First thing first. What is riad at all? A riad (which means garden in Arabic) is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior courtyard or garden. They are typically found in Moroccan Medinas. Nowadays they are mainly reserved for tourists and visitors and belong…to the foreigners (mainly French…). Still, staying in a Riad is a wonderful experience, which makes up probably half of the overall trip to Marrakech – hence its first position on our list. Besides, the rooms in Riads can be found for a large diapason of budgets, so if you search in advance, it’s possible to find something that suits for all your criteria.

We booked our Riad – Dar Nael, on Airbnb and immediately praised ourselves for the choice we took a while to make. Bright but not oppressive in terms of décor, with a lovely rooftop terrasse – we wouldn’t ask for more. Besides, it’s very close to Maison de la Photographie and Medersa Ben Youssef (see below).

Yet again, what is a souk? A souk is a traditional marketplace or bazaar found in Middle Eastern and North African cities, where vendors sell goods such as spices, textiles, and handicraft – thanks, chatGPT for such a precise definition. 😀

Frankly, it makes me smile when I see them on the list of things to do in Marrakech because it’s not really that there is a choice – the Marrakech Medina – old center – is just a huge souk itself. Aesthetic, beautiful, incredibly photogenic – but at the same time stressful as the vendors are not always happy about being photographed all day – can they be blamed though ? (more about this)

Buying something at the souk is also a must-do thing, that’s why I left Morocco with a beautiful leather banana-bag (with bargaining and all this stuff).

As photographers, we couldn’t miss Maison de la Photographie (House of Photography), but there is no need to be into photography to appreciate this beautiful place. Apart from the amazing photo heritage (with some crazily old pictures from the 19th century!), it is at the same time a perfect place to learn about and admire the anthropological diversity of Morocco. Plus, the riad in which the museum is situated, is also a very beautiful place with its own rooftop terrace. I can safely say that out of all points of interest we visited, this is in our top position.

50 MAD – Adult entrance fee (~4.50 €)

View from Maison de la Photographie terrace

Talking about diversity, a big surprise we discovered already in Marrakech, was the presence of Berber culture, language and, well, people. First thing that we noticed was the Berber language (what fascinating characters it uses!) put on every official text alongside Arabic and French. As we didn’t stay long in Morocco, we didn’t explore their culture and history in much depth, but for future travels it must be something very interesting to learn more about. Anyways, Maison de Photographie is an excellent place to see some of the stunning Berber traditional garments and not only.

Saadian tombs was the first tourist attraction we visited in Marrakech on our very first day. What a delightful and relaxing pause for our minds, exhausted after a horribly hectic introduction to the Marrakech speed. Guidebooks describe this place as a peaceful oasis and it was exactly how we felt, especially considering that we came here not long before its closing hour. Saadian tombs is a mausoleum of Saadian Sultan Ahmed al Mansour ed-Dahbi and almost two hundreds of his closest people. The place is gorgeous and its relaxing and calming nature cannot be overestimated.

70 MAD ~7€

After the visit to the Saadian tombs the only thing we could manage was falling on the cushioned bench in the nearby cafe Zeitoun and hydratate with two huge smoothies. Our head was buzzing and the battery charge was on the lowest level – it’s okay for the first day in Marrakech. This city is intense even by Moroccan standards.

One of the things we were sooooo looking forward to in our Marrakech escapade was food. Of course. As devoted foodies, we spent weeks dreaming about the delices we would discover in Morocco. 

Unfortunately, we were somewhat disappointed.

Okay, I am ready to assume that we just didn’t find good places or we fell in tourist traps or whatnot but you see, the thing is that we put quite a lot of effort to find delicious restaurants or cafés and there are only two ones that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Terrasse Bakchich and Café Snack Ben Mansour.

We were both expecting an explosion of flavors, spices and textures, but weirdly enough, despite mountains of spices everywhere in the souks, almost everything we ate was quite plain. As meat is only but on rare occasions in our menu, first disappointment came through vegetable tagine and couscous – simple boiled unsalted veggies. Some meat tagines we tried were much better, but again – it’s not something we are happy to consume on a daily basis. As I said, I will happily blame ourselves for a bad choice of restaurants but to be honest, bad choice of food is really not that typical for us.

⬆️ Zeitoun Café  
⬇️ Jad Jamal

Marrakech has many different museums, ancient manors, gardens and palaces, so choosing which exactly we wanted to visit was extremely hard. Almost by chance we entered Bahia Palace and boy what a happy chance it was! A splendid place with so much beauty that my eyes hurt. Built in the late 19th century, Bahia Palace served as the residence of a former grand vizier of Marrakech and stands as a remarkable example of Moroccan palace architecture and design – it’s the best place to marvel at oriental tilework.

70 MAD ~6.5€

Ouch, where to begin.

I browsed through a lot of blog posts about Marrakech before going there and one thing was very unanimous – everybody hated Jemaa el-Fnaa Square. Still, you can’t not visit it. Even if you wanted to avoid it, you couldn’t have, as just like all roads lead to Rome, every road in Marrakech brings you to Jemaa el-Fnaa. As you are trying to make your way through the souks, helpful locals at some point will tell you “Big Square is that way”. Yes, it doesn’t matter where you were actually going, Big Square is that way. Once you get to Jemaa el-Fnaa, brace yourself as it will be an explosion of noises, colors, smells and people who would try to sell you their products and services. EXHAUSTING. The alert level was at its highest whenever we were crossing Jemaa el-Fnaa. Still, no matter how troubling it is, paradoxically it was here that for the first time we felt some kind of a tender attachment to Marrakech. For that we had to climb high – on one of the numerous roof-top terrasses to quietly watch the sunset and the night arriving at the square. Whatever you think about Jemaa el-Fnaa, I think it’s a must-experience.

We chose the terrasse of Grand Balcon du Café Glacier – it’s simple and frequented not only by tourists, which is almost always a good sign.

My postcard before flying off to Toulouse

Spending all the time in Medina without getting to the more recent parts would be a shame. No matter how authentic and colorful the old center is, in our modern day it’s hardly representative of how people of Morocco actually live. One of the major sightseeing points of Marrakech, Jardin Majorelle, is located outside Medina, why not go there on foot and see some modern architecture? Ironically, this is what we did without actually visiting the Jardin – the tickets have to be booked in advance, the price is much higher than we were ready to pay, and the huge queue at the entrance didn’t encourage us either. Anyway, it was a cool walk and I honestly recommend it to anyone who is into architecture, urbanism or is simply curious about another facet of the city.

19 kilometers of the defensive walls around Medina, dating back to the 12th century, is something worthy of separate attention. Naturally, while walking in Medina, you will see them from inside, but coming back from our walk in the modern part, we marched for several kilometers along the walls exterior and it gives a totally different perspective. What can I say, Marrakech was very well protected!

Before moving on to the epilogue, I just want to leave here some links to the blogs that we found helpful and inspiring, hoping that they will be so for you too:

• The whole series of articles about Morocco by Along Dusty Roads.
• Some more ideas of what to do in Marrakech and Morocco by Anywhere We Roam
• Amazing photography and tips by a French blogger Une Fille en Vadrouille
• One of the old articles about Morocco by Cobalt State that made me want to visit Marrakech in the first place.

By this time you might have guessed that Marrakech is not an easy destination. It is exhausting, ambiguous and definitely not a place to relax. But it’s one of the most powerful travels we have experienced lately, and it’s been a while I didn’t feel so much at the same time. In a word, it’s definitely worth its popularity. Just please, treat it with respect and open-mindedness. It’s time to rest from noisy Marrakech and go outside the city – see you in the article about Essaouira (coming soon)!