Morocco
Marrakesh
The most theatrical city in Morocco: a walled medina of souks and palaces wrapped around a square that reinvents itself every night.
Marrakesh is a red-walled imperial city on the plain below the High Atlas, built around a medina of souks, riads and courtyard palaces that has barely changed shape in nine centuries. At its centre is Jemaa el-Fna, a square that turns from juice carts and acrobats by day into a smoking field of food stalls, storytellers and drummers after dark. Outside the ramparts, Gueliz supplies the boulevards, galleries and pavement cafes, and the mountains are an hour away.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Arabic, French
Currency
MAD
Timezone
UTC+1
Why you'll love Marrakesh
Jemaa el-Fna A square that empties and refills daily, from orange carts and snake charmers at noon to a hundred grill stalls under smoke at night.
The souks A covered labyrinth north of the square selling lanterns, babouches, carpets and spices, with the dyers' and blacksmiths' lanes still working.
Courtyards The city hides everything behind blank walls - riads, palaces and gardens open off lanes that give nothing away from outside.
The Atlas Snow-topped peaks fill the skyline south of town, and one valley road puts you among walnut trees and mule tracks within the hour.
Best time to visit
Sep-Jun
19-34° days
31.626° N, 7.989° W
UTC+1 · Africa/Casablanca
whenywhere contains ads and partner links that we think are helpful and that earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Weather & when to go to Marrakesh
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Sep-Jun
Watch for Jul-Aug extreme heat risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Marrakesh
July and August are the hardest work: afternoons on the plain routinely pass 37C and the medina lanes hold the heat well past sunset. Spring and autumn are the sweet spot, and winter days are mild even when the nights turn cold. Ramadan, whose dates shift each year, changes daytime opening and eating, though the evenings become the best part of the city.
Top things to do in Marrakesh
-
Jemaa el-Fna - the square from noon to midnight
culture arts food 👍 PopularOne space doing three shifts: orange-juice carts and snake charmers through the day, then a whole grill town assembled at dusk and gone by morning, with halqa circles of storytellers, boxers and Gnawa drummers around the edges. Watch the changeover from a rooftop cafe terrace first, then go down into it.
-
The souks - Semmarine through to the dyers' lanes
shopping culture artsThe covered market spreads north from the square in trade quarters: Semmarine for textiles, then slipper-makers, lantern-beaters in Souk Haddadine, and the wool hanks drying overhead in the dyers' alley. Prices are opened high and expected to be argued down, and getting lost is part of the day.
-
Koutoubia Mosque - the minaret that sets the skyline
historyThe Almohad tower west of the square is the city's fixed point, floodlit at night and visible from most rooftops, and no building nearby is allowed to rise past a palm. Non-Muslims cannot go in, but the gardens alongside and the ruined foundations of the first mosque are open to walk.
-
Bahia Palace - painted cedar and courtyard after courtyard
history culture arts 👍 PopularA grand vizier's late-nineteenth-century palace built to be the most beautiful in the country, and largely still is: marble courts, zellij tilework, orange trees and carved cedar ceilings painted flower by flower. It is deliberately sprawling and easy to walk in circles. Come at opening, before the tour groups.
-
Saadian Tombs - the sealed royal necropolis
historyWalled up for two centuries and only reopened last century, the Saadian burial garden holds the Chamber of the Twelve Columns, where Ahmad al-Mansur lies under Carrara marble and honeycombed stucco. It is small, the queue funnels through one narrow passage, and early or late is the answer.
-
El Badi Palace - ruins, storks and sunken gardens
historyOnce the most extravagant palace in the Maghreb, stripped to its brick shell by a later sultan and now a huge roofless quadrangle of sunken orange groves and empty pools, with storks nesting on the walls. Climb the terrace for the best rooftop view over the kasbah to the Atlas.
-
Ben Youssef Madrasa - the great Saadian courtyard
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedThe largest Quranic college in Morocco, arranged around a marble court with a reflecting basin, walls of carved cedar and zellij, and Kufic inscription running the whole way round. Upstairs are the tiny students' cells looking down into it. The quietest astonishing room in the medina.
-
Jardin Majorelle and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum
culture arts nature wildlife 👍 PopularJacques Majorelle's cobalt-blue villa and cactus garden, rescued by Yves Saint Laurent, plus the Berber Museum inside it and the purpose-built YSL museum next door. Beautiful and extremely busy; tickets go early and the garden is at its best in the first hour.
-
Le Jardin Secret - a restored riad garden in the medina
culture arts nature wildlifeA ruined palace compound off the busy Mouassine lane, brought back as two gardens - one Islamic and formal, one exotic - fed by a working khettara channel. The tower gives a rare view straight down over the medina roofs. Five minutes from the souks and a different climate.
-
A traditional hammam - steam, black soap and gommage
wellness ⭐ Highly recommendedThe bath is a local routine before it is a treat. Neighbourhood hammams are hot, communal and basic, bring your own kit and are single-sex by session; riad and spa versions are private, softer and heavily booked. Either way the scrub with a kessa mitt is the point.
-
Tanjia marrakchia and the grill stalls - eating Marrakchi
foodThe city dish is tanjia, beef or lamb sealed in a clay urn with preserved lemon and cumin and left in the ashes of a bathhouse furnace for hours. Around it: mechoui slow-roasted lamb, snail broth on the square, harira, and the tea-and-pastry habit that fills every afternoon.
-
Almoravid Koubba and the Marrakesh Museum
history culture artsBeside the madrasa sits the only intact Almoravid building left anywhere, a small domed pavilion whose interlacing arches and pinecone vault are the source code for Moroccan ornament. The museum next door fills a nineteenth-century palace with a colossal chandelier in the covered courtyard.
-
Menara Gardens - the pavilion above the olive basin
scenicAn Almohad irrigation reservoir set in a huge olive grove west of town, with a green-roofed pavilion at one end and, on a clear day, the Atlas standing behind the water. It is a local promenade rather than a sight, best at the end of the afternoon.
Best areas to stay in Marrakesh
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Medina around Jemaa el-Fna
First-time visitors $$Dense, noisy, minutes from everything
Explore hotels in Medina around Jemaa el-Fna →
Mouassine and Dar el Bacha
Riad stays $$Quieter medina lanes, riads and concept shops
Explore hotels in Mouassine and Dar el Bacha →
Kasbah and Mellah
Monument hunters $Southern medina, monuments, working markets
Explore hotels in Kasbah and Mellah →
Gueliz
Modern comforts $$Modern boulevards, galleries, restaurants and bars
Explore hotels in Gueliz →
Hivernage
Hotels & pools $$$Leafy, hotel-heavy, quiet after dark
Explore hotels in Hivernage →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Marrakesh
Getting to & around Marrakesh
Getting there
Fly into Marrakesh Menara (RAK), a short hop from the medina by taxi or airport bus.
Flight
Marrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)
About 6 km southwest of the centre. Petit taxis reach Jemaa el-Fna in fifteen to twenty minutes - agree the fare before you get in - and the airport bus, line 19, loops to the square and Gueliz. Riads usually send a porter to meet you at the nearest gate, since cars cannot reach most medina doors.
Train
Marrakech railway station, Gueliz
ONCF trains from Casablanca in around three hours, connecting on to Rabat, Fes and the Tangier high-speed line.
Coach
Supratours and CTM terminals
Long-distance coaches from Essaouira, Agadir, Fes and the south. Supratours ties in with train tickets and leaves beside the station.
Drive
The A7 motorway runs north to Casablanca; the Tizi n'Tichka road climbs over the Atlas from Ouarzazate and can close in snow.
Getting around
Walking
The medina is a maze of lanes too narrow for cars, so almost everything inside the walls is done on foot.
Free
Petit taxi
Beige four-seaters for hops within the city. Meters exist but are often ignored, so settle the fare before setting off.
TBC
Bus
City buses link the medina gates with Gueliz, Hivernage, the Palmeraie and the Menara gardens.
TBC
Caleche
Horse-drawn carriages from beside Jemaa el-Fna, mostly taken for a slow loop of the ramparts.
TBC
Day trips from Marrakesh
Ourika Valley
Full dayHigh Atlas valley
The nearest slice of the mountains: terraced villages, tagine tables set on platforms over the river, and the seven waterfalls above Setti Fatma, which need a scramble to reach. Green and cool when the plain is baking.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1 hr south by car, grand taxi or tour
Imlil and the Toubkal foothills
Full dayTrailhead village
The base village for North Africa's highest peak, set among walnut terraces and mule tracks. A day gets you the walk up to Armed and a terrace lunch; the summit itself is a guided two-day trip, and a winter one needs crampons.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5 hr by car, shared taxi or tour
Agafay Desert
Half dayStony desert camps
Not dunes but a lunar expanse of grey hammada half an hour out, now dotted with tented camps. Sunset dinners, camel and quad rides, and the Atlas on the horizon - the fix for anyone who cannot spare three days for the Sahara.
Getting there
car | tour
About 40 min by car or tour
Essaouira
1-2 daysAtlantic walled port
Ramparts, gulls and blue fishing boats on a windy Atlantic beach, with a whitewashed medina, argan cooperatives and a serious kitesurf and windsurf scene. Far enough that an overnight suits it better than a rush.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
About 2.5-3 hr west by coach or car
Ait Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate
Full dayKasbah and film studios
The mud-brick ksar stacked up its hillside is the most filmed building in Morocco, with the Ouarzazate studios beyond. The pass is the other half of the day, and snow can shut it in winter; many people carry on south rather than turn back.
Getting there
car | tour
About 3.5-4 hr each way over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, by car or tour
Ouzoud Falls
Full dayWaterfalls and macaques
Morocco's tallest falls drop in stages into a green gorge, with wild Barbary macaques in the trees, small boats nosing into the spray and a path down through olive terraces. Fullest after the winter and spring rains.
Getting there
car | tour
About 2.5 hr northeast by car or tour
A little history of Marrakesh
Marrakesh was founded around 1070 as the capital of the Almoravids, desert Berbers out of the Sahara who ended up ruling from here into Spain. They walled it in red pise, planted the palm groves and brought water across the plain by khettara, the underground channels that made a city possible on dry ground. The Almohads took it in 1147, pulled down most of what stood and raised the Koutoubia, whose minaret became the model for Seville and Rabat.
Power shifted to Fes under the Marinids and came back with the Saadians, who rebuilt the Ben Youssef Madrasa and paid for El Badi Palace with Sudanese gold. An Alaouite sultan later stripped El Badi to furnish Meknes and sealed the Saadian tombs behind a wall, where they lay forgotten until 1917. The French protectorate laid out Gueliz beyond the ramparts after 1912, and from the 1960s the city acquired a second life as a refuge for painters, designers and, eventually, everyone.
Almoravids found Marrakesh as the capital of an empire reaching into Spain
Almohads storm the city, raze its monuments and begin the Koutoubia
Marinids take Marrakesh and move the capital to Fes
Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib rebuilds the Ben Youssef Madrasa
Ahmad al-Mansur begins El Badi Palace, funded by gold from the Sudan
Moulay Ismail strips El Badi for Meknes and walls up the Saadian tombs
Bahia Palace completed for the grand vizier Ba Ahmed
French protectorate begins; Gueliz is laid out beyond the ramparts
The sealed Saadian Tombs are found again and opened to view
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / E
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+212
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Morocco eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Marrakesh
▸ When is the best time to visit Marrakesh?
Spring and autumn are ideal, roughly March to May and September to November, with warm days and cool evenings. Winter is mild and clear by day, genuinely cold at night, and the Atlas is under snow. July and August are the fierce months, when afternoons on the plain are best spent by a pool.
▸ How many days do you need in Marrakesh?
Three days covers the square, the souks and the main palaces and gardens without rushing. Four or five lets you add a hammam, a slower morning or two and a day out to the Ourika Valley, Imlil or the Agafay.
▸ Can non-Muslims go inside the mosques?
No. Working mosques, including the Koutoubia, are closed to non-Muslims in Morocco. Almost everything else is open: the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Almoravid Koubba, the Saadian Tombs, the Bahia and El Badi palaces and the museums all admit visitors.
▸ Is it easy to get lost in the medina?
Yes, and it happens to everyone. Lanes bend, dead-end and are poorly signed, and offline maps lose the plot inside the souks. Learn the gate nearest your riad and the way back to Jemaa el-Fna or the Koutoubia minaret, and treat the rest as wandering.
▸ Do I have to haggle?
In the souks, yes: opening prices assume it and shopkeepers expect a long, good-humoured back-and-forth over mint tea. Fixed-price shops in Gueliz and the artisan cooperatives are the alternative if it wears you out. Food stalls and grocers do not haggle.
▸ Is Marrakesh safe to visit?
It is generally safe, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The nuisances are hustles: unofficial guides steering you to a shop, henna pressed on your hand, a claim that a street is closed. A firm no thank you and walking on handles most of it. Watch scooters in the lanes.
▸ What should I wear?
Cover shoulders and knees in the medina and you will be comfortable and treated better. Loose clothing beats little clothing in summer heat. Poolside and hotel dress is unremarkable in Gueliz and Hivernage, and beachwear anywhere else is not.
▸ Can I visit the Sahara from Marrakesh?
Not in a day. The dune fields at Merzouga or Zagora are a long way over the Atlas and need two or three days, usually as a loop through Ait Ben Haddou and the Draa or Dades valleys. For a taste of desert in an afternoon, go to the stony Agafay instead.