Wonderful 5 day adventure with my 18 year old son filled with memory-making moments. Sharing for anyone who may want some inspiration.
Day One
collected by driver at the airport, left our bags at the Riad and after some mint tea (get used to it!), we walked to Jemaa El Fnaa and explored a little. Didn’t love the vibe at the square itself. Had simple lunch at Café des Épices which is on possibly the nicest square of all. The afternoon was spent at the YSL museum and Majorelle gardens (get tickets in advance), which was lovely (moreso for me than my boy!) although the ‘influencer’ brigade totally hogged the IG-worthy spots and over-posed like they were Kardashians for countless photos. Tiring but also amusing.
Back to Riad to change in time for dinner at Dardar Rooftop. Good vibe, great service and lovely food. Their social media presence is strong and the photos make this place look big. It’s not, it’s really quite small so book before you go! I was also beyond irritated by the handful of ‘influencers’ (whatever 😆) who decided they needed to drape themselves all over the wall to get perfect sunset pictures complete with trout pout.
Day Two
early start to head up to Imlil as I’d booked a cooking class through GetYourGuide. All a bit chaotic to get there but had a lovely few hours cooking tagine with a young lady and then sitting on a terrace with the most incredible views of the Atlas Mountains. Slightly frustratingly, no one knew when or how we were being picked up to get back to Marrakech but seemingly there’s a connected bunch of folk involved in all these trips and a taxi driver suddenly appeared. En route we suddenly stopped to cram in a family of 5 who’d been hiking for 2 days – again, this unseen communication somehow gets everyone home one way or another! Driving was quite scary at points and none of our seatbelts worked…. The evening was spent at the incredible Comptoir Darna – a treat with gorgeous food and entertainment. Beautiful belly dancers and ladies dressed in silver sequins with candelabras on their heads. Quite mad but lots of fun. More posers in the bar but by this point I realised they were so self-absorbed we could ignore them quite easily 😂
Day Three
GetYourGuide organised trip to do quad biking and a camel ride.
Both were lots of fun and it was organised well. The setting is a bit crap – don’t think desert, more so dirt roads with loads of ramshackle outbuildings and piles of dirt everywhere. Didn’t stop the fun. That afternoon we kept free and mooched around the souks, deciding to have a casual dinner at Café des Épices.
Day Four
leisurely morning before a fabulous treat at Les Bains de Marrakech. 3 treatments each for my son and myself and he thoroughly enjoyed being pampered. It’s a place to go to spoil yourself. Hammam was fairly vigorous but it was a lovely way to while away 4 hours and so calm and serene even though it was in the medina! That evening I’d booked Nomad after rave reviews but I was a bit disappointed. Service was slow and food ‘ok’. We were also pretty tired after heavy pampering and having all the toxins expelled from our bodies (!) so the flattest evening of all.
Day Five
5am wake up for a hot air balloon ride. Wow! Is all I can say! Unbelievable experience. We did pay a bit more and go with Ciel d’Afrique but I would go with them again as it was all so fantastic. We were lucky with the weather but it was all so perfect and not at all scary. We were back at the Riad by 10.30am so had breakfast and then hit the souks HARD. It’s tiring having to haggle all the time and at one place I was so being taken for a ride (he wanted 65€ for 2 sachets of tea and 4 sachets of spices) that I suddenly just felt exhausted by it all. We took some time to relax at the Riad before heading back to Dardar rooftop for one last dinner.
Day Six – up and out to the airport and home.
💡Top tips/observations 💡
- The roads in the medina are chaos with motorbikes/scooters, donkeys, pedestrians, chickens, etc but somehow it all just works. No one gets irritated with each other, they all just look out for each others’ easy passage through
- Other than the slightly sketchy taxi ride back from the mountains, I never once felt unsafe or uncomfortable. The men were extremely respectful and charming towards me
- The air in the mountains is thin and the sun is strong. We didn’t feel it but 2-3 hours sitting on the terrace in the Atlas Mountains left us with very pink faces
- It’s noisy. Accept it. Riads are built in a way whereby sound carries so you hear everything. Also, the calls for prayer are really quite beautiful, but the first one was around 5am and it’s likely to wake you up 😊
- Tip where appropriate. The Riad staff undoubtedly deserved it, the restaurant staff, etc. But be aware you’re likely to get fleeced on things like taxis.
- Negotiate on everything that doesn’t have a price tag. We bought a beautiful Berber rug and only got about a 5% discount but the Spanish owners of the Riad assured us the price we were offered was already a good one, for jewellery, T-shirts, hats, ceramics, etc haggle hard – the Riad staff told us not to feel bad about it as it’s expected (my story about the tea/spices only serves to demonstrate that…)
- We struggled to find an ATM that worked but finally the Crédit du Maroc bank just off Jemaa el Fnaa worked for us
- Lots of places don’t serve alcohol which is absolutely fine of course, but if you fancy a cocktail, both Dardar Rooftop and Comptoir Darna served cracking ones!
- I’m coeliac and was impressed by the understanding of what that meant. Everywhere we went catered and asked the right questions to ensure I was ‘safe’. I did notify the restaurants and Riad in advance.
For all of you who are yet to visit this magical country, enjoy the people, the food, the chaos!
