Where to stay
Riad Jardin Secret (rooms from 150 euros) is a really authentic choice, well located a five minute walk from the souks, with beautifully preserved craftsmanship, wonderful seating nooks, a shaded roof terrace and tranquil salons but as part of their sustainable ethics the house doesn’t have a pool or a hammam – but then part of the adventure of staying here is living as the locals do!
Darr Rbaa Laroub guesthouse (rooms – all with fireplaces – from 70 euros). One of the earliest guesthouses to open in the medina, it has a small roof terrace for pre-dinner cocktails but no pool.
Le Riad Atelier (rooms from 100 euros), a restored travellers’ inn with five suites and a plunge pool. Located in the untouristy neighbourhood of Kâat Benahid, you’re a few hundred metres from the Maison de la Photographie, the Ali Ben Youssef Medersa and the Marrakech museum. The Djemaa el-Fna is half a mile’s walk southwest through the souks.
Dar Housnia (rooms from 160 euros), an Arabo-Andalucian feel, mezzanine pool and two roof terraces. Same location as Riad Atelier.
Riad Farnatchi (rooms from 330 euros) described as “The City’s Most Luxurious Riad”, a true boutique bolthole with 10 artfully designed suites set across seven traditional Medina mansions, including a fabulous spa.
Riad Adore (rooms from 140 euros) a cool, chic, contemporary 10-bedroom riad close to the souks, the monuments and the main square, very conveniently in an upmarket area of antiques dealers and the Medina’s hippest makers. The Victoria Suite has its own Juliet balcony.
Riad Le J – (rooms from 78 euros) great bang for your buck, run by an Italian couple, buried in the heart of the medina behind the Mouassine mosque in a great neighbourhood. Finding it may be a bit of an adventure. The house manager is an amazing concierge too, helps organise cookery lessons or even just accompanying you to dinner bookings down medina alleys. Slightly smaller bathrooms and no pool.
Kenzi Club Adgal – more affordable than Club Med with a great baby & kids club.
Eating and Drinking
Petanque Social Club – a 1930s petanque club that’s been converted to a great lunch spot with a pop-up farmers market in the secret garden (a rarity in the heart of the city). Open for dinner too. A place to see & be seen 😉
Riad Farnatchi’s Le Trou Au Mur (‘hole in the wall’ in French) – Plunge into the labyrinth of medina streets to find the doorway off a narrow lane. The owners and chefs have set out to revive ancient cooking techniques and ingredients and has a menu that steps outside the regular offerings of tajine and couscous.
Other great options in the souks: La Famille, a lovely garden for lunch or Mandala Society, where you’ll get the best coffee to-go in town, but they also serve delicious food on their rooftop. Ask the barrista there for any local advice/ directions you may need, they’re great. BlackChich is also an excellent rooftop option on the same street.
Marrakech Henna Art Cafe – a cute cafe south of Jemaa el’Fnaa. This is the best/safest place to get henna done as well! The women who do henna here are true artists and get fair pay, and the quality of the henna won’t burn or infect your skin.
Cafe Arabe (sunset) – a great view of the sunset.
Cafe des Epices – tall restaurant in a more open area of the souks – has really good sandwhiches if you’re getting sick of tagine!
Souk Kafe – located in the north entrance to the Souks, cozy and pretty quiet. Really tasty food for a good price. You need to get the specialty tangine here – they cook this for over 24 hours and you can’t find it elsewhere.
Amal Women’s Training Center – Best rated Marrakech restaurant on tripadvisor, this lovely courtyard restaurant is also a charity training center for disadvantaged women. And the food is out of this world. You can also do a cooking class with them.
L’Mida – with a towering terrace, a fresh, modern Moroccan interior and a fantastic fusion menu
Dar Simons – This restaurant-with-rooms is a new concept for Marrakech. Owner and chef Carlo Simons earned his stripes in various Michelin-starred kitchens and so he approaches both his cooking and hosting with a deep sense of care. Everything in dar (house) reflects this, from the gleaming high-spec, open kitchen to the bespoke and vintage furniture, and the thoughtful service. The enclosed courtyard downstairs is devoted to an intimate dining room that seats just 14, where you’ll taste some of the finest food to be had in the Medina.
Dar Yacout – The King’s favourite restaurant is set in a beautiful old riad tucked away in a narrow lane. In summer dine in the courtyard; in winter by an open fire. Undoubtedly one of the most romantic restaurants in the world.
Grand Café de a Poste – for a glass of rosé on its chic, secluded terrace or beneath the slow-moving fans in its beautiful bistro-style interior.
Le 68 for late-night drinks and an arty intellectual vibe.
Pâtisserie des Princes (32 Rue Bab Agnaou) for ice cream and sweet treats
Seeing and Doing
Musée Tiskiwin – housed in a historic riad, each room representing a caravan stop along the ancient Saharan route from Marrakech to Timbuktu, featuring a wonderful collection of North African art, clothing and jewelry.
Visit the gallery, tea room and shop of Hassan Hajjaj, nicknamed Marrakesh’s Andy Warhol, at the beautifully decorated Riad Yima
Fondation Dar Bellarj Maison Des Cigognes, an arts centre celebrating living culture, with changing exhibitions on everything from Berber tattoos, photographic portraits and local weaving. Also a serene place for a pick-me-up cup of mint tea.
Set in the gorgeous palace of Pasha Glaoui, the former governor of Marrakech, the Musée des Confluences (Dar el Bacha, Rte Sidi Abdelaziz) is worth the price of entry just to gawp at the stunning architecture and gardens. Then when you pick your jaw up off the floor you can peruse the archaeological collection of American Patty Birch, which explores the intersection of different cultures. Also, in the palace is the extravagant Bacha Coffeehouse, a sort of Marrakech Café Florian serving over 40 single origin brews.
Al-Mansour’s once magnificent Badi Palace (Ksibat Nhass), now a monumental ruin with vast reflecting pools and impressive views of the city from its ramparts. Nearby is the beautiful Bahia Palace (Avenue Imam El Ghazali), a vast, gorgeously decorated palace once owned by slave-turned-vizier Abu ‘Bou’ Ahmed. Allow plenty of time to enjoy the different spaces, the most impressive of which are the quarters of Bou Ahmed’s favourite concubine, Lalla Zineb.
Le Jardin Secret (121 Rue Mouassine; 00 212 524 390 040), one of the Medina’s largest and most important gardens set out in the shell of a 19th-century palace. Very pretty but can get crowded.
Jardin Majorelle (Rue Yves St Laurent; 00 212 524 313 047), the home where Yves Saint Laurent lived with his partner Pierre Bergé, is painted an intense shade of ultramarine blue. Arrive early to enjoy the extraordinary desert garden filled with giant cacti, palms and bamboo groves. You don’t need tickets if you just want to eat at the café which is very nice. Don’t miss the Berber Museum, which is filled with St Laurent’s personal collection of indigenous jewellery and fashion from which he drew much of his subsequent inspiration and this marvellous boutique directly across the road, bursting with beautiful and intriguing clothes, footwear, jewellery and homewares from over sixty talented local designers. Visits are booked by strictly allocated time slots. Book a few days ahead.
Les Bains de l’Alhambra for a hammam body scrub or Les Bains de Marrakesch.
Bespoke journeys in a vintage sidecar.
Buggy riding in the desert (all-inclusive day trip with berber lunch available).
Cactus Thiemann, on the outskirts of Marrakesh which offers the rare experience of wandering amid cacti as tall as buildings, started by a German engineer Hans Thiemann, who came to Morocco in the 1960s. Make an appointment by email (cactusthiemann@gmail.com); guided tours last 45 minutes and cost Dh150; they will give you the number of a taxi driver who knows the road when you book as it’s tricky to find.
Pay a visit to Amizmiz, a Berber village in the foothills of Atlas Mountains, the small settlement, only 55km south of the city has a traditional weekly market on Tuesdays, when Berber villagers descend from miles around to sell their crafts, produce and spices. You can also take a walk out into the lush countryside, with snow-dusted mountains in the distance.
Sidi Ghanem is an industrial area where savvy shoppers go to seek out contemporary design around 4km from the centre. You can take a round-trip taxi trip here to check out the workshops, outlets and showrooms that specialise in everything from candles to ceramics.
Wander through Marrakesh’s Jewish quarter, called the mellah. Explore the Mellah Market, renowned for its fabric, and visit the eerie Miaara Jewish Cemetery, a city of the dead stretching out into the distance with uniform rounded tombs.
The Souks
The vibrant souks of Marrakech sell everything from textiles and ceramics to jewelry and spices within the walls of the old Medina, the nucleus of the city. Nowadays, the borders between the souks and their specialties have become a bit blurred. When a Map or GPS fails just keep in mind that the medina is surrounded by a wall; by walking straight in whichever direction, you should eventually come to the wall of the medina. Try to avoid asking passersby for directions, instead, always ask shopkeepers.
If you absolutely want to dive head first into the dazzling chaos with the snake charmers and the street food and the crowds, that’s the famous town square Djemaa el-Fna, which leads into the most visited and tourist entrances of the souk. Depending on your energy levels, we recommend finding your way to this famous square at the end of your medina visit and starting off slow, in a quiet and calm part of the souks/ walled city. So tell your taxi to take you to Mustapha Blaoui’s warehouse of wonders in Bab Doukkala where behind an unassuming wooden door, the cavernous rooms are filled with furniture, lamps, glassware, rugs and antiques from all over North Africa. Take your time browsing with a cup of mint tea. They can also ship worldwide but don’t feel obliged to buy anything, think of it more like a secret museum where you’re left to wander at your leisure. A few doors down, Valeria Barkowski has her concept store, a slate-grey space furnished like a high-end New York loft — for contrast! Keep wandering this little lane, with some shops and artisanal holes-in-the-wall, nothing too overwhelming yet. Stop into the lovely Pikala Cafe, and climb up to the rooftop for a snack/ breakfast/ mint tea. Before heading out, put “Le Jardin Secret” on your phone’s GPS (not to be confused with Riad Jardin Secret) which will just put you on the right path to wander into Souk Smata, where every shop and stall has row upon row of nothing but colored pointy-toed Moroccan slippers (known as babouches and belghas) made from the finest calf- and goatskin. Expect to pay about 90 MAD for outdoor ones and 150 MAD for the embroidered ones.
A two minute walk from the Jardin Secret is the Souk des Teinturiers, (the Dyers’ Souk), one of the most photogenic and popular souks in Marrakech, where wool and silk were naturally dyed into saffron yellows, indigo blues, bright reds, and a spectrum of other colors.
Next, set your compass for the Jewish souk, which has some great glassware and brassware, as well as some wondeful restaurants. If you need a point for your GPS, use La Famille, a lovely garden for lunch or Mandala Society, where you’ll get the best coffee to-go in town, but they also serve delicious food on their rooftop. Ask the barrista there for any local advice/ directions you may need, they’re great. BlackChich is also an excellent rooftop option on the same street.
About a ten minute walk from this part is Rahba Kedima, a small market square that is home to stalls selling Berber hats (straw in summer and colorful rough woolen caps in winter) and woven baskets, but it’s also a bazaar straight out of the Harry Potter universe. The apothecary stalls (sometimes called Berber chemists) around the southwest entrance to the square sell substances and objects for use in black magic. You’ll also notice an inviting rooftop spot for lunch or tea on the square called Café des Epices.
But if you really want to escape the tourists, seek out the Souk El Khemis (the Moroccan door souk) at the Northern point of the Medina (all taxis know where this is (find it on the GPS. Here you can shop in peace with local prices where the artisanal spirit is alive & well. It feels a bit like walking through the alleys of Paris Saint-Ouen. Then walk a few minutes over the the history gate, Bab El Khemis and look to the left of the gate for a literal hole in the wall. That’s the door to the city’s local flea market where you can often unearth some really unique vintage treasures and curiosities. Bab El Khemis or Bab Khemis (pronounce the Kh as an R) means Thursday’s door because back in the day, the markets were held on Thursday but Sunday is also now a good day to go.
Marrakech-based interior designer Patrizia Bell-Banner can show you the savvy places to shop in the city’s souks and Sidi Ghanem. She’s a delight if you’re looking for a guide: pat@kasbahchic.com.
General Tips
Morocco at Christmas is like a good Spring for the rest of us. Temps range from 17 to 23 C, so heated pool weather and certainly ideal temperatures for hanging out in the desert.
For a tented hotel, I would always recommend Scarabeo camp outside of Marrakech.