Things to do
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Bahia Palace
Built in the late nineteenth century for a grand vizier, this palace runs to courtyards of painted cedar, zellige tilework and quiet marble rooms arranged around an orange grove. Rooms are largely unfurnished, so the interest lies in ceilings and surfaces. Tour groups fill the narrow passages from mid morning, which makes opening time the calmer slot.
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Ben Youssef Madrasa
A Quranic school since the fourteenth century, this madrasa reopened in 2022 after a restoration that returned its courtyard, carved stucco and cedar screens. Upstairs, bare student cells look down on the pool below. Visits run short, and the courtyard photographs best in flat late light, when the walls lose their glare.
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El Badi Palace
Little survives of the sixteenth century palace that Ahmad al-Mansur built from imported marble and gold, stripped a century later to furnish Meknes. What remains is a vast sunken orange court, ramparts walked for the view and storks nesting on the walls. The site is open and shadeless, which argues for an early or late visit.
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Jemaa el-Fnaa
Marrakesh gathers at its main square after dark, when food stalls wheel in beside storytellers, musicians and snake charmers. By day the space is thinner and hotter, given over to juice carts and touts. Rooftop cafes on the south side give the clearest view of the whole arena. The crowd builds from sunset and holds until late.
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Koutoubia Mosque
A minaret of pink stone rises above the gardens at the medina's western edge, visible across much of the city and used for orientation since the twelfth century. Non-Muslim visitors cannot enter the prayer hall, so the draw is the exterior, the ruined earlier mosque beside it and the gardens at dusk.
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Majorelle Garden
Cobalt blue walls and stands of bamboo mark out a small garden planted by a French painter in the 1920s and later rescued by Yves Saint Laurent. Cacti, water channels and a Berber museum fill a compact plot in Gueliz. Tickets sell out on busy days and the queue forms early, so booking online ahead saves a wait.
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Marrakesh Medina
Walls of red rammed earth enclose the old city, and the souks north of the main square split into lanes for leather, metalwork, spices and slippers. Getting lost is part of it, and phone maps struggle under the covered sections. Shops shut for Friday prayers around midday, and the dyers' quarter works best in morning light.
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Menara Gardens
Olive groves and a rectangular basin from the Almohad era sit west of the medina, with a green roofed pavilion at one end that appears on half the postcards in Morocco. Snowy Atlas peaks show behind it on clear winter days. Shade is thin and the walk in from the road is long, which makes late afternoon the hour to come.
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Ourika Valley
An hour south of the city, a river valley climbs into the High Atlas past Berber villages, roadside cafes and argan cooperatives to the falls above Setti Fatma. The walk to the first cascade is steep and scrambly in places. Grand taxis run from Bab Rob, and the valley fills on Moroccan weekends, so a weekday start beats the traffic.
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Saadian Tombs
Sealed behind a wall for centuries and reopened in 1917, this necropolis holds sultans and their households under carved cedar and Carrara marble. The Hall of Twelve Columns is the reason to queue. Space inside is tight and the line moves slowly, so an early arrival is worth the effort.
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Yves Saint Laurent Museum
Opened in 2017 next door to the Majorelle Garden, this museum sets a permanent display of the designer's couture in a brick building whose facade imitates woven fabric. A library, a cafe and a temporary exhibition hall share the block. A combined ticket covers the garden, and the two are best seen in one visit.