A Weekend in Marrakesh, Morocco: Shopping, Camel Riding, and Hiking

On any day of the week, you can walk into Jemaa el-Fna Square at the heart of Marrakesh, Morocco and this is what you’ll find: musicians, drums beating, snake charmers, monkeys, food stalls, and restaurants. There is noise, chaos, smoke and dust, fortune tellers, beggars, henna tattooists, donkey carts, a multitude of scooters, taxis, and horse-drawn carriages. And yet, there is still room to walk through. This was what I experienced on a weekend in Marrakesh. Sensory overload like never before.

Sound crazy? It is! Marrakesh, Morocco in Northern Africa is nothing like I could’ve imagined. I’m so glad we made the trip and we had a wonderful time. It’s a trip that I highly recommend taking at least once in your life! For when you do decide to embark on this trip, I’ve put together a guide of things you should know about spending a weekend (or more if you have a chance) in Marrakesh! From how to get to Marrakesh, choosing where to stay, the types of tours/camel rides you can take, where to get the best meals, and valuable shopping tips! Continue reading for all the insider info.

Getting To Marrakesh

We flew on RyanAir from Milan Bergamo (BGY), Italy to Marrakesh, Morocco. This was the cheaper flight option as opposed to leaving from Venice Airport. When we landed in Marrakesh, the airport security was really intense. It was similar to returning to the U.S. from overseas. We had to go through passport control, get our passports stamped, and then get our bags scanned before we could even exit the airport.

When planning for this trip and picking out a place to stay for the weekend, I intentionally chose a riad that had an airport shuttle. It cost an extra 200 MAD ($20), but was so worth it. It was about a 20-minute ride from the airport to the Medina in Marrakesh where we were met by someone from the riad who then walked us to the place we were staying. There’s no way we would have ever figured out how to get to our riad on our own.

Picking Out a Riad

Through a maze of streets and down a back alley was the entrance to our beautiful Riad. Behind a stunning iron-studded wooden door was Riad Ben Youssef.

You may be wondering what the difference is between a riad and a hotel. Riads are traditional mansions built around courtyards, which have been turned into guesthouses. The thick mud walls keep out the noise of the city streets.  Ours was filled with peace and tranquility, with a fountain and beautiful trees in the middle. Our Riad was inside the Medina, which is the historic city center, and within walking distance of the Jemma el-Fna (the main market square). We were provided a private transfer to and from the airport and a delicious breakfast each morning, along with mint tea when we arrived. ⠀

There were many exquisite Riads in Marrakesh and we had a few “must-haves” when choosing the best place for us: breakfast included, hotel shuttle, and inside of the Medina within walking distance of the market square! Many can be booked through Airbnb or Booking.com, which we use for almost all of our accommodations. Use the links below to browse through some beautiful Riads!

We tried to stay at one of the Riads recommended by Along Dusty Roads, which you can find their post here, but every single one was booked up for the weekend that we were visiting! This just means we’ll have to go back another time ; )

Booking.com

Eating in Marrakesh

After eating food in Morocco, everything I eat now is just…well, boring. Take your typical hearty meals and add tons of spices providing plentiful flavors and a satisfied belly. That’s what Moroccan food is like! While I am on my gluten-free stint, I stayed 100% gluten-free in Marrakesh and was pleasantly surprised at how accommodating restaurants were. Stephen, on the other hand, enjoyed gulping down crepes for breakfast, pastries with his mint tea, and bread before every meal. Needless to say, there’s something for everyone. I saw many vegan and gluten-free options on the menus at the restaurants we ordered. If it did not specify if it was GF, I made sure to ask our waiter and he would check with the chef and meet my needs.

One thing in particular that I loved about Marrakesh was the fresh fruit juices that were plentiful, and we sipped on them often. You will not find much alcohol here as drinking alcohol is forbidden by the Qur’an, so Muslims don’t drink. Below are my recommendations for places to eat. Some require a reservation, which I denoted, and some are inside the maze of streets.  We learned that if you ask, they will come to your riad and walk you to the restaurant.

Zeitoun Café – this place was my favorite among all the restaurants in Marrakesh! A previous visitor to Morocco, my friend Dalee, recommended this place! It’s conveniently located in the market square and if you sit up on the terrace, you have a great “people watching” view because it overlooks the whole square. They have fantastic juice smoothies and many gluten-free options that are actually listed on the menu as GF! The tajine was my favorite here.

• Website: zeitouncafe.com
• Open for lunch: 12:00
• Address: 107 Place Jemaa El Fnaa, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

Le Trou Au Mur – this restaurant was on the same street as our Riad, making it super convenient. It was more upscale, but they had fantastic martinis and GF options.

• Website: letrouaumur.com
• Open for dinner: 18:30
• Address: 39 Derb el Farnatchi, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

Terrasse La Medersa – we ate here for a cheaper meal and got meat plates and wine. It was delicious and inexpensive!

• Website: terrasselamedersa.com
• Open for dinner: 10:00 – 22:00
• Address: Souk Ahl Fes, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

Le Foundouk – on the list of CNN’s best rooftop and sky-high restaurants in the world and the list of top 5 restaurants in Marrakesh, we just HAD to try this place out since it was right around the corner from our Riad. Their cocktails are amazing. Their food is phenomenal. And the atmosphere is top notch. You need to make a reservation here and it’s super easy to do online.  If you need directions, someone will come to get you from your riad.

• Website: foundouk.com
• Open for dinner: 19:30
• Address: RUE SOUK EL FASSI N°55 – KAT BENNAHÏD -، Marrakech 40000, Morocco

Experiencing the Medina Market Streets

Fair warning: I’m not a huge shopper. But if you are, Marrakesh will leave you with lighter pockets because there are so many unique things that even I wanted to buy!

I’m the type of shopper who goes off my feelings. So, when walking through the streets of Marrakesh, if I saw a pair of pants that I liked I wouldn’t stop to look at them because I didn’t want any attention from an overly anxious shopkeeper. That’s why we chose Aux Merveilles de Marrakech to do our rug shopping. We saw these rugs hanging inside of a large room, which turned out to be a former riad, and walked in. We had the whole space to ourselves to take it in before the owner, Driss, walked in and welcomed us to his space. He wasn’t pushy, he started telling us all about his family and the history of this space and that it was a riad a long time ago. He let us tell HIM what we wanted and look at lots of rugs before trying them. He asked us to take our shoes off and walk on the rugs to feel their quality. We even had mint tea while sitting on the rug that we eventually ended up buying (after some negotiations)! I highly recommend taking a look inside if you are interested in a Moroccan rug for your home!

**We did absolutely no research on rug shopping prior to visiting Morocco. However, after looking online, I am very pleased with the place that we chose considering the amount of positive TripAdvisor reviews that Aux Merveilles has. You can check that out here or on google reviews here!

Stephen was in search of Moroccan furniture, specifically a desk for his office. We visited many stores, but the most impressive one of all was outside of the Medina Walls – Mustapha Blaoui. When we walked up to the door, it was closed so we thought they weren’t open, but we knocked on the door and someone welcomed us inside. It was incredible. It was more than just a maze. They had SO many floors of rugs and furniture. Unfortunately, the items were way out of our price range and Stephen didn’t find a desk that he loved. If you’re looking for furniture, I do recommend stopping by this place and just LOOKING at the items. They had furniture made out of elephant tusks!

• Address: 144 Arset Aouzal Rd, Marrakesh 40000, Morocco

Riding Camels in Marrakesh

One thing that I wanted to do, besides buying a Moroccan rug, was ride a camel! As a Get Your Guide Affiliate, I decided to pick a tour from there so that I could recommend to my readers afterward. I picked the “Atlas Mountains Day Trip with Camel Ride.” The tour group my husband and I were a part of was small, with only one other couple from Spain. Our guide, Mustapha, picked us up from our Riad at 8:45 and walked us back to the square to wait for our van for the day. We were transported out to somewhere near the desert, had mint tea in a desert tent, put on beautiful blue Berber outfits and headscarves and rode for about 20 minutes on the camels. I had been under the impression that it was an all day camel tour, but it ended up being okay because after 20 minutes my legs were sore. Riding a camel is much different than riding a horse!

Following the camel ride, we went to Asnia where we walked through the market that is only open on Saturdays. I was very glad that we had a guide with us to walk through the village because we did not fit in there. The Berber people are less wealthy than people in the surrounding areas, which you can probably see from this market and the way they showcase their produce. Mustapha showed us where the town doctor was – a very sobering scene – and he explained the economic differences between the mountain towns and Marrakesh.

We drove up through the Atlas Mountains on a beautiful road where we were dropped off at Imlil. Hiking up to a few waterfalls was the second highlight of the day. It was an incline hike, but we enjoyed getting to see a different side of Morocco than the normal desert side. Mustapha and his family welcomed us into their home for Mint Tea and walnuts before we had dinner in Imlil at a guesthouse prior to returning to Marrakesh and being dropped off in the Medina.

I recommend this tour if you don’t have a lot of time and can only do a day trip, but there are so many options on Get Your Guide which you can check out here. The great thing about booking tours through here is that you can pre-pay and you don’t have to worry about exchanging any money, unless you decide to tip at the end, and most have free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance!

Tips for Visiting Morocco

Put visiting the Ensemble Artisanal Marrakech at the top of your list. This is a shopping center of sorts where everything is a fixed price. You can purchase items in here, but it is used mostly to help tourists gain an understanding of how much things cost. We were told to visit this place by three separate people, so obviously it was the first thing we did on day one of our weekend in Marrakesh. They have everything you could possibly find here: lamps, furniture, rugs, wooden items, etc. We did a quick sweep through the shops and asked how much items were that we were interested in purchasing back in the Medina, and kept those figures in our head as we shopped.

Once you’ve visited this souvenir shopping center, you have a better understanding of what things SHOULD cost in Marrakesh. When you are shopping inside of the Medina, the merchants can throw out any price they want, and it can be an outrageous number thousands above what you should pay. You’ll want to know when you’re being hoodwinked so you can barter until the price comes down. I did this with every item that was purchased. In fact, Stephen made me do it all on my own and he would only step in when the shop owner wouldn’t budge or when he saw that I was getting frustrated. (I’m not a very patient person.)

Tips for negotiating: Obviously they’re there to make a profit but let’s be real, they see a TON of tourists, so keep that in mind. I only carried so much cash in my wallet (Stephen and I split it up) so that if they didn’t believe that I didn’t have any more $, I could say LOOK this is all I have. And most importantly, if you don’t like what they’re saying, walk AWAY. I did this and ended up with 2 lamps for half the price of what he was asking for just one. They don’t like when you walk away because it means losing a buyer!

ATM: Unless you come to Morocco with Dirhams, you’re going to need to withdraw money before you do or buy almost anything. The exchange rate from Dirhams to USD is basically 10:1. (To make it easy in your head, move the decimal place one to the left to convert it to dollars. Math tip from a math nerd). You’ll be able to find some ATMs on Google Maps, but the best ATMs we found were located inside the square, opposite from the Zeitoun Café.

Staying safe: I’ve traveled many places solo and felt 100% confident, but I would not travel to Marrakesh as a solo woman. That’s just my opinion! I saw many women even traveling in groups who were being catcalled and gawked at by men. At night when walking to dinner, the streets were not well lit.  We never passed women in the streets – only men. I’m not saying it’s an unsafe area, but I wouldn’t travel here alone without my husband. Here are just a few quick tips to stay under the radar and safe in Marrakesh:

• Avoid blatant eye contact. I wore sunglasses a lot.
• Avoid wearing revealing or tight clothing, especially on chest or butt areas.
• Don’t let anyone help you with directions. They will demand you pay them. Always use your phone or a map (discreetly).
• To the previous point, download an offline map of the city from Google Maps if you don’t use data.
• Avoid walking alone at night.
• Use common sense.

I hope you find all of this information useful and that my photography has inspired you to spend a weekend in Marrakesh, Morocco. There is so much to see and do there, and I hope to return some day to spend even more time in the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert. Have you been there? Any tips you want to add? Let me know in the comments below! Happy traveling!