Morocco
Contents
Plan Your Trip
Welcome to Morocco
Morocco's Top 17
Need to Know
If You Like
Month by Month
Itineraries
Morocco Outdoors
Trekking in Morocco
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance
On The Road
Marrakesh & Central Morocco
Marrakesh & Central Morocco Highlights
Marrakesh
Around Marrakesh
The High Atlas
The Southern Oases
Draa Valley
Dades Valley & The Gorges
Ziz Valley & The Tafilalt
Rissani to Zagora
Atlantic Coast
Atlantic Coast Highlights
Casablanca (Dar el-Baida)
City Walk
Rabat
Sale
Around Rabat & Sale
Moulay Bousselham
Larache
Lixus
Asilah
El Jadida
Azemmour
Oualidia
Safi
Essaouira
Around Essaouira
Diabat
Sidi Kaouki
Mediterranean Coast & the Rif
Mediterranean Coast & the Rif Highlights
West Mediterranean Coast
Tangier
Cap Spartel
Road to Ceuta
Ceuta (Sebta)
The Rif Mountains
Tetouan
Around Tetouan
Chefchaouen
Trekking in the Rif Mountains: Talassemtane National Park
Oued Laou
Targa to El-Jebha
Al-Hoceima
Al-Hoceima National Park
Cala Iris & Torres de Alcala
East Mediterranean Coast
Melilla
Nador
East of Nador
Saidia
Berkane
Oujda
Fez, Meknes and the Middle Atlas
Fez, Meknes & Middle Atlas Highlights
Imperial Cities
Fez
City Walk
Sefrou
Bhalil
Meknes
Volubilis (Oualili)
Moulay Idriss
Middle Atlas
Ifrane
Azrou
Midelt
Around Midelt
Taza
Southern Morocco & Western Sahara
Agadir
Souss-Massa National Park
North of Agadir
Taroudannt
Taliouine
Tafraoute
Around Tafraoute
Ameln Valley & Jebel LKest
Tata
Trekking around Tafraoute
Tiznit
Aglou Plage
Mirleft
Sidi Ifni
Around Sidi Ifni
Goulimime
Tan Tan & Tan Tan Plage
Tarfaya
Laayoune (Al-'Uyun)
Dakhla (Ad-Dakhla)
Understand
Understand Morocco
Morocco Today
History
A Day in the Life of Morocco
Moroccan Cuisine
Music
Literature & Cinema
Arts & Crafts
Architecture
Natural Wonders
Survive
Directory AZ
Accommodation
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Gay & Lesbian Travellers
Insurance
Internet Access
Language Courses
Legal Matters
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Photography
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Smoking
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Women Travellers
Work
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Health
Before You Go
In Morocco
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Special Features
Winding Lanes
Natural Landscapes
Welcome to Morocco
Morocco is a gateway to Africa, and a country of dizzying diversity. Here you'll find epic mountain ranges, ancient cities, sweeping deserts – and warm hospitality.
Mountains & Desert
From Saharan dunes to the peaks of the High Atlas, Morocco could have been tailor-made for travellers. Lyrical landscapes carpet this slice of North Africa like the richly coloured and patterned rugs you’ll lust after in local cooperatives. The mountains – not just the famous High Atlas but also the Rif and suntanned ranges leading to Saharan oases – offer simple, breathtaking pleasures: night skies glistening in the thin air, and views over a fluffy cloudbank from the Tizi n’Test pass. On lower ground, there are rugged coastlines, waterfalls and caves in forested hills, and the mighty desert.
Ancient Medinas
Morocco's cities are some of the most exciting on the continent. Join the centuries-old trail of nomads and traders to their ancient hearts, from the winding medina maze of Fez to the carnivalesque street-theatre of the Djemaa el-Fna in Marrakesh. In the rocky deserts medinas are protected by kasbahs, on the coast by thick sea walls. But it's not just a heritage trip, as Morocco's cities are forward-facing too, with glitzy new urban design in Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier looking to the future as well as paying homage to their roots.
Moroccan Activities
Enjoying Morocco starts with nothing more strenuous than its national pastime – people-watching in a street cafe with a coffee or a mint tea. Use the opportunity to plan your next moves – hiking up North Africa’s highest peak, learning to roll couscous, camel trekking in the desert, shopping in the souqs or getting lost in the medina. Between the activities, you can sleep in boutique riads, relax on panoramic terraces and grand squares, and mop up delicately flavoured tajines – before sweating it all out in a restorative hammam.
Traditional Life
Morocco is a storied country, that has, over the centuries, woven its ties to Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the wider Middle East into whole cloth. Its mixed Arab and Berber population forms a strong national identity, but an increasingly youthful one, taking the best of its traditions and weaving the pattern anew – from the countryside to the city, from the call to prayer from the mosque to the beat of local hip hop. Morocco has a hundred faces and sounds, all ready to welcome the traveller looking for spice and adventure.
Erg Chebbi | WESTEND61/GETTY IMAGES ©
Why I Love Morocco
By Paul Clammer, Writer
In the 20-something years that I've been visiting Morocco – from travelling as a student backpacker through leading tour groups and writing travel guides to having my own front door key to a medina house – it's always the first mint tea that grounds me in the place. The ceremonial pouring and re-pouring from silver teapots. The tall glasses stuffed with viridescent leaves that scald to the touch. The impossible sweetness that would be cloying anywhere else in the world. At first, mint tea was the taste of somewhere new. Now, it's the reassurance that I'm back in a country I love. For me, there's nothing more Moroccan.
Djemaa el-Fna Street Theatre
Circuses can’t compare to the madcap, Unesco-acclaimed halqa (street theatre) in Marrakesh’s main square. By day, ‘La Place’ draws crowds with astrologers, snake-charmers, acrobats and dentists with jars of pulled teeth. Around sunset, 100 restaurant stalls kick off the world’s most raucous grilling competition. ‘I teach Jamie Oliver everything he knows!’ brags a chef. ‘We’re number one…literally!’ jokes the cook at stall No 1. After dinner, Djemaa music jam sessions get under way – audience participation is always encouraged, and spare change ensures encores.
Gnaoua musicians | TIM GERARD BARKER/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Fez Medina
The Fez medina is the maze to end all mazes. The only way to experience it is to plunge in head first, and don’t be afraid of getting lost – follow the flow of people to take you back to the main thoroughfare, or pay a small boy to show you the way. It’s an adventure into a medieval world of hidden squares, enormous studded doors and colourful souqs. Remember to look up and see intricate plasterwork, magnificent carved cedarwood and curly Arabic calligraphy, while at your feet are jewel-like mosaics.
View to the Medina from Medersa Bou Inania | SABINO PARENTE/500PX ©
Top Experiences
The High Atlas
Zaouiat Ahansal is the Chamonix of the eastern Atlas. Hemmed in by the cracked and fissured summit of Aroudane (3359m), the valley is characterised by kilometres of cliffs, soaring buttresses and dramatic slot canyons. With the arrival of a paved road in 2013, this awesome natural canvas is just beginning to attract attention. For rafters and kayakers the valley is a green jewel where rafts whip between 8ft-wide limestone walls; for climbers and trekkers the extreme topography and huge routes offer ridiculous views and a thrilling sense of wilderness.
PHOTOGRAPHIE HG MEUNIER/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Chefchaouen Medina
Steep and cobbled, the Chefchaouen medina tumbles down the mountainside in a shower of red roofs, wrought-iron balconies and geraniums. The blue-washed lanes enchant, making the town a photographer's dream-come-true. You could be content for hours just people-watching over a mint tea in the cafe-packed main square, lorded over by a grand red-hued kasbah. Or amble down the riverside walk, stroll to the Spanish mosque on the hill and even venture into the surrounding Talassemtane National Park to explore the Rif Mountains.
ZZVET/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Life in the Palmeraies
Until you see the vast palmeraies (palm groves) that carpet the Dadès and Ziz Valleys, you can’t fully appreciate the amazing feat of Morocco’s existence. Thick with palms and networked by communal wells and khettara (irrigation channels) the palm groves of Figuig, Ziz Valley, Tinejdad, Tinerhir and Skoura are the historical lifeblood of the Moroccan south. Even today they continue to play a vital role in oasis life, with plots beneath the shaded canopy providing a surprising bounty of barley, tomatoes, mint, pomegranates, apricots, figs and almonds sustaining generation after generation.
Skoura palmeraie | MARKO RAZPOTNIK SEST/SHUTTERSTOCK ©
Top Experiences
Drâa Valley Kasbah Trail
Roads now allow safe, speedy passage through the final stretches of ancient caravan routes from Mali to Marrakesh, but beyond the rocky gorges glimpsed through car windows lies the Drâa Valley of desert-traders’ dreams. The palms and cool mud-brick castles of Tamegroute, Zagora, Timidarte and Agdz must once have seemed like mirages after two months in the Sahara. Fortifications that housed gold-laden caravans are now open to overnight guests, who wake to fresh boufeggou dates, bread baked in rooftop ovens, and this realisation: speed is overrated.
Agdz | PSYNOVEC/SHUTTERSTOCK ©
Top Experiences
Tafraoute
The Anti Atlas main town, Tafraoute has a jumble of pink houses and market streets with extraordinary surroundings. The Ameln Valley is dotted with palmeraies and Berber villages, and the looming mountains stage a twice-daily, ochre-and-amber light show. With a relatively undeveloped tourist industry, despite the region’s many charms, it’s a wonderful base for activities including mountain biking and seeking out prehistoric rock carvings. As if the granite cliffs and oases weren’t scenic enough, a Belgian artist applied his paint brush to some local boulders – with surreal results.
MIKADUN/SHUTTERSTOCK ©
Top Experiences
Surfing
You can surf all along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, but the best place to catch waves is Taghazout. It’s clear what floats the village’s board as soon as you arrive: the usual cafes and téléboutiques are joined by surf shops, where locals and incomers wax boards and wax lyrical about the nearby beaches. On the same stretch of coast between Agadir and Essaouira, Tamraght and Sidi Kaouki are also set up for surfing; further south, Mirleft is Morocco’s newest surf destination, with an annual longboard championship.
PATRICE SCHWARZ/500PX ©
Top Experiences
Anti Atlas Trekking
A sunburned granite range leading to the Sahara, the Anti Atlas remains unexplored compared with the High Atlas. The star attraction for trekkers is the quartz massif of Jebel L’Kest, the ‘amethyst mountain’, which you can walk to through the lush Ameln Valley. More farming villages and crumbling kasbahs are found around Jebel Aklim, another of the excellent trekking possibilities in this area of blue skies and Berber shepherds. The landscape has enough variety, from palm-filled gorges to brooding, volcanic Jebel Siroua, to justify multiple treks.
ALDO PAVAN/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Sidi Ifni
Shhh! Don’t tell your travelling friends, but this formerly Spanish seaside town, a camel ride from the Sahara, is every bit as dilapidated, breezy and magical as well-trodden Essaouira. You can walk out along the sweep of Legzira Plage, or just explore the blue-and-white backstreets of one of southern Morocco’s most alluring hang-outs. The best time to appreciate the art-deco relics – more reminiscent of Cuba than Casa – is sunset, when the Atlantic winds bend the palms and fill the air with a cooling sea mist.
IVOHA/SHUTTERSTOCK ©
Top Experiences
Essaouira
Freshened by the endless Atlantic breeze, the old sea walls and gleaming white medina of Essaouira help make one of Morocco's most charming and laid-back destinations. There are swish riads, the freshest seafood unloaded from the small port, and a vibe that seamlessly blends an old visual arts tradition with the active sea sports that the coast here is increasingly known for. As any resident will tell you, Jimi Hendrix was a fan – and you soon will be too.
FEDERICA GENTILE/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Fès Festival of World Sacred Music
With intimate concerts in mosaic-studded riads, harmonic afternoons at the Batha Museum, mesmerising Sufi Nights in a Pasha's garden and grand performances in the magnificent crenellated Bab al Makina, this festival still charms and impresses after 20 years. A love of music that engenders harmony between civilisations and religions is the cornerstone here, and you'll experience sacred music from every corner of the world: it could be Mongolian fiddles or whirling dervishes, Sufi qawwali or Persian maqām, Irish laments or African drums.
Qawwals from the Faiz Ali Faiz ensemble | SUSANNA WYATT/GETTY IMAGES ©
Top Experiences
Moulay Idriss
Named for Morocco’s most revered saint, this little town contains his mausoleum and is one of the most important pilgrimage spots in the country. It straddles two hills and, whichever side of town you're on, the views across the green roofs and out to the rolling countryside beyond are arrestingly pretty, especially in the evening light. At the very top is Morocco’s only cylindrical minaret, which is well worth the climb, while spread at its feet are olive groves that produce a fragrantly tasty oil.
OLUFEMI ONIPINLA/EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES
©
Top Experiences
Volubilis
Berber king Juba II, whose wife was the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, was installed at Volubilis by the Romans. The town became a thriving farming community producing olive oil, wheat and wine for the Roman army. Stand on the basilica steps today, look out over the same fertile fields and survey his kingdom. This World Heritage site has few rules about where you can walk, little signage and lots of storks nesting on column-tops. It has some dazzling mosaics and a brand-new museum.
Lonely Planet Morocco Page 1