transport on our three day tour came in two forms: 1. A very comfortable, air-conditioned minibus and 2. A camel. We had the same transport, minus the camels, on our tour to Essaouria, too.
Around most cities in Morocco you will find taxis, tuk tuk’s and even horse and carriages on almost every corner, just don't be afraid to barter your price.
To get back to the airport in Marrakech we had 100MAD ($15) left, and we heard it was difficult and expensive to change back into Euros, so we offered it to a taxi driver and they gladly took it. We could’ve gotten it for about 70 or 80MAD.
food/restaurants
As budget travellers who shop at supermarkets and cook for ourselves almost every night, Morocco was a shock to the system, as we ate out for basically every meal. We were fortunate to have breakfast included everyday with our accommodation, and the breakfasts were incredible! Taking the cake would be Riad Dihya who served us up a feast each morning. We indulged in pancakes, roti bread with jam and honey, omelettes, coffee, juice and fresh fruit (hence the 10/10 rating above).
Morocco is also really good for vegetarian and vegan food. The main dishes we ate were vegetarian cous cous, vegetarian tajine and harira soup. Most of the cafes and restaurants offer a lot of different salads and other veggie options. It is also really easy to find fresh fruit and juices in the Medina, just make sure you give the fruit a wash with bottled water before eating. We had a couple of figs that smelt like petrol fumes just from being on the side of the road with cars and bikes going past.
Our recommendations for cheap, delicious and bang-for-your-buck meals would be at Cafe Babouche. The staff are some of the friendliest people we met in Marrakech, the menu caters for all taste buds and you won't leave with an empty stomach.
We also enjoyed a couple of lunches at Cafe des Epices right in the heart of the Medina. The menu is a little pricier than Cafe Babouche, but the food is delicious and the rooftop terrace provides a relaxing, quiet place to watch the hustle and bustle from above. We highly recommend the harira soup (pictured below).
On our Sahara Desert tour, we had two breakfasts and two dinners included. For lunch we ate at nice restaurants and took snacks with us on the bus.
tours/activities
Shopping
We spent almost a whole day exploring the Medina, without even buying anything! We did buy a few little gifts for family and friends later on in the trip when we had sussed out the bartering. We had no problems bartering and everyone was quite nice. Although the shopkeepers can be pushy at times, we never met anyone rude, in fact most said "if we don't agree on a price we keep smiling." We will talk more about bartering in other tips/advice below.
Sahara Desert Tour
Day One
As mentioned earlier, we did a three day tour to the Sahara Desert with Marrakech Tours. The tour included hotel pick-up and drop-off, as well as transportation, accommodation and some meals. Most of the information about the tour can be found in the link provided. We took all our luggage (two large backpacks and two small suitcases), which was no problem, however we did have a small, 10L, collapsible backpack each as an overnight bag for when we went camping in the desert. We bought snacks (nuts, fruit, crisps) and water from the Medina before we left to take with us on the bus. This saved us money as the prices at each shop that we stopped at had bumped their prices up astronomical amounts by Moroccan standards. One of the stops of the first day is in Ait Ben Haddou, where a local guide takes you around the village, at an extra cost of about 30MAD per person, which we were not told about beforehand. This village of Yunkai in Game of Thrones and the background of the "Mhysa" scene. Click the photo below to see the scene.
Day Two
We had a local guide take us on a tour of a Berber village in the Todra Gorge. He took us to see how they make Moroccan rugs, then to the breathtaking gorge where we were able to take a dip in the freshwater stream.
The exciting part finally arrived late in the afternoon, when we arrived at the Sahara Desert! We were taken to a hotel to use the bathroom and pack our overnight bags. We packed a jacket, a toothbrush, toothpaste, water bottle and camera equipment. This was more than enough as you're only out there for about twelve hours overnight (we just slept in the same clothes we wore that day and we didn't need our jackets). We rode camels into the desert and watched the sunset in the dunes, then headed to camp where we enjoyed a group dinner (at about 10pm), followed by some traditional Moroccan music performed by our tour guides around a campfire. To top it off we got to sit out under the night sky and watch the stars. Something some people don’t get to enjoy very often. The next morning we got woken up at about 5am to get back on our camels and ride off into the dunes again to watch sunrise, and finally back to the hotel to shower and get back on the bus. The final day consisted of a very long, quiet bus ride back to Marrakech. All-in-all it was an incredible experience and we highly recommend it! If you want to see a bit more of what happened you can check out our video on YouTube here.
Essaouira
We booked a day trip to Essaouira, again through Marrakech Tours, for €21 per person. You can probably get it cheaper with local buses and a bit of research, but we only had one day to do it and this was the easiest option for us. We were picked up from our hotel at about 8am and driven in a very comfortable, air-conditioned minibus to the coast. We had two stops along the way - one at a women's co-operative, where they made argan oil, and the other on the side of the highway to stop at take photos of some goats in a tree..
Once in Essaouira we had about five hours to see the sights of the windy city! The old city is not very big, so this was a perfect amount of time. Our first stop was in a local cafe for some lunch, then we headed straight for the city wall to walk in the footsteps of Daenerys Targaryen. The photo below is the scene where Daenerys meets the Unsullied in Astapor in Game of Thrones. *jaws drop*
Then we went explored the streets and eventually made it to where everyone should go when in Essaouira - the beach! It was the first time we had seen the ocean in a long time, so we made the most of it and soaked up the sun until our bus arrived to take us back to Marrakech.
Walking
As far as we know, walking is free everywhere. We love walking around and exploring everywhere we go, and Marrakech is especially cool for this. We virtually walked around the whole city (or what they call the "Old Town"). We found beautiful mosques that seemed to appear out of nowhere. There are heaps of parks and gardens to go and see. As with anywhere these days, most places that are worth seeing you have to pay to get inside, but sometimes the outside was beautiful in itself (and free). We went to Bahia Palace and paid 70MAD each. We would probably only recommend it if you had nothing else to do or if you just had a lazy 70MAD laying around. We managed to get some cool pictures, but other than that it wasn't that interesting and it was absolutely packed with tourists.
Here's our list of recommendations of where to walk to in Marrakech:
- Jemaa El Fna (free)
- Koutoubia Mosque (free)
- Parc Lalla Hasna (free)
- Ben Youseff Mosque (free)
- Jardin Majorelle (70MAD)
- Bahia Palace (70MAD)
For more, grab a map from your hotel. Ask the staff questions about where to go and what to see. Don't ask people on the street.
other tips/advice
- As with most big cities, there are a few common scams to be aware of in Marrakech. These are the ones we picked up on:
Don't let people in the Medina put a hat on your head, a monkey on your shoulder or henna on your hand, because they'll do it without asking, then demand money. The poor monkeys had chains around their necks and were dressed up in costumes, so we definitely did not want any part of it.
Don't look at or take photos of the snake charmers or street performers, because they will also demand money, and they can be aggressive about it. This also made us very sad as we heard they sedate the snakes and pull their fangs out. Another reason not to support their circus tricks.
If a local tells you the road is closed or offers directions, simply ignore them, because they will, believe it or not, demand money for "helping you" (and 9 times out of 10 the street isn't closed and you probably are going the right way).
- When bartering in the Medina, always ask the shopkeeper for a price first, never give your price as the starting point. Once they give you their price, offer 30% (for example, if they say 100MAD, you offer 30MAD). Always go into your bartering with a "final price" in mind and don't pay over that, because no doubt you'll find someone who will give you what you want for the right price. We wrote a list on our phones of the currency conversion so we could quickly check how much we were paying for something.
- QUICK MATHS: 10MAD = €1 = $1.50; 100MAD = €10 = $15
- Another bartering tactic is tell them your final price straight up and don't budge. No matter what their counteroffer is, keep giving them your final price. If they do not accept after three or four attempts, walk away. More often than not they'll call you back and accept your offer. We felt a bit bad at the start being so stubborn, as we thought that this is how they make their living and we shouldn't take advantage, but we soon learnt that they mark-up their prices about 2000% so we weren't the ones taking advantage.
- It probably goes without saying, but DO NOT DRINK TAP WATER! Always buy bottled water, and if it's in a restaurant ask them to open it in front of you and order drinks without ice.
- Keep your wits about you at all times, especially in the Medina and other crowded areas. We saw a handbag snatched in the markets and no one could do anything about it. The kid disappeared into the crowd before the people even realised what had happened. Even though there are a lot of police around, they can't be everywhere and see everything.
- You can take photos of whatever you like in Morocco, but just be careful of what/who you take photos of. Most people are pretty switched on and know that if they ask for money, most tourists will give it to them, but we got the inside scoop on this early on, so we were aware of it. There are shops/stalls in the Medina that don't want you taking photos, but they have large, easily visible signs saying so.
- DO NOT exchange any currency at any airport. Ever. You'll lose half your money in conversion fees plus whatever commission they feel like earning that day. The most economical way we found in Morocco was to withdraw cash from ATMs (depending on your bank, of course). We use an ING Orange Everyday card which didn't charge us any extra conversion fees, just a small ATM fee that was reimbursed a few days later. We used a Monzo card one day without thinking and we were charged about $15 in conversion fees. So, just be aware of what your bank is charging you.
We hope this blog post helped (or entertained you) and if you have any questions or feedback for us we would love to hear from you!
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jorgiandkate
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