Morocco Travel Guide - Best Destinations to Visit

Morocco Discovering

TRANSPORTATION

The most convenient and economical way to travel from one city to another in Morocco is through the ONCF railway network, which you can access at [ONCF website](https://www.oncf.ma/en/).
This network provides punctual, clean, and fast trains that connect all the major cities in Morocco.

To reach the famous coastal town of Essaouira from the Marrakesh train station, buses depart every hour and take approximately 3 hours. Due to high demand, it is advisable to book in advance at [Supratours website](https://www.supratours.ma/).

1 Essouoria
2 Tangier
3 Fes
4 Casablanca
5 Marrakesh

1 Essouoria

Essaouira, located on Morocco's Atlantic coast, is a charming and historic city known for its vibrant culture, windy beaches, and beautiful medina. With its ancient fortified walls, picturesque port, and artistic atmosphere, Essaouira is a must-visit destination for anyone traveling to Morocco.

Main Attractions

Medina of Essaouira: Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Essaouira's medina is a maze of narrow streets, lively markets, and whitewashed houses. Here, you can find local crafts, spices, and typical Moroccan products.

Skala de la Ville: This historic fortification offers breathtaking views of the ocean and the city walls. It's an ideal spot for a panoramic stroll and to admire the old cannons lined up along the walls.

Port of Essaouira: A bustling and fascinating port where you can watch local fishermen at work and enjoy delicious seafood at nearby restaurants, as well as fresh oysters and sea urchins right at the port.

Essaouira Beach: With its wide stretches of golden sand and constant winds, the beach is perfect for water sports like windsurfing and kitesurfing, as well as for relaxing in the sun.

Gnaoua Music Festival: Every year, Essaouira hosts this famous festival celebrating traditional Gnaoua music, attracting artists and visitors from around the world.

Essaouira enchants with its unique blend of history, culture, and natural beauty, offering visitors an authentic and unforgettable experience.

2 Tangier

Tangier, located at the northern tip of Morocco, is a vibrant city that blends African, European, and Middle Eastern influences. Overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, Tangier is known for its fascinating history, breathtaking views, and lively cultural atmosphere. Due to its proximity to Spain (Tarifa in Andalusia is just a 1-hour ferry ride away), in addition to Arabic and French, the inhabitants of Tangier are also fluent in Spanish. The very close connection with nearby Spain is also marked by the characteristic white Andalusian village of Tetouan, which can be reached in just over an hour by bus. Tangier is a city that enchants with its unique mix of history, culture, and natural beauty, offering visitors an unforgettable experience in one of Morocco's most captivating destinations.

Main Attractions

Medina of Tangier: A labyrinth of narrow streets and bustling squares, the medina is the historic heart of the city. Here you can explore colorful souks, local crafts, and traditional cafes.

Kasbah of Tangier: This ancient fortress offers a spectacular view of the city and the sea. Inside the kasbah, you can visit the Kasbah Museum, which houses a collection of art and historical artifacts. Embracing the large square and dominating it from above is the famous Hispano-Moorish style Hotel Continental.

Café Hafa: Famous for its terraces overlooking the sea, this historic café has hosted numerous artists and writers over the years. It is the ideal place to relax with a cup of mint tea.

Hercules Cave: Located a few kilometers from the city, this natural cave is one of Tangier's main attractions. Legend has it that Hercules stayed here during his labors.

Beaches of Tangier With its long stretches of golden sand, the beaches of Tangier are perfect for relaxing, swimming, and enjoying the sun. The municipal beach and Malabata beach are among the most popular.

Grand Socco: This large square is a lively center of activity, where you can admire colonial architecture, shop in local markets, and savor Moroccan cuisine in the surrounding restaurants.

Villa Harris Gardens: An oasis of tranquility, these botanical gardens offer a green retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a variety of exotic plants and shaded pathways.

Typical Moroccan Restaurants

TANGIER

In the heart of the medina, Palais Zahia is one of those places where you can fully immerse yourself in Moroccan culture. This is not only because of the traditional local dishes like lamb, chicken, or beef couscous with vegetables and spices, tagine, harira, pastilla, rfissa, and mechoui but also due to the authentic atmosphere of a typical Moroccan palace.

Wine Bar

TANGIER

It's possible yo enjoy a good wine in Tangier! Just head to the Tangerine on the city's seafront. It offers a wide selection of local and international wines, providing a perfect spot to relax and enjoy the coastal view. It's practically impossible to find wine within the medina. The best you can hope for is a non-alcoholic beer. The medina's traditional and conservative nature means that alcoholic beverages are not typically available. For a more relaxed and contemporary setting, the Tangerine is the ideal choice.

3 Fes

From Marrakesh to Fez by Train: An Unforgettable Journey

From Marrakesh, a punctual, clean, and comfortable train departs every two hours, passing through Casablanca and Rabat along the coast, taking around six and a half hours to reach Fez, approximately 320 km away. While an internal flight might be faster, the train journey is an experience worth having to enjoy the Moroccan landscape, which is not all desert but sometimes green, a testament to the temperate climate that also allows for the production of excellent wines.

The Fez train station is modern and functional, located in the new part of the city, about 5 km from the two medinas:

Fes El Jadid: Located near the Royal Palace.

Fes El Bali: The largest medina in Morocco, where getting lost is the norm. Trying to navigate to specific points of interest is futile, even Google Maps fails here due to the 9,000 alleys of the souk. It's best to wander aimlessly and then pay someone to guide you to an exit where taxis wait for exhausted tourists.

If you are lucky, you might reach the Madrasa Bou Inania with its famous water clock and especially Chouara, the leather tanning district. For a small tip, you can climb the terraces of one of the many workshops and admire the tanneries from above, one of the most beautiful spectacles in Morocco, with large vats filled with colored water where men work the leather amidst nauseating odors heightened by the summer heat. This is why a sprig of mint is given before entering to admire the spectacle.

Exploring Fez

Avoid the medina after 8 PM when all the shops close, leaving only suspicious characters waiting for unsuspecting tourists who have been wandering for hours, lost and searching for an elusive exit.

The best restaurant in the new city, located right in front of the Marriott Hotel, is the elegant and refined Maison Blanche Lounge Restaurant. It offers an exquisite international menu with both fish and meat dishes, exceptional service with great attention to the customer, and a well-stocked cellar with the best national labels and a good selection of French wines. The price is high by Moroccan standards (around 50 euros per person), but it's well worth it, especially considering that eating Moroccan cuisine every day might get tiring as the dishes eventually feel repetitive.

Riad

FES

Don't miss a Moroccan lunch featuring tajine, couscous, vegetables, and pastilla, a marvelous pastry filled with almonds and offering a sweet and savory flavor. Enjoy this on the magnificent terraces or inside the splendid Riad Rcif in the heart of the medina (if you manage to find it, of course). Accompany your meal with a magnificent Moroccan rosé wine, Domaine de Sahari Reserve, from the Meknes region, known for producing the best wines in the country. A truly sensory experience.

4 Casablancaar

There are places you never forget, sunrises that begin too early, and sunsets that take too long to arrive. There are places where life and dreams never cease, where the mind wanders beyond the ordinary. Then you find yourself back among many glances because here, I am the exotic one. You queue for your return flight and reflect on these few but intense days spent in Casablanca.

Casablanca is vast, with about 4 million inhabitants, and its coastline is dominated by the immense Hassan II Mosque with the world's tallest minaret (210 meters), the defining image on all the city's postcards.

Let's be sincere, Casablanca isn't conventionally beautiful; it doesn't captivate at first glance and leaves many puzzled for several reasons. Much of the coastal area is under construction, creating an open-air building site. Moreover, there isn't a true city center. There are two large modern squares, Place des Nations Unites and Place Mohammed V, and an Old Medina that is rather insignificant compared to those in Fes or Marrakesh.

New Medina: Located in the Habous district in the southeastern part of the city, it offers glimpses of true Morocco, particularly the beautiful square in front of the Al Mohammadi Mosque near the Royal Palace, which is unfortunately closed to the public.

Anfa area is considered the Beverly Hills of Casablanca, with the Corniche waterfront filled with trendy bars and restaurants, especially crowded on weekends. Beyond that lies the long Ayn Diab beach, stretching 5 km. However, the Atlantic Ocean here is rough and quite polluted, making swimming inadvisable and dangerous.

Dining and Nightlife

Le Petit Rocher: Offers international cuisine (around 50 euros per person) with a bar upstairs featuring a DJ set and live music from midnight and amazing view on Hassan II Mosque.

Along the same coastal road, Le Cabestan and La Cascade provide oceanfront dining and live entertainment on weekends.

Transportation

-Casablanca has two train stations, Voyager and Port, with hourly trains to Marrakesh, Fes, and Casablanca International Airport. The city is extremely safe at all hours, bustling with activity, especially fishermen's carts, as Morocco has one of the world's highest fish yields.

Economic Hub

As Morocco's economic center, Casablanca exhibits a certain affluence, particularly in the upscale neighborhoods of Anfa and Maarif, with luxury stores, restaurants, and skyscrapers like the Twin Center.

Cultural and Political Context

Morocco looks westward, especially towards the United States, evident in its open policies, including religious issues, creating a gap with neighboring countries like Algeria and Mauritania. A 2-meter high, nearly 3,000 km long sand wall, second in length only to the Great Wall of China, is heavily mined and patrolled by the Moroccan army. This wall aims to keep out desert populations, particularly the Sahrawis, who claim southern Morocco (rich in oil and phosphates) as their territory from the Spanish colonial period. Currently, they live in dire conditions in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, relying solely on international aid. The ongoing dispute, known as the Polisario Front, remains delicate and unresolved after nearly 30 years of conflict, despite repeated calls for UN intervention.

Nearby Destinations

Every two hours, trains depart from Casablanca to El Jadida, a beautiful coastal town with its enchanting Portuguese Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage site, reachable in about 1.5 hours. Once at the station, it's advisable to take a cheap red petit taxi to the center for just 20 dirhams (2 euros) as the distance is nearly 6 kilometers.

5 MarrakeshYar

Reflections on Morocco: An Exhilarating Journey

As I leave Morocco, I wonder what I am leaving behind—a country kissed or tormented by the sun, a mirage of a rose in the desert. The myriad fragrances, colors, scents, spices, and flavors of Africa intoxicate and captivate, a riot of emotions that grow as you lose yourself in the medina's alleys. The pungent smell of tanneries, alleviated only by a sprig of mint, the blend of riad and rosé wines, sweet memories of almonds and pistachios, incense and orange, and the sight of a mule making its way through the souk alleys among spice vendors and leather of all colors, prayers between dawn and dusk, and so much life flowing as if time had never passed. This is Morocco, a journey that began on New Year's Eve, December 31.

New Year's Eve in Morocco

Flight Experience

The adventure starts at Naples Capodichino Airport with a Ryanair flight. Supplies ran out on board, and I celebrated midnight with leftover snacks from the outbound journey—Pringles and warm Heineken. Midnight passed almost unnoticed except for two ladies fainting almost simultaneously, turning a sad episode into a moment of solidarity.

Arrival in Marrakesh

We landed past midnight at Marrakesh International Airport. Attempting to haggle with the taxi drivers, as travel blogs suggested, nearly got me in trouble, but I managed to secure a ride to one of the medina gates for 15 euros. The driver wished me a Happy New Year and left me at the medina entrance.

First Impressions of the Medina

Night in the Medina

Entering the medina at night felt like stepping into a Dantean circle. Unfamiliar faces stared as if I had fallen from the sky. Some offered guidance, others substances, and I navigated this labyrinth with my suitcase and no internet connection. For 5 euros, I found someone to guide me to my riad, "Rose du Desert," a beautiful but hard-to-find place.

Daytime in the Medina

During the day, the medina is filled with the fumes of old motorbikes and the scents of grilled street food. Breakfast at the riad was a timeless affair with fresh waffles, orange juice, and mint tea, a serene oasis in the desert.

Wandering through the souk, guided by the senses, you encounter countless offers for taxis, guides, substances, motorbike rides, or even a night of passion. The heart of the medina is the immense Jemaa el-Fna square, a UNESCO cultural heritage site that transforms into an open-air theater at night with storytellers, musicians, snake charmers, acrobats, and jugglers.
The cobras, excited by the sounds and hungry, are not for the faint-hearted. A seemingly harmless snake draped around your neck by an entertainer can prompt you to pay any amount to be rid of it.

Watching the spectacle from a terrace like Café de France offers a safer vantage point. The Koutoubia Mosque, with its 69-meter minaret, is both Marrakesh's symbol and a beacon for the lost in the medina.

Gueliz

Gueliz, known for the Majorelle Gardens and the French Quarter, is the elegant new city area outside the medina's 19 km-long walls. This area is packed with stylish restaurants and bars.

Wine Bar

MARRAKESH

Marrakesh: A Paradise for Wine Enthusiasts

If you're a wine lover, don't miss out on the trendy 68 Bar à Vin. Despite its small size, it's always packed, featuring two levels with limited seating. Upstairs, you'll find just five tables, while downstairs offers three large communal tables, fostering a social atmosphere. The bar boasts an extensive cellar stocked with quality Moroccan wines, primarily sourced from the Meknes region.

But perhaps the true highlight of Marrakesh is its terraces, serving as oases to escape the heat and enjoy a fine wine or refreshing cocktail. While alcohol is officially prohibited in public spaces, you can comfortably indulge within bars and restaurants. However, drinking on the streets or appearing intoxicated is strictly forbidden.

As is common in Muslim countries, there are strict limitations, sometimes seemingly absurd, for non-locals, particularly regarding gender segregation. Police tolerance often hinges on bribes, reflecting a delicate balance between enforcement and economic interests. Given Marrakesh's status as a trendy international tourist destination, most activities are tacitly accepted, driven by the imperative of economic gain.

Terraces

MARRAKESH

The Best Terraces in Marrakesh

- Kabana Rooftop: Known for its international cuisine, sushi, excellent wines, and refined dishes.
- Kosybar: A historic venue in Marrakesh offering a view of the Bahia Palace.
- Kechmara: Features DJ sets and live jazz music.
- Le Comptoir Darna: A true nouvelle vogue showcase with a lounge terrace, frequently visited, offering belly dance shows and DJ sets.

Nightlife in Marrakesh

For nightlife, start with dinner, then transition to a dance night at:

- Malak Emeraude
- Montecristo Marrakesh
- Bendoo

The most famous and frequented nightclubs in Marrakesh are:

- Marrakesh VIP Room
- Theatro

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Morocco Discovering

TRANSPORTATION

1 Essouoria

Morocco
Essouoria

2 Tangier

Typical Moroccan Restaurants

TANGIER

Wine Bar

TANGIER

Morocco
Tangier

3 Fes

Riad

FES

Morocco
Fes

4 Casablancaar

5 MarrakeshYar

Wine Bar

MARRAKESH

Terraces

MARRAKESH

Morocco
Marrakesh

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Morocco Discovering

TRANSPORTATION

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Essouoria

Typical Moroccan Restaurants

Wine Bar

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Tangier

3 Fes

Riad

FES

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Wine Bar

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Terraces

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