Marrakech & the Sahara Desert
WHERE IS MARRAKECH?
Marrakech is a city in Morocco located west of the Atlas Mountains. It is known for its palaces, gardens, The Medina, restaurants, and hammams / spas. It is also a popular starting point for trips to the Sahara Desert.
WHERE IS THE SAHARA DESERT?
The Sahara Desert spreads through parts of eleven different countries in North Africa. In Morocco, the Sahara Desert can be found on its southern border with Algeria which is south of the Atlas Mountains.
TRAVEL COMPANIONS
Marissa, Savannah, Laura, Rikki, & Sophie 😊
MY FAVORITES
camel ride – Limoni – Medersa Ben Youssef – Herbalism – Teatro Club
CURRENCY Moroccan Dirham
At the time I am writing this, one USD is 10.10 Moroccan Dirham. Here is a link to see the current conversion ratio. I used my cash to pay for the goods I purchased in The Medina, tips on the Sahara Desert trip, and entrance fees to different museums. I can’t really remember how much cash I took out at the Casablanca airport ATM, but I think it was around 100USD. This lasted me for my time in Casablanca and some in Marrakech. I did have to withdraw more (I think around 50 USD) once I got to Marrakech. For all the other things I needed to pay for, I used my VISA card.
BUDGET
For Marrakech, you can budget about 50 - 70 USD a day depending on what you want to purchase in The Medina. For the Sahara Desert trip, I think it averaged out to about 70 USD for each day of the trip. That includes everything.
TIME OF VISIT
Early November
WEATHER
11 – 23 °C
52 – 73°F
While on paper, the temperature averages are about the same with Casablanca, we found it much warmer in Marrakech / the Sahara Desert trip during the day but cooler at night. You could comfortably wear shorts and a t-shirt or a dress during the day, but would need more layers when the sun went down.
CLOSEST MAJOR AIRPORT Menara Airport
Menara Airport is about a twenty-minute drive from the city center, so it is a very convenient airport to fly into to visit Marrakech. Our group chose to fly in and out of Morocco from Casablanca because the Menara Airport does not support as many airlines as the Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport. If your group also decides it is cheaper or easier to fly in an out of Casablanca, the train to and from Marrakech is about 2 hours and is very clean and convenient.
VISA REQUIREMENTS
It is not required for United States citizens to get a tourist visa if your stay is under 90 days. This requirement may have changed since I have written this post, so always double check the U.S. Department of State website for the most up to date information.
TRANSPORT bus, walking, taxi, train
The bus was helpful to get from new town to The Medina. We used the local taxis whenever we were traveling outside of normal bus hours. They are cheap and convenient. When you are in The Medina, there are no cars allowed, so you will be dependent on your two feet to get you from point A to B. The train was very helpful in transporting us to and from Casablanca / Marrakech.
PACKING LIST
dress – jacket / sweater – shorts – pants – short sleeve shirt – long sleeve shirt – closed toe shoes – sunscreen – swimsuit
When packing for the Sahara Desert part of your trip, don’t bring your own head scarf. The ones you will be able to purchase on your way to the desert are the correct material and length that you will want. They are also very inexpensive. You will want to wear pants and closed toed shoes for the camel ride portion of this trip and comfy clothes for the transport days.
ACCOMMODATION Hostel Riad Marrakech Rouge and Sun Hostel
In Hostel Riad Marrakech Rouge, we stayed in a 6-bed mixed dorm room. The room was nice and had lockable storage where you could put your belongings. We used their laundry service and they had great advice about the local area. They were in a great location within The Medina and they also had a pool at a different location that guests had access to. We did not stay here long enough to use this benefit, but it is a good one to have.
At Sun Hostel, we had a 3-bed private room and access to shared bathrooms and showers. We enjoyed the privacy of this room. We used the free breakfast offered here as well as their laundry services. They offered great advice about the area and their location within The Medina was great. We preferred this hostel simply because they offered a private room whereas the other hostel only had dorm-style rooms.
FOOD
Limoni – tagine – fresh fruit smoothie
SHOPPING
The Medina
LANGUAGE French, Spanish, & Arabic
While there may be other languages or official languages, French, Spanish, and Arabic were the most commonly used by the people we interacted with in Marrakech. As always, I recommend downloading these languages on Google Translate before arriving so you can translate anything you need without internet. In addition, it is helpful to learn some basic phrases before arriving. “Thank you” is a great place to start (merci, gracias, and shukran) 😊
GOOGLE MAPS PINS
Here is my Google Maps link for all of Morocco. You can zoom in to Marrakech to see only the locations around this area.
DAILY ACTIVITY BLOG
Day 1
We arrived in Marrakech around 2PM via the train from Casablanca.
From the Marrakech train station, we hopped on the bus to get as close as we could to The Medina and then walked about 15 minutes to our hostel.
We stayed at Hostel Riad Marrakech Rouge in a 6-person mixed dorm room. After checking in, we spent a few hours exploring the different bazaars within The Medina.
Our first stop was street food. We got a Moroccan version of a sloppy joe and it was delicious.
We purchased shoes, makeup, and pants and spent a fair amount of time at Herbalism. Here, we tried many of their products with very helpful and friendly staff. I purchased a soap and a deodorant bar while Marissa and Savannah purchased other products. We really enjoyed this shop.
Once we finished our afternoon of shopping, we met up with Laura, Rikki, and Sophie for dinner at Dune Rooftop. I enjoyed a chicken caesar salad. This was my first salad since leaving home and it was delicious. We called it a night after hanging out here for a while.
Day 2
Today began day one of our Sahara Desert group trip. The morning began early so we could make it to our bus by 7:30AM. In the tour group, it was the six of us plus eleven other tourists and two drivers.
We drove pretty much all day today, making lengthy stops at different places. Our longest stop was at Aït Benhaddou. It is a local village famous for being used as a set location for many well-known movies and TV shows.
Here, we all exited the bus and followed our local tour guide through the village and up to the top of the hill where the castle is. On this walk, our guide gave us information on the history of the area and the people living here.
He also listed many movies and TV shows that had been filmed here. Most recently, the area was used to film scenes from “Gladiator II” and “Outer Banks”.
We also entered an artist shop and watched him use local pigments to create a painting. He then added heat to the painting and we watched the color change again.
At the end of our tour, we ate lunch at a local restaurant used by many of the tour groups before heading to our final destination of the day, Tinghir. We stayed at one of the hotels here and really enjoyed the experience here tonight.
We were given a 6-person suite to stay in which our group loved! It was so fun to have our own space and be all together. For dinner, it was family style tagine and other Moroccan dishes. This hotel was used by many different tour groups, so the atmosphere was very sociable and a fun way to end the first night of the trip.
Day 3
We woke up a bit early so we could enjoy breakfast before heading out at 9AM. Our first stop of the day was Todra Gorge.
We met up with a local guide who walked us around the local village and into the gorge. We spent about two hours here before driving about four hours to the Sahara Desert, making a stop halfway for lunch.
Driving up on the Sahara Desert was really something to witness. It kind of just appears and the vastness is mind blowing.
We parked, got our overnight bags, and walked to our camels. We rode them into the desert for about an hour then stopped for about an hour to do sand boarding.
It was so much fun! I really tried my hand at sand boarding and took quite a few tumbles. When the sun started to set, we got back on our camels to ride to our desert campsite for the night.
There was a fire going and the guides were playing music while we ate dinner. It was honestly some of the best tagine we had all trip 😊 We ended the night around the fire listening to traditional music and dancing. It was really fun.
At the desert campsite, the six of us again got to stay in the same room, so it was a fun end to the day.
Day 4
We packed up early so we could be on our camels by 7AM. The intention was to have a sunrise camel ride, but it was cloudy, so we weren’t able to see the usual colors of a sunrise.
It was still fun to see the desert one more time before heading out of the Sahara back to our car. We met back up with our drivers and enjoyed a solid breakfast before getting in the car.
Today’s car ride didn’t have any fun stops. Our goal was just to make it back to Marrakech in good time. We were in the car, making rest stops every few hours, until 7:30PM.
When we got back to Marrakech, we split back up with Laura, Rikki, and Sophie and checked into the Sun Hostel. We got a 3-bed private room here with a shared shower / bathroom area. It was really nice and we enjoyed the privacy of the room.
After checking in, we walked about 30 minutes through The Medina to Limoni, an Italian restaurant recommended to us by an Italian family that was on our Sahara Desert tour. We met back up with Laura, Rikki, and Sophie here 😊
The dinner was delicious. Sophie and I split two dishes so we could try them both. We ordered gnocchi and ravioli. I preferred the gnocchi, but that is my favorite pasta dish of all time. I also enjoyed tiramisu for dessert 😊
We all walked home together and said our goodbyes because the other girls planned to go home the next day.
Day 5
Today was Morocco’s Independence Day. We slept in a little bit then went up to the hostel rooftop for breakfast. We also threw in some laundry to get us through the rest of our trip with clean clothes 😊
Around 11AM, we headed to Bahia Palace and spent a few hours wandering the grounds and taking pictures.
From here, we walked to the Saadiah Tombs. This was a much quicker stop than the palace and I honestly would recommend skipping this. There wasn’t much to see.
We took a touring break to enjoy lunch at a local shop. We had falafel wraps and they were delicious.
We then walked to the Marrakech Museum, passing through Jemaa el-Fnaa on the way. In Jemaa el-Fnaa, we saw snake charmers and paid them a bit of money to take pictures of us behind the snakes. He even put some snakes on Savannah and Marissa, but I wanted nothing to do with that!
When we made it to the museum, we found a man doing Arabic Calligraphy. I paid him to write my name 😊 He explained the phonetic symbols to us which was very nice and informative.
By the time we left this museum, it was 6PM, so we headed next door to Medersa Ben Youssef, a gorgeously restored school. We watched videos of the intricate restoration and spent a lot of time wandering the grounds and the courtyard.
From here, we walked back to our hostel. I picked up a lemon slushie for my walk and it was delicious. At the hostel, we put away our laundry, packed up most of our things, and got ready to go to a club.
It was about a 30-minute walk to the club because we had to leave The Medina and go to the new part of Marrakech. We arrived to Teatro Club around midnight which was still a bit too early. We spent time in the restaurant before returning and dancing our last night (and morning) in Marrakech away 😊
WHAT I DID NOT HAVE TIME / $ FOR BUT WISH I DID
Yves Saint Laurent Museum – Jardin Majorelle – El Badi Palace – Bacha Coffee
