Morocco Travel Beyond Marrakech

Marrakech might be the place most people think of when they consider Morocco, or perhaps Casablanca, but it is only one small part of the country. I did not want to travel all the way to the northwest coast of Africa and limit myself to a single city, so I built a few bookends onto our larger group trip to Marrakech. In total, we spent 22 days in Morocco. A handful of close friends joined me for the full itinerary, while others joined for portions of the trip. At our smallest, we were a group of four, in the middle a group of eight, and at our largest, in Marrakech, a group of thirteen.

When I started to consider what other cities to tack onto our trip, a few specifics stood out. First of all, I, along with a few others, really wanted to go to Chefchaouen, famously known as the “blue city.”  I had heard wonderful things about the coast and Essaouira.  And Fes was pretty high on a few people’s lists.  These cities are not exactly grouped together by geography. In fact, they were downright hard (lots of long days on trains) to link together but I regret nothing. They were all amazingly and uniquely different from each other in layout, logistics, and food.  I’ve got some Morocco travel tips to help you make sense of where to stay, where to eat and drink without overplanning, and what is worth seeing with limited time in all of these places.

Linking these cities was not easy, but it gave us a much broader view of Morocco than staying in Marrakech alone.

Morocco Travel: Essaouira

Where to Stay

We stayed in an incredibly comfortable and beautiful riad in the medina, which worked well for our medium-sized group. Everyone had their own bed, and staying inside the walls kept everything walkable. There are a few important things to understand about medina stays, though. They are not what I would consider easy access. This means lots of stairs, frequent narrow passages, and in the case of Essaouira, no car or taxi access inside the medina at all.

That leaves you with two options. You can carry your luggage yourself through the alleyways in search of your accommodations, or you can pay a porter with a wooden wheelbarrow a small fee to bring it for you. Despite that, I would still strongly recommend staying inside the walls. Otherwise, you are missing a significant part of the experience.

Our Marrakech riad, Riad Alkemia, arranged private transport for us from the Marrakech airport to Essaouira, but most accommodations can assist with this. Depending on the number of people in your group, transfer costs can range from about $35 USD per person each way to roughly $175 for a solo transfer.

Where to Eat & Drink

Reservations are very necessary in Essaouira, especially for dinner if you have a large group. Most places accommodated my requests via WhatsApp. Even in November, which is often described as the off-season, most popular spots were quite full. This port town is known for its seafood, and most restaurants source their fish locally each day. Menus lean heavily toward fresh fish and shellfish.

Alcohol is available in select restaurants and hotel bars, but options are limited and not openly advertised. Here are a few of our favorite spots that we found:

• One standout experience was sunset cocktails on the rooftop bar at Salut Maroc. They had a small but thoughtful selection of French wines, inventive cocktails, a band playing from a literal perch, and some of the best views in the city.
• On a sunny afternoon, it is worth walking down the beach boardwalk away from the center of the medina and stopping for drinks and snacks right on the sand at Ocean Vagabond.
• Our meal at El Sirocco was especially memorable. They went out of their way to secure a birthday cake for the three birthdays we were celebrating that night. The pastillas and tagines we ate there were some of our favorites of the trip.
• Koozina Garden was the perfect place to spend a long afternoon lunch. The food was fresh and vegetable-forward, which is always appreciated while traveling.

What to See / Do

Essaouira is easy to navigate on foot, and most days naturally revolve around walking rather than scheduled activities. The medina walls and ramparts are straightforward to access and easy to revisit at different times of day. If you are interested in bringing anything home from Morocco, including jewelry, shoes, wares, or rugs, we were told by friends in Essaouira that you should buy as much of it as possible from the souks there, rather than in Marrakech, where importing items from China is widely accepted and the expense is almost double. We did, as we traveled throughout the country, find that this was true. There were things created by artisians in both Essaouira and Chefchaouen that were unique to those locations.

The port is an active working harbor and is worth visiting when boats are returning, and fish are being unloaded. The beach works best for long walks rather than swimming, as wind is common. In the afternoons boys could be found backflipping off the port wall into the sea water.

Language is something to be aware of. In our experience, French was spoken freqently but we did find a lot of people spoke English.  The woman who ran our riad only spoke French, so we were were glad to be able to lean on a French speaking friend who was with us. To really take the city in without rushing, three nights and two full days felt like the right amount of time. We were only there for two nights and one full day, and it felt a bit short to most of us and we immediately missed the laid back vibes as soon as we left.

Just outside of Essaouira is Val d’Argan, one of Morocco’s only wineries, run by a Frenchman. We did a full tour, learned about the impact drought has had on vine health and production, and had one of the best meals of our trip on the patio next to the pool, along with plenty of wine. We bought a case to bring back to the medina in Marrakech, which made wine much easier to come by for the first half of the trip. You can email them for reservations (but again, know that they speak French).

Morocco Travel: Chefchaouen

Where to Stay

Chefchaouen was a bit more challenging than anywhere else we traveled in Morocco, but it was absolutely worth the effort. Accommodations there break down into two practical choices. You can stay inside the medina in a well-worn, ancient, quirky, character-filled riad for very little money. Or you can stay slightly uphill above the medina, where there are a handful of more modern hotels with larger rooms and easier access.

Staying inside the medina keeps everything walkable and makes early mornings and evenings simple, but access will absolutely involve steep steps and narrow walkways. In fact, all of Chefchaouen is steep steps and narrow alleyways.  And so many blue doors. Blue doors on every path. More than you can photograph. Back to the point though: as with most older cities in Morocco, taxis cannot reach many doors, so luggage logistics matter. Ideally, you will be lucky enough to have a small, spry, seventy-year-old, French-speaking man named Moustapha who grabs three of your suitcases and sprints up the stairs to your riad in the rain with boundless energy.

Staying uphill usually means more space, a more western-style room, and easier access, but it comes at the cost of frequent climbs back into town and a much higher price point. If you plan to spend most of your time walking the medina, eating out, and moving around on foot, staying inside the walls makes the most sense. If mobility or luggage is a concern, it is important to look carefully at elevation and distance before booking.

We spent a leisurely afternoon reading on the patio at Hotel Dar Echchaouen, and if their accommodations are even remotely as nice as the grounds, it would be a very comfortable stay. That level of comfort comes at a cost, though. Rooms run around $160 USD per night for two people. By comparison, our riad slept ten people and cost slightly less than that per night.

Where to Eat & Drink

Chefchaouen has a smaller and more limited restaurant scene than larger Moroccan cities, so planning ahead a little helps. We did not find that we needed reservations as critically as we did in Marrakech and Essaouira, but we were also there in the low season. I imagine that in the summer, when the town is filled with people who take the ferry over from Spain to Tangiers, the restaurants fill up quite quickly.

Cafés are plentiful and generally reliable for coffee, breakfast, and light meals. I highly recommend hitting the Cafe Clock for coffee and a camel burger. Alcohol is extremely limited in Chefchaouen, and when I say extremely limited, I mean that there is ONE place to get it.  The Oum Rabie Restaurant and Bar has a small liquor store behind a chain link curtain within it.  You can buy bottles of wine, beer, and some limited liquor there. We found nowhere else that served beer or wine, even at restaurants.  We absolutely loved our meal at El Cielo, which was hidden inside a lovely, lush green garden within a hotel wall.

What to See / Do

Chefchaouen is easy to cover on foot, and most visitors spend their time walking aimlessly in circles, quite happily. The medina itself is the main draw, and it is compact enough that you can pass through the same areas at different times of day without it feeling repetitive. The entire city is awash in the color blue and I spent an entire afternoon running around taking photos quite happily.  Early mornings are the most practical time to walk if you want quieter streets. Later in the day, the city gets noticeably busier as day trippers arrive and souk stalls open, filling the narrow alleyways with goods and foot traffic. Our day there was extra packed due to a Russian movie being filmed within the walls of the town. Make sure you pop into the Kasbah. The price is reasonable, and it’s got a lot of informative history on the area.

There are several viewpoints above the medina that are accessible on foot and worth the climb if you dream of a wider view of the city and surrounding hills. Almost anyone in town can point you in the direction to church overlooking the entire town, which has a great view at sunset. Chefchaouen also works well as a base for short day trips into the surrounding countryside if you are staying more than a night or two.

We stayed for two days and three nights, and spent an entire afternoon at Akchour, a popular hiking area about a forty-minute drive from town. The trails follow a river through a narrow valley and lead to a series of waterfalls, with options to turn around at multiple points depending on weather and energy. The paths are uneven and can be muddy after rain, so you want running or hiking shoes for sure.

One of the most well-known destinations in Akchour is God’s Bridge, a large natural stone arch spanning the gorge above the river. Reaching it is a shorter hike than the other waterfalls hike, and fairly straightforward.  It is clearly marked and heavily trafficked. There are several cafes along the river trail offering food, and honestly, it was some of the best traditional Moroccan food we had the entire trip. Even in poor weather (it poured on us), it was worth visiting, and we were all craving exercise. It makes for a full half-day trip from Chefchaouen and pairs well with a slower itinerary that allows for time outside the medina.

Travel Morocco: Fes

Where to Stay

Fes is the most logistically complicated city we stayed in, and where you choose to sleep matters more here than anywhere else on this trip. I’m glad we ended up exploring this city at the end of our trip, when we felt like professional Moroccan travelers. The Fes medina is something else. The walls are high, and the maze-like roads are convoluted with twists and turns. It’s extremely easy to get turned around. Staying inside the medina puts you closest to everything, but it also means navigating a dense maze of narrow streets where taxis cannot enter. Many riads are beautiful and historic, but access almost always involves stairs, tight turns, and walking through busy alleys with luggage. If you stay inside the medina, confirm in advance how arrival works and whether someone can meet you to help guide you in.

Staying just outside the medina, particularly near one of the main gates, makes arrivals and departures much easier and still allows you to walk in daily, which is what we did. This option works especially well if you are traveling with more than a backpack or staying for multiple nights. Fes rewards centrality, but I wouldn’t suggest that it requires sleeping deep inside the medina to experience it fully.  There are plenty of options for travelers on a budget, including our accomodations the Riad Farouzi, which we quite enjoyed. If you would like luxury accommodations, I can say with certainty that you should stay at the Riad Fes. You should also absolutely visit their rooftop bar at sunset for drinks and snacks. I went multiple times and enjoyed it every time.

Where to Eat & Drink in Fes

By the time we got to Fes I was absolutely 100% OVER Moroccan food.  I was doing everything I could to avoid it. Menus in Fes tend to lean traditional, so it was a tall order. You should absolutely eat at the Ruined Garden, deep within the medina walls. Its lush, idyllic space was perfect for reading and lounging over lunch.  We also spent an evening at the Sama Rooftop to take in the views of the surrounding hills.

What to Do in Fes

The medina of Fes is the largest in Morocco and one of the largest car-free urban areas in the world. There are more than 9000 alleyways within it! It dates back to the ninth century and was built in layers over hundreds of years, which is why it feels so dense and disorienting. What you are walking through today is not a preserved historic district but a fully functioning city. Thousands of people live and work there, and many of the trades, layouts, and routines have changed very little over time. At night, the shops close up, and the windows and doors are shuttered, leaving a very quiet and eerily spooky feeling. It may be a dark maze, but I never felt unsafe.

Because of its size, distances inside the medina take far longer than they appear on a map. A walk that looks short can easily turn into forty-five minutes of navigating narrow alleys, staircases, and crowded corridors. Your GPS isn’t always going to work well within it, and paying attention is important. Three days in, I had kind of figured out how to navigate through the narrow and lengthy passageways, but not without frequent detours still. We hired a local guide for our first morning there, who took us on a tour of the medina and helped us understand how to navigate it.  Wandering on your own is also worthwhile, but only if you accept that getting lost is part of the experience.

One thing to be aware of is the number of young boys and men who will offer to help you find your way. This happens constantly, and it was infinitely worse in Fes than anywhere else we traveled. If you look even slightly unsure of where you are going they will harass you. They will often insist that a street is closed or that your destination is unreachable without assistance. Do not agree to let them show you the way. This almost always ends with pressure for money and an intentionally longer route where they frequently do not take you where you intend to go but ask you for money anyways. You have to firmly decline and let them know that you are under no circumstances giving them money.

A visit to Fes wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the tanneries. The tanneries  are one of the most well-known sights in Fes. They have been operating in the city for centuries. Our medina guide took us through on the first day and informed us of the history and methods used to dye the leather in the massive vats.  If you have extra time, head to the Jewish Quarter to roam around aimlessly.  It can be accessed by a walk through the Bab Boujloud gate and a nice afternoon meander through the Garden Sbil.

Fes also works well as a base for day trips. A common option is visiting Meknes, one of Morocco’s imperial cities, which is smaller and easier to navigate than Fes and can be covered in a few hours. Meknes pairs naturally with a visit to Volubilis, a remarkably well-preserved Roman site outside the city. Volubilis is expansive and open, with mosaics, columns, and foundations spread across a hillside, and it offers a complete contrast to the tight density of the Fes medina.