Marrakech has been an incredible home base the past few weeks, stretching us in new ways and showing us a much more unique adventure than Ecuador ever could. We’ll surely be back to Morocco in the future!
Our favorite things to do around Marrakech:
Cooking class
This was one of the most authentic activities we’ve done in Marrakech. We found a cooking class through Airbnb Experiences hosted by Najlae, a local woman who was about our age. She taught the class in her family’s home in a quiet neighborhood about 25 minutes from our Riad. We turned out to be her only students which gave us lots of time to talk.
Hosting this class on Airbnb has given her the ability to start her own business and contribute to her family in a way that makes her really happy. She’s able to set her own schedule, share her home and culture with people from around the world, and has even taught herself English over the last 6 months of teaching daily cooking classes.
We feasted on a chicken tajine with preserved lemon, mint tea, and a variety of Moroccan salads. One of the highlights of the class was taking a break just before the food was ready to walk to the local bakery. Najlae told us that each neighborhood has an ancient oven which is used to produce fresh, traditional Moroccan bread all day long. The bakery is typically just around the corner from the local hammam because the heat from the oven creates the sauna as well.
Yves Saint Laurent Museum (plus Jardin Majorelle)
A short walk outside the north end of the Medina, is the somewhat newly established museum honoring and showcasing the life’s work of the famed fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent. We enjoyed being able to see a chronological depiction of his evolution as a designer all under one roof. As a bonus, there’s an expansive botanical garden next door called Jardin Majorelle for which we also bought a ticket –super cool way to spend a morning, bouncing back and forth between these two hot spots. Hint: go early before it gets hot outside and beat the big crowds inside!
Moroccan hammam experience
Customary here in Morocco are the hammams (ancient baths). The hammams involve a massage with a sand-papery mitten meant to exfoliate the skin. Don’t worry, they gave us funny disposable underwear to put on beforehand and the whole experience was enjoyable despite the nudity and intense scrub.
Sorry, no photos! (haha)
Day trip to Ait Ben Haddou
Located roughly three hours from Marrakech, this iconic hillside town boasts famous scenes from Gladiator and Game of Thrones. Almost 4 hours each way from Marrakech, this was an aggressive day trip. The town was the perfect example of a tourist attraction where it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s real.
For example, our guide in Ait Ben Haddou claimed to still live in the famous city, but when he showed us his home, he immediately led us to his dining room with tons of rugs sewn by his mother that were all shockingly for sale. Was it his dining room or a rug shop? Did his mom live there or across the river in the new city where it seemed everyone actually lived?
In his defense, he played an Unsullied soldier in Game of Thrones, so we were fairly starstruck and happily went along with his story. While we’d love to know the truth about the guide’s life, we didn’t question him in the moment because that might’ve come off the wrong way.
Along the way, we stopped at some very scenic overlooks and the famous Kasbah Telouet. A kasbah is a wealthy, powerful person’s home, similar to a palace, but smaller. We are still fascinated by the story of Thami El Glaoui who ruled in this Kasbah. El Glaoui had hundreds of slaves, five wives, eighty-five concubines, and hosted parties for the likes of Winston Churchill up until his ousting and death 1953. Because El Glaoui opposed King Muhammad V of Morocco, his Kasbah has not been well preserved or protected by today’s monarchy.
Oasis Festival 2019
We bought tickets a few months ago when we realized this music festival would be happening during our time in Marrakech and Elizabeth’s birthday weekend! Located at a hotel resort 20 minutes outside Marrakech, the festival was decked in Instagrammable decor (as expected) with the centerpiece being a large pool accompanied by floaties galore. Moroccan rugs, lamps and fashion scattered everywhere!
The music component of Oasis included four stages and the genre was almost entirely electronic with DJ sets going as late as 5AM. We bounced before midnight the two nights we attended, and actually skipped night three altogether because we’d just had enough. Definitely wasn’t our preferred flavor of music, but we’re not upset we tried it either.
Unfortunately, we didn’t end up with many high-quality still photos. Check out @theoasisfest on Instagram to get a good glimpse of the vibe.
Bahia Palace
One of the royal family’s many palaces, the Palais Bahia sits on a massive plot of land surrounded by gardens. It’s adjacent to the Jewish Quarter of Marrakech in the southern portion of the old Medina. After a couple failed attempts due to closure, we (successfully) visited Bahia on a busy afternoon and opted for a self-guided tour. It took more than an hour to walk around the place, and you’d be hard-pressed to find something as picturesque. The original tile flooring and ornate woodwork was fun to take in. Here are some of our favorite shots of the palace:
Le Jardin Secret
This not-so-secret garden is tucked into the middle of the Medina. It seemed like there was a major renovation done sometime in the last few years, but we didn’t get too caught up in the details. The photos were what we were after!
The final roundup of our favorite restaurants in Marrakech:
Nomad – modern Moroccan cuisine w/ a nice rooftop terrace
Reem Shawarma – extremely cheap and delicious shawarma food (went 3x!)
Cafe Des Epices – quick lunch spot; go for the kefta sandwich!
Katsura – both Japanese and Thai cuisine; we ordered red curry chicken + tom yum soup
Exotic Bali – only open weekends and via reservation, this is traditional Balinese food
Le Jardin – quaint “garden” vibe w/ especially tasty meat skewers
Comptoir Darna – only recommending for the belly dancing experience; it was expensive and the food was just ok
Cafe du Poste – famous French spot with oysters and other fancy dishes
Limoni – not the best Italian restaurant ever, but it did the trick when we were craving some pasta
Shtatto – thanks to the fast wifi, this post was written on this cafe’s comfy terrace
That’s a wrap on our Marrakech adventure–onward to Spain tomorrow afternoon!
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