Morocco, particularly the Marrakech region, boasts incredible cultural, architectural, natural, and culinary treasures. The weather is generally pleasant, making it a great escape from the cold that sets in France during autumn.
With its cities, mountains, deserts, and beaches, you’re sure to find something you love in Morocco.
Here, we share our one-week (or even longer) road trip itinerary around Marrakech, featuring must-see locations and specialties to try. So let’s get started!
Morocco is one of our first major trips since we sold Van-Dono, our converted van, in 2022, with which we traveled the roads of our beautiful continent. We visited Morocco like most travelers do, arriving and departing by plane. Marrakech was our base and starting point for this journey.
Here’s our one-week itinerary:
It's easy to extend or shorten this trip. To be completely honest, we would have gladly said yes to 1 or 2 more days to really take our time and enjoy our time in the Agafay Desert and Essaouira.
And knowing that there are still many cities and places to discover around Marrakech... It's not just one week, but several weeks that we would need to allocate. So, to help you prepare your itinerary calmly and with full knowledge, we’ll present a list of things to do and see around Marrakech (which we didn't have time to visit) later in the article.
To come to Morocco from France, unfortunately, there aren't too many options available to you.
You can:
As for us, we flew from Paris in November 2023 with EasyJet, which allowed us to choose our number of large cabin bags and additional checked luggage (one small cabin bag is included in the ticket price). We paid €293 for two round-trip tickets, booking just one month in advance, which included one large cabin bag for an extra fee and the two small cabin bags already included in the ticket price.
Now that you know how to arrive in Morocco, the visits can begin!
Here, we present the cities we explored during our stay in Morocco and our impressions of each, without going into all the details of the sights to see. For that, we’ve prepared dedicated articles for each city (if they’re not published yet, they will be soon, sorry for the delay), to keep everything clear and digestible.
Yes, we’re thinking of you behind your screen! 😉
Marrakech was the first city we visited in Morocco (and even in Africa). It’s located in the northwest of the country, 320 km south of Rabat, the capital, close to the Atlas Mountain range, between the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas. The city is surrounded by stunning mountainous landscapes that you wouldn’t immediately associate with Morocco.
Inside Marrakech, the historic center, the medina, offers a completely different scenery, which is just as captivating. Here, you’ll find souks, narrow streets, shops, minarets, gates, and walls, along with many other fascinating sights.
We didn’t know what to expect before arriving in Morocco, but we absolutely loved Marrakech!
For more on our visit to Marrakech, check out the article: Diving Into the Heart of the Imperial City of Marrakech.
The Agafay Desert is located just an hour south of Marrakech. It’s not the iconic sand desert (the famous Sahara) that you might imagine or see in Instagram photos, as the Sahara is over 8 hours away from Marrakech—a bit far for a quick detour.
The Agafay Desert is a stone desert. Yes, that might not sound exciting, but trust us—it looks much better in person than it sounds!
Simon wasn’t very keen on visiting this desert at first, but I’m glad I insisted we keep it on the itinerary, as it turned out to be a fantastic discovery! Simon even admitted it later. So, we can only recommend adding it to your trip! We stayed for just one night, but to truly enjoy the camp, the activities, and the breathtaking scenery, we recommend extending your stay to at least two nights.
More details about Agafay Desert will be in a future article.
After leaving the desert, we headed west to the coastal city of Essaouira, about 3 hours from Agafay Desert and Marrakech. Essaouira is a coastal town where fishing and art are both prominent.
We were initially unsure about including Essaouira in our itinerary, but we’re so glad we did, as it became one of our highlights.
Essaouira has a completely different vibe compared to Marrakech. It’s more peaceful, and the vendors are far less pushy.
Now, don’t get us wrong—we loved Marrakech and never felt unsafe there, but Essaouira has a unique atmosphere that’s hard to describe. You need to experience it to understand. We hope this town will capture your heart as it did ours.
More about our visit to Essaouira will be in an upcoming article.
When traveling, finding accommodations is a key factor! Now that we no longer have Van-Dono, our trusty travel companion, we have to find places to stay on-site.
For your convenience, we’ve found some gems here in Morocco!
First, we chose typical accommodations: riads when in the city and a tent for our desert adventure.
Here are our recommendations in detail:
Highlights:
Downside (if we must find one):
Website for Riad Dar Yasaman .
Highlights:
Downside:
Website for Riad Le Pèlerin .
Highlights:
Downside:
Website for Riad Baladin.
Highlights:
Downside:
Website for Inara camp.
We were really satisfied with these four accommodations and can only recommend them for your future trips!
If, like us, you’re road-tripping through the country, we recommend renting a car to travel between cities.
In fact, we share our car rental misadventure in our article on Marrakech: Diving into the heart of the imperial city of Marrakech.
In any case, for renting a car, we suggest using the platform DiscoverCars. This site compares numerous rental companies to offer you the best deals, all with no hidden fees! Say goodbye to issues and hello to unlimited mileage, partial or full coverage, and theft protection.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, due to lack of time, we couldn’t visit everything we had planned in Morocco… At the same time, the Moroccan territory is 1.3 times larger than France. So, of course, we couldn’t discover it from every angle in just one week. We had to make some logical choices among the places we had noted down. Here’s a list of other points of interest around Marrakech that we discovered through articles or from advice and recommendations we gathered here and there. As you might guess, we don’t have personal experiences to share about these places, but we’ll list them here anyway:
We’ll end this article with culinary specialties. Yes, because visiting a country, a region, or a city (a place in general) isn’t just about what you see, but also about what you taste!
So, here are some Moroccan specialties we loved trying during our stay:
Of course, the famous tagines! You can't miss them when visiting Morocco, and it would be a sin not to try an authentic one. You’ll find them everywhere, in many varieties, but if you want to try the traditional Moroccan tagine, you should ask for the beef one!
Do you know the difference between a tagine and a couscous? We never really thought about it until we were there, but it’s useful to know when you’re ordering. There are differences in spices and meats used, but the biggest distinction is that couscous is served with semolina, while a tagine is not. A tagine is usually accompanied by bread.
Also, sweet and savory combinations are common in tagines, whereas couscous sticks to vegetables.
Another point: a tagine typically features one protein (one meat or one fish), while couscous can offer a mix of meats or fish (like "royal couscous," which includes chicken, merguez sausage, lamb, etc., in the same dish).
Finally, the cooking methods are different. A tagine is cooked in a "tajinier," a clay dish with a conical lid placed over coals, while couscous is cooked on stovetops in a two-tiered pot called a "couscoussier."
Amlou is truly something special! You must try it if you come to Morocco! To put it simply, it's a kind of spread. It's made from almonds or peanuts mixed with argan oil and honey. An absolute delight, especially for breakfast with Moroccan pancakes.
Msemens are square, savory Moroccan pancakes. They are made from semolina and wheat flour and are flaky in texture. It’s a truly unique and new texture for the palate.
Throughout our stay, they were served to us for breakfast, typically accompanied by fresh cheese or "La Vache qui Rit" cheese (and they pair really well together)!
After Iran, India, and Greece, Morocco is the fourth largest saffron producer in the world. Its "red gold" is cultivated in the Atlas Mountains and harvested in November.
It’s possible to see this rare, delicate flower by visiting a saffron farm in the Ourika Valley. This was an activity we wanted to do, but we unfortunately didn’t have time to add it to our schedule. These visits allow you to learn more about the flower and the production process that turns it into the spice we know and see in our supermarkets.
Like saffron, argan is a typical Moroccan product. Morocco is the world's leading producer of argan oil, far ahead of Mexico, Tunisia, and Algeria. Most of the country's argan trees are located along the western coast, around Essaouira and further south.
Argan is harvested in the summer, and the subsequent transformation process is quite lengthy, involving drying, peeling, cracking, pressing, and filtering. The resulting oil, depending on the filtration method, can be used either for culinary or cosmetic purposes. This process is usually done by hand, often by women, and to obtain 1 liter of argan oil, you initially need more than 55 kg of ripe fruits (an argan tree typically has 8 to 9 kg of ripe fruits).
These ripe fruits will, after several steps, yield 2 kg of kernels which, once pressed, are transformed into 1 liter of oil.
No wonder this "yellow gold" is so expensive!
Tangia is a typical dish from Marrakech, and we didn’t even get the chance to try it…
To be honest, we only discovered its existence when we returned, and a coworker said to me: "But you didn’t try tangia?"
What is this dish? No, we didn’t try it… And what a shame! Well, it gives us an excuse to go back. 🤣.
Tangia is a traditional Moroccan dish associated with the city of Marrakech. It’s made with lamb or beef shank and is traditionally slow-cooked in a clay pot, buried in the sand or on hot coals for hours. It sounds absolutely delicious!
Let us know in the comments if you've tried it! 😉
And there you have it, we’ve reached the end of this article. We’ve shared with you what we believe are the most unique and unmissable places and specialties in Morocco. We hope it was informative and that it will help you during your Moroccan trip. Now it’s up to you to plan your journey and enjoy your stay! And to book your plane or ferry tickets, you can do so directly through the links below:
Feel free to share your experiences and tips for other travelers in the comments 😉.
1. In Morocco, the currency is the dirham, not the euro. To get dirhams, you can either plan ahead and exchange money in France at your bank, or at a currency exchange office once you're there. But in both cases, keep in mind:
2. If you decide to rent a car, be aware that there are many speed cameras and police checkpoints on the roads. We strongly advise you to strictly follow the speed limits, as they won’t hesitate to fine you!
In fact, getting pulled over by a policeman is almost inevitable. They tried to fine us, claiming we were driving "76 km/h in a 60 km/h zone." Since we were being very cautious, we knew it wasn’t true, and Simon didn’t back down, asking to see proof of the speed violation. Thankfully! The officer didn’t show the proof (probably because he didn’t have any), and we left without a ticket.
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