In the summer of 2024, I organized a large group trip to a beautiful amazing castle on the Mediterranean island of Malta. I am blessed with the kind of friends who believe in adventure, and I convinced 13 of them to travel across the world to enjoy a palace built in the 18th century and explore a location that for many of us, hadn’t even remotely been on our radar. It was such a success that almost immediately people in the group started asking me to find a new castle. I take my castle sleuthing VERY seriously and it began with the question, “what made the trip to Malta so unique?” What I landed on for the starting point of the next group trip was the sense of place. Specifically, I wondered, what locations would my motley group of beautiful wild women possibly want to travel to but maybe not solo? I kept gravitating again and again to Morocco. Travel to Morocco, I gathered, just might give people pause, especially if they are traveling solo, not particularly well traveled, or visiting a Muslim country for the first time. Our plans were locked in when I found the most beautiful amazing riad built in the 18th century located within the Marrakech medina walls (but more on that later). Once the location was set, I started planning the kind of group trip to Marrakech that would balance comfort, adventure, and enough structure to keep thirteen people moving in roughly the same direction, but hopefully with enough free time to allow for spontaneity.
What started as a weeklong large group trip to Marrakech expanded to include so many other Moroccan cities, including Essaouira, Chefchaouen, and Fes. I can say with 100% certainty that EVERYONE should travel to Morocco. What we experienced there was nothing short of magic. This beautiful, stunning country is filled with generosity, consistency, and incredible Muslim hospitality that existed in every way, in every city we visited. The catch is that traveling to Morocco, particularly with a large group, required significantly more planning than Malta. But never fear: I’ve got all my travel tips, places we loved, and what I would recommend in a multi-part series to anyone planning their own travel to Morocco, whether it’s a group trip to Marrakech or simply traveling on your own.
Marrakech: Stay, Eat and Explore
Our entire trip was predicated on finding the Riad Alkemia, a literal actual oasis in the middle of the Marrakech medina walls. Honestly, our expectations didn’t even possibly meet the magic of this riad. There are two types of homes in Morocco: riads and dars. Riad means garden in Arabic and these homes are generally built around a central garden, often featuring a pool, with trees and an open sky. Dars were historically more modest family homes, and while they are also built around a central, tiled courtyard, that courtyard often has a roof. The Riad Alkemia was built around a small central pool, offered an in home personal hammam, complete with all the daily services you could possibly want, a rooftop patio with lounge chairs and a large table to share meals at, and a full time around the clock staff. The staff was EXCEPTIONAL. And when I say exceptional, I mean it. They were so incredibly gracious, so caring, so responsive, and so relaxed with the dozens of changes in requests for excursions, hammam treatments, and drivers that the 13 of us constantly had. Honestly, this trip would not have been the same without them.
Some of the most stand out moments of the trip included languid mornings and afternoons in the riad when I had hammam treatments booked and as such, no reason to leave. Our favorite meals were served around the rooftop table. We scheduled three of them over the course of the week – one the night we arrived, one after our group excursion day, and one at the end to say goodbye to the crew. Each version of our group dinners, carefully prepared by our riad staff, was delicious and representative of some of the more authentic dinner experiences we had of traditional Moroccan cuisine.
If you are interested in planning your own group trip to Marrakech, the riad sleeps up to 15 people and is only rented privately and in it’s entirety. They can offer retreats, weddings, and just simply vacations for the adventurous.. The Riad Alkemia was worth every (honestly, very reasonable) penny.
Where to Eat and Drink in Marrakech
Marrakech moves quickly and requires more advance planning, especially with a group as large as ours. I found that we ended up staying in a much larger group generally than we had in Malta for many things, including meals, and I think that was just due to the unfamiliarity of the location and the overwhelming nature of the maze like city. Many nights, we either made reservations in advance (or had our man at the riad Khalid make them) and were glad we did. Marrakech is an incredibly cosmopolitan city filled with beautiful rooftops dining options and quaint bars in gardens hidden behind tall medina walls. There are quite a few spots that stood out above and beyond the others:
- +61 was my favorite find of the trip. Run by an Aussie, Cassie, in partnership with the owner of another one of our faves from the week (Nomad), their dishes a relaxed, unpretentious, but ingredient forward. They accommodated all 13 of us LOUD Americans in their tiny restaurant and the wine list was so incredible we didn’t want to leave and just kept ordering more. We ordered family style: a few appetizers for each section of the table and a few entrees for each section and the entire meal was incredible from start to finish.
- For rooftop dining and cocktails under the magical Marrakech sky, you want to go to Kabana. The vibe is exactly as you would expect with that name: think beach palapa meets city sophisticated. It’s casual, but art deco, unpretentious, but vibrant and trendy enough that you’re going to want to go back multiple times for all the cocktails. The menu is asian fusion, heavy on sushi and wok options.
- Looking for a little bit of Paris? The Grand Café de la Poste is incredibly charming (moules frites anyone?) whether you are there for lunch, afternoon drinks, dinner, or an evening nightcap. IF you go for a nightcap, go all the way up to the third floor where a smoky jazz lounge offers small bites, desserts, cocktails and a piano player nightly.
- La Trattoria has been there for 50 years and is incredibly romantic. Built around a massive pool lit by hanging lanterns and small christmas light filled trees, they offer traditional handmade pasta. If you have time to kill, the art deco bar is cozy, warm and inviting. The wine list was great and filled with both Italian and French options.
- For lunch, you want to head to Nomad, a “Modern Moroccan” menu that featured great coffee, a juice tasting sampler, incredible salads and veggie options, and a wealth of entrees that were rooted in Moroccan flavors but with a very cosmopolitan twist. No alcohol.
Morocco is a Muslim country which means that many places are dry. We generally had an incredibly easy time finding places for cocktails, wine and alcohol in Marrakech. Easy enough that we really went all in one night and a bottle of tequila was absolutely consumed in the wee hours of the morning that probably shouldn’t have been. If you’re out and about and looking for just cocktails, here’s a few great options that we discovered:
- Le Baromètre was our favorite cocktail bar discovery and not just because I had a kiss and run at the end of the night (that did help though). It was dark, moody, and the ambiance was on point. The craft cocktails were sensational: incredible, inventive, and each one had a touch of wild.
- DarDar is a great option for afternoon cocktails (and snacks) on a rooftop. It’s located in the middle of the medina so it’s an easy stopping point in the maze of exploration to take a break from the overwhelming sensations of fighting through the small alleys filled with goods, people, and motorbikes.
- The Petanque Social Club is hidden behind an unassuming door on an unassuming wall int he neighborhood of Gueliz. There’s a massive patio with lawn furniture arranged under a giant tree that practically invites for long languid evenings around great conversation and good company. This is the perfect spot to hit before dinner at +61 or La Trattoria.
- The Palais Sebban is incredibly hard to find, but worthy of the attempt. This is also a hotel and if you are traveling to Marrakech with less people, it seems like a perfect landing spot for a smaller crew. The opulent interior pool and patio area, where they have a restaraunt and can offer cocktails poolside, is simply magnificent. We routinely were confused how something so grand and large could exist within the medina walls. PS we had to ask for directions to find their very unmarked door down a medina alleyway.
What to Do in Marrakech
The obvious highlight of any trip to Marrakech is the maze like Medina, which is only dwarfed by the one in Fes. It’s chaotic and loud and wonderful and confusing but after a few days of exploration, we all started to get the hang of the directions and where things (mostly) were. We did start our week in Marrakech with a medina tour with a guide arranged by the Riad, which I think was helpful. He gave everyone an idea of what to look for, how the medina was laid out, and took us around to his homie’s shops for some kickback sales, which is sort of the name of the game around there. Rugs, spices and shoes were purchased and everyone left happy and a little bit less confused on how to navigate on their own.
Other points of interest of note:
- We arranged an ATV excursion in the nearby Agafay Desert through our riad and it was the highlight of the week for me. It was STUNNING out there. The sand dunes were enthralling and ATVing is SO fun. We concluded our morning with lunch at the French owned La Flouka on the shore of Lake Lalla Takerkoust, where we were the only english speaking people but enjoyed every bit of our afternoon.
- A few people in our group arranged for camel rides and did not care for that experience, so be warned.
- You must visit the gardens. The Majorelle Gardens and Le Jardin Secret are both worthy stops, the former being quite a bit larger, grander (and outside the medina walls) and the second being hidden in plain site within the medina. Both have timed entries and you should buy your Majorelle tickets ahead of time. The visit there includes a stop through the Yves Saint Laurent museum next door as well. Le Jardin Secret was quite packed midday but a few of us went in the late afternoon towards the end of the day and found the experience to be quite relaxed and enjoyable.
- We arranged a group excursion out to the Ourika Valley to see the waterfalls and hike. A few things to note: no matter who you book the excursion through, they are going to try to get you to have a guide. You do not need a guide. You are not required to have a guide. A guide would have made us insane. Second, in order to get to the waterfalls, you want to hike up through the village of Setti Fatma. The river runs roughly east to west across the town of Setti Fatma. You will be dropped of along the road to the NORTH of the river. You want to cross the river and start to hike up the trail through small buildings and restaurants that dot the way to the waterfalls where they try to hustle you for everything from small souvenirs to lunch. You will pass hundreds of people being taught about Berber culture at these stops. You will be annoyed but you will prevail. Eventually, you will reach the first waterfall where it will still feel like too many people. Continue to hike up through a few restaurants. You’ll come to a trail that is perpendicular to the stairs and you’ll want to go LEFT which will take you upwards to more waterfalls. When you are ready, you can follow the same trail back down and to the juncture where you go right and it will kick you back down into town on a long languid trail that overlooks the river, the roadway and has absolutely no people on it.
- You need to hammam. Even I, who does not like being touched, enjoyed being in a steamy shower room while an aggressive woman threw water on me by the bucket, slapped me with scrubbing brushes, and covered me from head to toe in black mud before getting a massage.
Marrakech was the starting point, but it was only one part of our story. On either side of this unbelievable magical medina, quite a few of us made our way to Essaouira, Chefchaouen, and Fes. Each city required something different from us and gave something different in return, from rooftop views on the coast to hikes through waterfalls and quiet mornings in ancient courtyards to a city painted entirely in blue. The rhythm of the trip shifted with every stop and entirely depended on who joined in. I’ll be sharing what worked, what I would skip, and what I would recommend to anyone adding these cities to their own itinerary for a solo or group trip to Morocco in a second post in this series. If you’re considering a group trip to Marrakech, the right lodging (which obviously means the Riad Alkemia!), a flexible plan, and a bit of advance coordination can make the experience of a group trip to Marrakech absolutely unforgettable. I hope this post and the next one helps but if you have further questions, reach out either by email, slide into those insta DMs or shoot me a text!
If you are interested in purchasing fine art prints of any of my photos from our group trip to Marrakech, they are available through my print gallery – just shoot me an email of interest!
Leave A Comment