First trips base in Marrakech, add Essaouira for the Atlantic, and give the desert either the High Atlas or the dunes at Merzouga. Second trips run north instead: Fès for the oldest medina, Chefchaouen for the Rif, Tangier for the strait. The best windows are March to May and late September to November.
5 Morocco city guides
Fun fact
Al Boraq, the Tangier to Casablanca line that opened in 2018, is the first high-speed railway in Africa. It runs at up to 320 km/h.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe pressure is concentrated: the gates of the Marrakech medina, the main square, the odd bus station. Agree a taxi fare before you get in, decline once and clearly, and the rest of the country is quieter than its reputation.
The realityThe Sahara is one corner of it. Between the dunes and the ocean sit the Middle and High Atlas, cedar forest around Ifrane, and a long Atlantic coast. Snow closes Atlas passes most winters and there is a ski resort above Marrakech.
The realityIn the souks, yes, and it is a conversation rather than a contest. Fixed-price shops, cafés, pharmacies and supermarkets are not negotiable, and treating them as if they were lands badly.
The realityDarija is the street language and Tamazight is official alongside Arabic, but French runs business and signage, Spanish is common in the north, and English is widespread wherever visitors go.
Cultural notes that actually help
- Greet before you ask. A salam alaikum, then the question, in a shop or a taxi alike.
- Right hand for eating and for handing anything over. Bread does the work of a fork.
- Friday is couscous day, and many families are home in the middle of it. Expect a slower afternoon.
- Alcohol is served in licensed hotels, restaurants and bars rather than in most medina cafés, and drinking in the street is not done.
- Ask before photographing people. In Jemaa el-Fna the performers charge for it, and a refusal elsewhere is not personal.
- Dress is relaxed in the cities and more conservative in villages: covered shoulders and knees keep every door open.
Famous Moroccan faces
Ibn Battuta
Hicham El Guerrouj
Nawal El Moutawakel
Fatima Mernissi
Tahar Ben Jelloun
Leïla Slimani
Mohamed Choukri
Maryam Touzani
Nabil Ayouch
Hassan Hajjaj
RedOne
Rachid Yazami
Merieme Chadid
Achraf Hakimi
Walid Regragui
Must-try Moroccan food
Couscous
Friday's dish, steamed over the broth and served under seven vegetables.
Pastilla
Poultry and almonds layered in warqa pastry, dusted with cinnamon and sugar.
Mechoui
Whole lamb roasted in a pit oven, pulled apart and eaten with cumin and salt.
Rfissa
Shredded msemen under chicken, lentils and a fenugreek broth. Cooked to welcome a new mother.
Tagine
Named after the cone-lidded pot. Start with lamb and prune, then chicken with preserved lemon and olive.
Tanjia
Marrakech's own: lamb sealed in a clay urn and left for hours in the ashes of the hammam furnace.
Harira
Tomato, lentil and chickpea soup thickened with flour. The dish that breaks the fast in Ramadan.
B'ssara
Split fava bean soup under olive oil, cumin and paprika. A cold-morning breakfast in the north.
Zaalouk
Smoky aubergine and tomato cooked down with garlic and cumin. Eaten with bread, not a fork.
Taktouka
Roasted pepper and tomato salad, served cool beside grilled fish.
Msemen
Square laminated flatbread, folded and griddled. Butter and honey at breakfast.
Baghrir
The thousand-hole semolina pancake. Honey soaks straight through it.
Harcha
Griddled semolina bread with a sandy crust, split and filled with jam or cheese.
Amlou
Argan oil, almond and honey ground to a spread. The south's answer to breakfast.
Briouat
Warqa triangles filled with spiced meat, cheese or almond, then fried.
Maakouda
Fried potato cakes handed out of medina windows, usually in bread.
Grilled sardines
Split, rubbed with chermoula and grilled on the quay. Best where the boats land.
Chebakia
Flower-shaped dough fried, soaked in honey and rolled in sesame. Ramadan's pastry.
Kaab el ghzal
Gazelle horns: almond paste in a thin crescent shell.
Sellou
Toasted flour, almond and sesame pressed into a dense sweet paste.
Mint tea
Green tea, spearmint and sugar, poured from height. Refusing a glass is harder than accepting.
Jus d'avocat
Avocado blended with milk, almond and a little sugar. A meal in a glass.
