Best places to visit in Morocco 2024

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free journey electronic mail for skilled recommendation and money-saving reductions

Get Simon Calder’s Travel electronic mail

With the Atlas Mountains and sections of the sprawling Sahara Desert, pure magnificence dominates Morocco’s map. Yet, it’s additionally the atmospheric alleys, snake charmer squares and tiled riads of this North African nation’s ports and cities that beg to be explored.

Infused with blends of custom and artwork, cities in this land of coastlines, festivals – spiritual and musical – and full-flavoured delicacies are each numerous and enchanting. And it’s not simply the charms of up-and-coming capital Rabat or the palm and parasol-fringed seashores of Agadir that deserve to draw in vacationers.

From the energetic Marrakech medina to the medieval mosques of Fes and the Atlantic breeze-swept coastlines of Essaouira and Taghazout, there’s buying, browsing and historical crafts to be found.

As the nation enters one other scorching spring, listed below are six of the very best vacation hotspots and the place to keep – all lower than a four-hour flight from the UK.

Read extra on Morocco journey:

Marrakech

Marrakech is a imaginative and prescient of dusky terracotta buildings in the shadow of the towering Koutoubia Mosque and the Atlas Mountains. An internet of alleys, riads and spice-scented souks lie contained in the medina partitions, and the colourful environment that buzzes from daybreak to nightfall doesn’t boring till you attain the palm grove oasis and luxurious vacation resorts of Palmeraie to the north of town. Enjoy a charcoal-cooked merguez sausage in the central sq. Jemaa el Fna, wander across the Bahia Palace, or immerse your self in Moroccan historical past on the Maison de la Photographie, earlier than stress-free with a candy mint tea at one of many rooftop cafes or hidden gardens.

Where to keep

There’s a cool minimalism to Riad UP’s six stress-free rooms amid the Medina’s splashes of color. Complete with a patio, plunge pool and roof terrace studded with solar loungers, wrap up in a Berber blanket for nights spent overlooking town.

Fes

Morocco’s second metropolis is a mix of influences from Arabs, Moors, Ottoman Turks and the French. From the Mediterranean aptitude of Fassi delicacies to steamy non-public hammams and craft workshops, together with bookbinding and leather-based embossing, Fes fascinates with its fashionable edge to historical methods of life. The metropolis is residence to the world’s largest medieval medina district – with 9,000 alleyways to meander, you’re sure to discover a store or souk to whereas away the hours.

Where to keep

Hillside on the sting of Ville Nouvelle, up to date Hotel Sahrai oozes luxurious. Stays in impartial suites accented with stone and wooden have entry to an infinity pool overlooking the medina, a zen spa and a French brasserie for significantly suave steak frites.

Taghazout

Surf-seekers are in for a deal with in the event that they comply with the tide to Taghazout on Morocco’s Atlantic coast simply 20 minutes from the fly-and-flop resort metropolis of Agadir. The fishing village in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains is blessed with highly effective level breaks, staggering swells and barrel waves off a beachfront scattered with blue picket fishermen’s boats. Think surf-centric hostels throughout the tangle of pastel homes, Brit-run camps for classes on the board and communal meals along with your wave comrades full with genuine plates of tagine and paprika fish.

Where to keep

Dar Surf hostel hugs the swell-battered shoreline of Taghazout Beach with a shared kitchen for refuelling after surf classes and free wifi to doc days on the waves. The surf camp provides rooftop yoga, home-cooked Moroccan meals and seashore bonfires for friends.

Tangier

Bohemian Tangier is rather more than the gateway from Europe to Africa. Though instances have modified since Tangier’s louche previous lit up writers, hippies and musicians, the cafe tradition and people-watching posts stay. With some of the numerous populations in Morocco, the business port attracts home weekenders to town’s fortified kasbah partitions, Roman ruins and Sixties-style boutiques. Take your spot at a storied coffeehouse or the legendary Cafe Baba to see Tangier because the Beat writers, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger did.

Where to keep

For genuine, spacious rooms, a elegant rooftop terrace and delectable breakfasts punctuated with mint tea, visit Riad Al-Qurtubi. Sat lower than 2km from Tangier Beach, the riad is ideally located for exploring the sands, museums and medina of northwestern Morocco.

Casablanca

Casablanca is Morocco’s largest metropolis with a Hollywood heritage, beginner-friendly waves and bars constructed for nursing a cocktail. On its coast, Africa’s second largest mosque, Hassan II Mosque, dominates the waterfront and inland, the souks of Quartier Habous, stalls of the previous medina and central market are mazes of worldwide candy treats, lamps, ceramics and spices. Keen to expertise Casablanca as seen on display? Head to Rick’s Cafe impressed by the film for a jazzy gin cocktail on the roulette desk.

Where to keep

Each of the 25 vibrant suites at Art Palace Suites & Spa is impressed by a celeb or worldwide icon together with Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Cleopatra. The resort in Gauthier additionally has a spa pool in the basement and a tiled Moroccan hammam for a scrub-down.

Essaouira

On Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the windswept port metropolis of Essaouira is a hotspot for kitesurfing, French fusion feasts and strolling the partitions of the pocket-size medina. Look out for 18th-century ramparts and thuya wooden carvings as you weave via the aromatic Unesco-listed grid of boutiques promoting argan oil, carpets and leather-based. Stretch out on the sands of Essaouira Beach with a cup of a la menthe – a sugary mint cocktail – when taking a break from browsing the famed winds generally known as taros in Berber.

Where to keep

Blanketed in technicolour Moroccan zellige tiles, Salut Maroc is in the guts of the medina with eccentric bedrooms, freestanding copper tubs and enviable views out to the ocean from the rooftop terrace.

Want to vacation like Mick Jagger? The hedonistic, boho-luxe of Seventies Marrakech is again