MarrakechTravel Guide

The areas and addresses our writers put first

• The Medina

  Marrakech

  At the top end, the medina's edge holds legends: La Mamounia, the century-old palace hotel beside the walls with its storied gardens, and the ultra-exclusive Royal Mansour.

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• The Kasbah and Mellah

  Marrakech

  The medina's southern quarters, near the Bahia and El Badi palaces, offer the riad experience with slightly gentler foot traffic and easier taxi access.

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• Gueliz

  Marrakech

  The French-built new town is where modern Marrakech lives: mid-range hotels, apartment stays, galleries, cafés and restaurants at local prices.

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• The Palmeraie and the outskirts

  Marrakech

  In the palm groves north of the city and along the roads to the south, Marrakech does full-resort mode: sprawling grounds, serious pools, spas and golf, including some of Morocco's most famous luxury properties.

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The things that justify the trip

• JR Harris

  Koutoubia Mosque

  Morning. Get your bearings at the Koutoubia Mosque, whose 12th-century minaret — around 77 metres of Almohad geometry — is visible from most of the city and makes the one reliable landmark when the lanes swallow you.

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• Beatriz Troncoso

  Jemaa el-Fnaa

  Evening. Jemaa el-Fnaa at dusk is the show itself — storytellers, gnawa musicians, orange-juice carts, smoke rising off the food stalls.

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• Abhishek Choudhary

  Bahia Palace

  Morning. The Bahia Palace first, when the light rakes its painted cedar ceilings and zellige courtyards, then the Saadian Tombs, rediscovered in 1917, where the Chamber of the Twelve Columns is as rich a room as Moroc…

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• Johan Eriksson

  Saadian Tombs

  The Bahia Palace first, when the light rakes its painted cedar ceilings and zellige courtyards, then the Saadian Tombs, rediscovered in 1917, where the Chamber of the Twelve Columns is as rich a room as Morocco owns.

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• Macia Serrano

  Ben Youssef Madrasa

  Afternoon. The Ben Youssef Madrasa, a 16th-century Koranic college around a marble courtyard, is the medina's most beautiful interior; the ruined, stork-crowned ramparts of the El Badi Palace nearby make its melanchol…

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• Elodie Lvn

  El Badi Palace

  The Ben Youssef Madrasa, a 16th-century Koranic college around a marble courtyard, is the medina's most beautiful interior; the ruined, stork-crowned ramparts of the El Badi Palace nearby make its melancholy counterpoint.

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• ine driesens

  Jardin Majorelle

  Morning. Taxi to the Jardin Majorelle, the cobalt-blue garden restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé; buy timed tickets online well ahead, and pair it with the adjacent Yves Saint Laurent Museum.

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• Behnaz

  Yves Saint Laurent Museum

  Taxi to the Jardin Majorelle, the cobalt-blue garden restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé; buy timed tickets online well ahead, and pair it with the adjacent Yves Saint Laurent Museum.

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• Maja Daskalovska

  Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech

  Opened in 2017 beside the Jardin Majorelle, this terracotta-brick landmark honours the designer whose love affair with Marrakech reshaped his palette.

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• Abdelhamid Azoui

  Dar Si Said

  One of the city's oldest museum buildings, this ornate 19th-century residence is devoted to Moroccan craft, with a celebrated focus on weaving and carpets.

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• Maison de la Photographie

  Marrakech

  A restored riad in the medina filled with vintage photographs of Morocco from the late 19th and early 20th centuries — faces, landscapes and street scenes that make the country's recent past feel startlingly close.

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Walks, tours and days out we would book again

• Imlil

  Marrakech

  Morning. Hire a driver (or join a small group tour) for the roughly 90-minute run south to Imlil, a Berber village at around 1,740 metres that serves as the trailhead for Mount Toubkal — at 4,167 metres, North Africa'…

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