There is plenty to do in Morocco, but if you've only got a few short days hopefully our itinerary helps ! We decided to visit Marrakech, Essaouria & the Zagora (Sahara) Desert. However, you could easily pack in more if you wanted too!
We flew into Casablanca from Montreal, QC but the fares are a lot cheaper if you fly into Marrakesh from some European countries like Spain or Portugal.
We stayed in the "old part" or what they call the Medina of Marrakech. It is a literal maze, but after a couple of days you'll manage to dodge your way through the crazy directions. We booked ourselves at the Rodamon Riad.
The people at the Rodamon were AMAZING and so extremely helpful. They took care of our transportation to and from the airports, helping us with figuring out day trips right before our flight home, and down to hooking it up for a last minute hammam spa appointment (worth it btw).
It was located right by the infamous Jemaa El Fna Square where you'll find tons of souks, cafes, restaurants, food market stalls etc. BUT, beware of the tourist traps of course. It was a great central location and we planned most of our days around where we stayed because it was close to a lot of places. We plan on staying there again if we ever get the chance to go back. Check out are do's and don'ts from this trip by clicking here.
Marrakesh (Day 1-4)
Day 1:
STAY IN A RIAD ! Check in to your place. If you are staying in the medina, the first time can be overwhelming. BE CAUTIOUS, there are lots of people that will appear to be helping, tell you to go this direction and purposely lead you down the wrong alley way. Luckily we had our driver show us to our place !
On our first day, we took it easy after the long flight and relaxed at our riad. Eventually, we found our way to Jemaa El Fna Square and settled for this place called the Zeitoun Cafe.
Fun fact, there are a lot of terrace/ rooftop type kind of restaurants in the city. This restaurant was a great option to get dinner, relax and watch the super busy market below. Later on, we walked around and checked out the stalls. Grabbed some desert from the vendors and had some traditional Moroccan mint tea back at the our place.
Day 2:
Because of our short time, we opted to do something kind of touristy and did a 2-day City Bus Tour. It was the same concept for all those Hop on- Hop off buses like in most major cities. This actually ended up being a pretty good idea, we ended up making friends with locals doing it and covered a bit of ground. We managed to see some of the highlights (and in this order): the Koutoubia Mosque, Ben Youssef Madrasa ( currently closed-construction) Almoravid Koubba, Bahia Palace, El Badi Palace, Sadian Tombs and Bab Aganou.
Day 3:
On the second day of the City Bus Tour we used our pass to go check out the newer, modern part of Marrakech. We visited the Majorelle Gardens, passed through the Cyber Park ( there's free wifi throughout this park) and checked out the Menara Gardens.
Later on, we actually decided to do Cafe Kif Kif (highly recommend). It's a pretty popular restaurant and we were lucky enough to get rooftop table. The food is great, and because it was a Ramadan we got a birds eye view of the amazing gathering for prayer at the Koutoubia Mosque during the late evening. We also ended up going over to a hookah bar till the early
morning. If you get a chance, do a belly dance dinner !
The nice thing about the city is that even though it was 3am, the place was still busy. People still meeting each other to go eat and have a drink etc.
Day 4:
This day for us was kind of a mixture for a free day. Although, we do have some recommendations/ ideas:
-Take a Tajine cooking class (we actually got to this with a friend we met there, it was so worth learning how to make it)
-Shop the Souks. There are so many beautiful leather products, scarves, rugs, and skincare. Beware, sometimes getting lost can cost you. We did, and learnt it the hard way. (HAGGLE ONLY IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT BUYING) -Unwind at Hammam Spa (get scrubbed down!!)
- Do a daytrip to either the Ourika valley if you're into adrenaline type activities - there's everything from hiking, white-river rafting, kayaking, mountain biking OR opt to do the infamous Ouzoud falls -Visit the La Mamounia, it is a beautiful luxury hotel with a serious pool, it's every Instagrammer's dream shot.
We had to be up early the next day for our desert trip so we hung around the square, tried out some snails, ate more at the nightly food stalls and had our daily mint tea at a cafe and bought some snacks for the next day.
Zagora Desert & Atlas Mountains (Day 5-6)
Day 5-6:
This had to be a highlight of our trip. Because of the short time, we did a 2 day trip to get to the Zagora Desert, which was kind of the gateway desert to the Sahara Desert. We stayed overnight "glamping" kind of style in the desert and the experience was unreal.
Expect to drive about 6-7 hrs to get to that point. Along the way you'll want to stop in Ouarzazate and see the village of Benhaddou (Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou).
You'll pass through the Draa Valley and see some wicked views. The roads are windy and pretty narrow up the mountains so if you aren't great with road trips pack that gravol.
On the way back definitely pass the Atlas Film Studios, we were suprised a the amount of films that were filmed in Morocco.
By the time we reached where we were staying for the night we did a sunset camel trek , the trek took about 1-1.5 hrs to get to our campsite. The set up was really nice, it was more of a "glamping" kind of feel. Don't worry about the toilet situation, it was just fine ;) .
The rest of the night was perfect, the sky was super clear, the moon and stars lit up the desert....eventually a sandstorm took over and we had to take shelter BUT it was unreal while it lasted.
That sandstorm didn't stop us from waking extra early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Just do it, how often is that your in the Sahara Desert?
Essaouria (Day 7-8)
Day 7:
We were taking a late night flight back home, so essentially we had a free day for the most part. We decided to visit Essaouria one of Morocco's surf towns which was about 2 hours away from Marrakech.
It's a pretty awesome day trip, a long the way we found those goats you see on trees.. *fact* that is not a natural phenomenon, farmers put them up in there ! We also passed by some argan oil co-ops and splurged a little there. We learnt that sometimes the oil you buy in the big cities can be mixed with other oils and isn't 100% argan oil.
The vibe and culture of the city was noticeably different from the red city of Marrakech, the buildings were very Greek style ish with the blue and white paint.
Summary: We didn't have enough time. WE WANT TO GO BACK! Morocco is truly not like any other place and we LOVED IT!