Travelling The World: Marrakech, Morocco
Updated: May 24, 2020
Hey everyone, I hope you guys are enjoying the nice hot weather, I've really been missing the beach. The hot weather reminded me to do write about my travels, I've been very lucky to have been to some incredible places. So I thought it would be cool to share with you some of my travel experiences.
The first destination I would like to talk about is the imperial red city Marrakech, Morocco. It is hands down one of the most beautiful and fascinating cities I have ever had the chance to visit. This 1000-year-old city is home to some of the most beautiful authentic architecture, the land of argan and simply oozes culture and tradition from every angle.
Marrakech is famous for its stunning riads and you'll find so many dotted around the small winding streets across the city. The beating heart of Marrakech is the bustling Jemaa el-Fnaa square, this incredible outdoor market never stops for a second. This unique cultural quarter is a welcome bombardment on all of your senses, from the enticing aromas of all the food vendors to the hustle and bustle of the winding market streets. It's definitely worth a visit.
Another stunning place to visit, whilst you are in Marrakech is the vibrant Jardin Majorelle. Here host some of the most beautiful, eye-catching botanical gardens I have ever seen surrounding this brightly coloured art deco house created by French Artist Jacques Majorelle. Fashion Designer, Yves Saint Lauren adored Marrakech and went on to purchase this beautiful house in the 1950s and restored it to how we see it today. The bold cobalt blue was inspired by the coloured tiles he had seen around Marrakech and in Berber burn-houses. After Yves Saint Laurent died in 2008 his ashes were scattered in the Majorelle Gardens. There is also a Yves Saint Laurent Museum next door, which houses lots of his most renowned fashion pieces of all time as well as a journey through his life history. It was super interesting to see how this major fashion icon became the fashion name of today and to see his work in the flesh, the clothing was so well designed and out of this world! If you are interested in Art and Fashion, there is so much beauty in just one place its definitely one to go visit.
If you are up for an exciting adventure, I would definitely give the Atlas Mountains a visit. They extend 2,500km across northwestern Africa, spanning Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, separating the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline from the Sahara Desert. Actually a series of ranges with diverse terrain, climates and wildlife, the Atlas is dotted with many Berber villages and riven with canyons and ravines. We took a hike up to three of the free-flowing waterfalls and the views were so mindblowing beautiful and untouched. It felt like we were on top of the world! There were lots of Moroccan sculptors on the mountain paths, hand-making ornaments from the mountain rock. They were absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately, the men left a bad impression by being very forceful and haggling crazy prices for us to pay for them. Haggling is very common across Morocco and you will have to be quite wary and firm if you are not interested in purchasing and try to keep your personal possessions safe at all times as pickpocketing is a massive problem there.
We stopped by for some lunch on the way back and was seated right in this fresh natural stream. The sun beamed down on us as we ate our mouthwatering traditional Tagine. We could hear monkeys screeching and birds chirping as the cool water ran through our feet, it was absolutely captivating. This was by far my favourite part of our trip and is really one to experience.
I would advise because it's an Arabic country to keep yourself well covered. This is also great to do as it gets extremely hot and being a fair-skinned ginger girl it's definitely something I had to think about a lot! Their main spoken language is French and most people that we came across spoke a little bit of English, but we found that most of the Riad and Hotel staff usually can speak English fluently, so we usually asked all our questions and recommendations before we set off on our adventures. I would say knowing some French phrases like yes please and no thank you definitely would work in your favour.
Before our travels, we had read that you cant pre-order money you can only exchange it once you are there. This meant it was incredibly daunting to go to a country we had never been before with no money except our cards. It's predominantly a cash-only country with only a few card machines scattered about the city, so when we first arrived in Marrakech, early in the morning this was a massive hurdle we had to face. I would recommend buying some euros before you go as that's easily exchangeable at riads and hotels or you could buy a big sum of Moroccan Dirhams from the card machines at the airport exit to last you for the whole trip as it will be hard and expensive to exchange in the city. We found that it was not the easiest to get around. We were lucky enough to find a really friendly, helpful taxi driver who took us on most of the excursions, so don't be afraid to ask for their advice as they usually are tour guides too.
My best tip for Marrakech is to simply go with the flow. It’s wise to have a bit of a plan for Marrakech, with some trips and excursions booked up in advance (good museums /tours etc) but you should leave a bit of time to just let Marrakech happen, to wander, let the chaos unfold around you and to just to sit and people watch for a while. It's purely incredible.
I hope you guys enjoyed my insight into the wonderful city of Marrakech, and I hope it prepares you a little better if you are ever thinking of going. Be sure to leave a comment down below if you have any questions.
Till the next one!
