5 Days in Marrakech

The Koutoubia is the one building that tells you where you are in Marrakech. The Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min founded the first mosque here in 1147 and had it rebuilt around 1158, and the minaret you see was finished under his successor Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 1190s. It's 77 meters tall and the plain, geometric Almohad style inspired the Giralda of Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. It's named after the booksellers' market that once stood around it.

You can't go inside, so this is a short stop: walk around the outside, find the excavated remains of the first mosque on the esplanade, and look at how the minaret changes color through the day. The 2023 earthquake cracked it, and the mosque reopened in March 2024 after repairs. The Koutoubia's old minbar is in the El Badi Palace, which you'll see on day two.

Five minutes' walk east of the Koutoubia is the square that every Moroccan has an opinion about. Jemaa el-Fnaa has been the center of the city for roughly a thousand years, and nobody agrees on what its name means. One theory says the assembly of the dead, from the public executions held here; another says it recalls an unfinished mosque the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur started and abandoned. UNESCO listed the place for its living tradition of storytellers, musicians and performers, not for its buildings. In 1864 a gunpowder store exploded here and killed around 300 people.

By day it's quieter and more tourist-oriented: orange juice sellers, henna artists, snake charmers and people with monkeys. Walk across, take a look and move on. Snake photos cost about 20 MAD, and a "free" henna design always comes with a bill. The square was renovated in 2025-26 for about 160 million dirhams, and the results have been argued over in the Moroccan press.

The souks start just north of the square, along Souk Semmarine, and spread into a maze of lanes grouped by trade: dyers, leather, lanterns, metalwork, slippers, spices. Marrakech's main market streets grew up along the roads that linked the first Almoravid fortress and the first Friday mosque, which is why they still point toward Ben Youssef.

You will get lost. That's fine; you're never far from a gate. Bargain, but don't make it a war: start around a third of the first price, smile, and be ready to leave. Sellers here are more relaxed than people expect, and the fixed-price shops are useful for reference. Be wary of anyone who tells you that a lane or a sight is closed, then offers to lead you to a better one. That's the commonest scam in the medina.

Rahba Kedima, the old spice square, sits a few steps off Souk Semmarine. It's the best place to sit down in the middle of the shopping: apothecary stalls with jars of herbs, lanterns hanging from the shops, rooftop terraces above. Order a tagine or a salad plate and a pot of atay, mint tea, and watch the buying. Prices in the apothecary stalls are not marked, so ask first.

Café des Épices on the square is the place most guides mention (check it's open). If it's full, any terrace café on or just off the square will do the same job. Prices are higher than in a local café, but the view is the point.

The Ben Youssef Madrasa was finished in 1564-65 under the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib, and for a while it was the largest madrasa, a Muslim college, in the Maghreb. It stopped teaching in 1960 and opened as a museum in 1982. After a long closure for restoration (November 2018 to April 2022), it's looking its best. Students lived in small cells on two floors around the courtyard, and you can look into them.

The courtyard is the highlight: carved cedar, stucco and zellij tilework arranged around a central pool. Go late in the afternoon when the light slides across the walls. Next door, the Almoravid Koubba is a small domed pavilion from the early 12th century; you can see its outside from the street, and the inside costs about 50 MAD. The Ben Youssef Mosque beside the madrasa is closed to non-Muslims.

After dark the square changes completely. Food stalls roll in at sunset, smoke rises under the lights, and circles of people form around storytellers, musicians and drummers. A lot of it is for tourists, but not all, and Moroccans come too. It's the best free show in the country.

Stay near the edge at first, then drift in. Performers expect a coin or two (a few dirhams is fine), photographers are usually asked for more. Keep your bag in front of you and your phone in a pocket. For the best view, go up to a café terrace before dinner and watch the square fill.

Dinner is at the stalls. The stalls are licensed, display their prices, and locals eat there too; you can pay 10 MAD for a bread with grilled sausages or a bowl of harira, or about 100 MAD for a full three-course meal. Try the harira, grilled meat and fried eggplant (the lamb head is for the brave), and finish with a cup of spiced tea.

The stall touts are persistent: expect a menu pushed into your face and an "old friend" welcome. Pick the stall that looks busy with locals, ask the price of drinks before you order, and watch for starters that land on the table unasked, because they get charged at the end. Eat early (7 pm) to get a seat.

Be at the gate for 9:00. The Saadian Tombs are the burial place of the Saadian dynasty, mostly built in the reign of Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603), the sultan who also built El Badi. They lay forgotten for centuries: the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, who stripped the Saadian palaces, sealed the necropolis off, and French authorities only rediscovered it in 1917. They're in a walled garden behind the Kasbah Mosque.

It's a small site, and 20-30 minutes is enough once you're in. The star is the Chamber of the Twelve Columns, its name says it all; you can't walk in, only look from an opening in the wall, and there's often a queue for the spot. Cross the garden to see the Chamber of the Mihrab and the Chamber of the Three Niches. The 2023 earthquake cracked the walls and towers around the site more than the tombs themselves, and the site is open again.

Ten minutes' walk from the tombs, El Badi was Ahmad al-Mansur's reception palace. His chroniclers say it took fifteen years to finish, from 1578 to 1593, and the name means the Incomparable. The courtyard is 135 meters long, with a pool of 90 meters in the middle and sunken gardens at the sides; the marble came from Italy, reportedly swapped for its weight in sugar. The sultan hosted ambassadors here.

What you see is ruins, and that's the charm. By the early 1700s the palace was already derelict, and Moulay Ismail ordered it dismantled to build his new capital at Meknes. The walls stand bare, orange and open to the sky. Climb to the terrace for the view over the medina, and find the Koutoubia's 12th-century minbar, a carved pulpit, in its exhibition room. The palace hosts exhibitions and the annual folklore festival.

Walk east into the Mellah, the old Jewish quarter. The Saadians created it in 1558 on the site of the sultan's stables, so the community would live close to the palace, and at the time Jewish Marrakech included many of the city's tailors, metalworkers, jewelers and sugar traders. Today it's a quiet corner of the medina with two sights worth the stop.

The Slat al-Azama synagogue has a courtyard and small displays about Moroccan Jewish history. The Jewish cemetery next to it is the largest in Morocco, whitewashed tombs on sandy ground, and the ticket seller usually has stories. Both cost a few dirhams, so check at the door. Dress modestly and be quiet there.

The Place des Ferblantiers, the square of the tinsmiths, sits between the Mellah and the Bahia Palace. The workshops in the arcades make lanterns and pots, and a ring of terrace cafés looks over them. It's a calmer place to sit than the main square and a good place for a lunch tagine: chicken with preserved lemon and olives, or lamb with prunes.

Tagine is named after the conical clay pot, and lunch here is a good moment to see how it's done: the lid comes off at the table, the sauce is thick, and you eat with bread, no cutlery needed. If you want something lighter, ask for the salad plate.

The Bahia Palace is the 19th-century one: Si Moussa, grand vizier to the sultan, started it in the 1860s, and his son Ba Ahmed, who was vizier in the 1890s, expanded it into a complex of about 150 rooms around almost two hectares. It's a showcase of the Moroccan craftsmanship of its day: painted cedar ceilings, zellij floors and carved stucco around marble courtyards.

There's very little furniture, so it's the surfaces you look at. The Grand Courtyard, 50 by 30 meters, is the big space, and the smaller riad gardens are the pleasant ones. The palace was damaged in the 2023 earthquake, where a vaulted ceiling in the Grand Riad collapsed, and it reopened in October 2023. The entrance is on Rue Riad Zitoun el Jdid, and tour groups come in waves, so stay a while and they pass.

Sunset is early in winter, around 5:30 pm, so plan to be on a rooftop by 5. The terraces around Jemaa el-Fnaa are the classic choice: you watch the light drop, the call to prayer rise from every direction, and the lights come on in the square below. Le Marrakchi, on the square, is a rooftop restaurant that says it's open daily from noon to 1 am, and it has long been one of the few terraces there that serves alcohol. Café terraces just off the square are cheaper and will do just as well.

Friday is the traditional day for couscous, the family meal after midday prayers. In a restaurant you can eat it any evening, but the dish is most at home on a Friday. Steamed semolina comes with vegetables and meat, and there's a vegetarian version too. Chez Chegrouni, just off the square, is a long-running budget place known for its vegetarian couscous.

Jacques Majorelle, a French painter, bought the plot in 1923 and spent almost forty years building a garden around a Cubist villa he commissioned in 1931. He painted the villa in the cobalt blue that carries his name, bleu Majorelle, and patented it. After his death the place fell into disrepair, until Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé bought it in 1980 and restored it. It's one hectare of plants from around the world, cacti above all, and it gets more than 700,000 visitors a year.

The honest verdict: beautiful, and small. Come when the doors open (8:00) or an hour before closing; at midday it's a queue of people photographing the same blue wall. The villa houses the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts, with objects from Amazigh culture, and it's worth the extra ticket.

Next door, the YSL Museum opened in October 2017 as a tribute to the designer. It shows the designer's work in rotating exhibitions, and it's smaller and cooler than the garden at midday.

The official site sells a combined ticket that covers the garden, the Berber Museum and this museum. The museum is closed on Wednesdays, and open 10:00-18:00 the other days, with the last entry at 17:30. If you aren't into fashion, spend your time in the garden and skip it.

A short taxi ride away on Boulevard Zerktouni, Al Fassia has been serving traditional Moroccan food in Gueliz since 1987, and it's a good place to try the dishes that are rarely made well in tourist places: a slow-cooked lamb tagine, a pastilla, or couscous. Gueliz is the Ville Nouvelle, the new town that grew up outside the walls during the French protectorate (1912-1956), and it's the part of Marrakech where nobody is selling you anything.

Book ahead for lunch, and order a pastilla (b'stilla), the pie of pigeon or chicken, almonds and cinnamon dusted with sugar. It's sweet and savory at once, and one portion is plenty for two. Wine is served by the bottle.

The Menara is a huge basin of water in an olive grove, with a green-roofed pavilion at one end. The pavilion dates from the Saadian era and was renovated in 1869. It's a favorite of postcard photographers.

Don't expect a manicured garden: it's a working orchard with an old reservoir, and it's a bit run down. Come for the quiet and the walk between the olive trees. With the Atlas on the horizon on a clear day, it's the best place in town to remember how close the mountains are. Go in the early afternoon and check the closing time, which varies.

After a day of walking, a hammam is the right thing to do. It's a place of ablution, steam and scrubbing that was built next to mosques, and every Moroccan neighborhood still has one. There are two kinds. A neighborhood hammam is cheap: entry is around 12 MAD and a scrub from an attendant about 50 MAD more (check locally), the rooms are gender-separated, and you bring your own towel, flip-flops and black soap. It's rough, hot and extremely local.

A spa hammam in a riad or a bath house like Les Bains de Marrakech costs about 170-1,400 MAD depending on the treatment, speaks English, and usually has private rooms; book a couple of days ahead. The kessa glove scrub is the point of both: expect to be rubbed until your skin feels new. Whichever you pick, keep your underwear on.

At the eastern edge of the medina, near Bab Debbagh, the tanneries are one of the oldest working crafts in the city: skins are soaked, scraped and dyed in rows of stone vats. It smells, strongly. You get the best view from the terrace of a leather shop overlooking the pits, where someone will hand you a sprig of mint to hold under your nose.

Honestly, it's a place to be careful. The scam is well known: a stranger on the street says it's the only day of the year, or that you must have a guide, leads you in, and demands money at the end. You can visit the tanneries without paying a guide, and they're open all year. Go up to a shop terrace, look for ten minutes, say thank you, and decide at the end if you want to buy leather.

Tucked away in the Mouassine quarter, Le Jardin Secret is a restored palace garden in the middle of the medina, with a tower. The tower is the part that justifies the extra ticket: from the top you look over the rooftops toward the Koutoubia and the Atlas, which is a better view than most terraces.

The garden is the exception to the medina's noise. Allow an hour or so. In November the garden is open 9:30 to 17:30 every day, and the last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Tickets are sold on site, and payment by cash (MAD or euros) or by card is accepted.

The Marrakech Museum is in the Dar Menebhi, a palace built in the early 20th century by Mehdi Menebhi, restored by the Omar Benjelloun Foundation and opened as a museum in 1997. The building is the main exhibit.

The collections are modern and traditional Moroccan art, along with books, coins and pottery from Arab, Berber and Jewish makers. It's a good break from the street, and it is near the Ben Youssef Madrasa, which you've already seen. If you're short of time, skip it and take longer in the Jardin Secret.

Lunch is lamb, the way Marrakechis like it. Mechoui Alley, near the main square, is where the slow-roasted lamb is sold: mechoui is a whole sheep or lamb, roasted until the meat falls off the bone. You order by weight, it's cut at the counter and served with bread, cumin and salt, and you eat with your hands.

It's cheap and very filling. Pick a stall with locals at the counter.

A small photography museum in a riad, the Maison de la Photographie shows photographs of Morocco. It's a quick and quiet visit, and the roof terrace is one of the higher ones in the medina, with a long view toward the Atlas.

Have a mint tea at the top. The ticket also includes a second small museum, the Museum of Mouassine Music.

Tanjia is Marrakech's own dish, and it's not the same as tagine. The name belongs to both the urn-shaped clay jar and the stew inside: lamb shank, preserved lemon, cumin, garlic and saffron, sealed with parchment and cooked for hours at very low heat. Traditionally, men would drop the jar into the embers of a hammam furnace in the morning and collect it at lunchtime.

The meat comes out so soft it falls apart. Ask for it in a restaurant, because few places make it to order, and it's best at lunch or an early dinner. With bread and olives it's a full meal.

The easiest way is a driver booked through your riad (a private car for the day costs more than a shared grand taxi, but you decide when to stop). A grand taxi from Marrakech to Asni, and then the old green minibus up to Imlil, is the budget route. The minibus runs from 7:00, and a seat has been about 10 MAD. A tour bus is the other option, and you'll see more people than mountains.

Asni is the market town at the foot of the High Atlas and the last big village before the climb. It was one of the hardest-hit places in the 2023 earthquake, where around 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, so you'll see reconstruction along the road. In Asni some people will tell you the bus to Imlil is "not running" and lead you to a shop; ignore them.

Imlil is a small Amazigh village at the gateway to the Toubkal National Park, and the starting point for the climb of Jebel Toubkal, at 4,167 meters the highest mountain in North Africa. Most visitors come here to walk, not to sightsee. It's a base for mountain guides and mule drivers, with a few guesthouses, shops that rent boots and sticks, and a community hammam that the village association runs with tourism money.

In November the valley can be sunny and mild at midday and bitterly cold in the shade, and snow is possible on the heights. The trek to the Toubkal refuge takes around six hours from here, and a summit attempt starts before dawn; that is a two-day project, not a day trip. Today's walk is gentler.

The standard short walk is up the valley from Imlil to the village of Aroumd, which is on the trail to the Toubkal refuge. Shorter walks also connect Imlil with nearby villages like Aït Souka. The paths are rocky, so wear proper shoes. You pass terraced fields, walnut trees and mud-brick houses, with the snow line high above.

A local guide for a half-day walk is easy to arrange in Imlil, and you'll learn about the village in a way that you won't in a car. Agree the price before you set off. If you want to go further, the shrine of Sidi Chamharouch lies beyond Aroumd on the way up to the refuge.

Lunch is on a village terrace, with a tagine, a bowl of soup and a pot of mint tea in the sun. The guesthouses and cafés around the village center all serve the same sort of menu, so choose by the view. In a mountain village, where ingredients come up on mules, the vegetable tagine is usually the best thing on the menu.

Order before your walk if you can, so the tagine is ready when you get back, then drive down.