Marrakesh
The capital city of Morocco is Rabat, which is located 324 kilometres northeast of Marrakesh. It would take three and a half hours to reach Marrakesh by car from Rabat; it is the fourth largest city in Morocco.
Instead of coming from Morocco’s capital by car, we landed at Menara Airport in June. It was a direct flight from Glasgow by EasyJet; the cost of the return flight per person was about £145 and pre-arranged taxi pick-up from the airport to the city was around £15.
We spent about a week in Morocco at that time. In 2015, Marrakesh was named by TripAdvisor as the No.1 travel destination in the world (winners of the 2015 Travellers' Choice award for Destinations), leaving such popular destinations as Czech capital Prague at 5th position, UK’s London as No.6 and Rome as No.7 – impressive, isn’t it? The major part of this trip we spent in Marrakesh.
Accommodation in Marrakesh
Marhabbah Murrākuš! It is a norm in Morocco that you would rather find a privately owned guest house ‘Riad’ for your stay than a hotel. We decided to try two of them in Marrakesh; the first one was simple and thus cheaper but the second riad had large rooms and an impressive decorated private pool.
Both were located in Medina (old town) near Bab Doukkala Mosque. One of the most useful things we did during preparation for our visit was to ask a representative of the Riad to meet us after arrival near a mosque. You may ask why? Because even a detailed investigation of Google Maps sometimes would not help to find accommodation just after the first arrival to Marrakesh.
The old town is like a spider net and even taxi drivers may not be able to find the address you are looking for.
Getting around Marrakesh
The area around Marrakesh area has been inhabited since Neolithic times; at that time those were Berber tribes. Marrakesh was founded in 1062.
During the 60s and 70s of the last century, such famous people and groups as Yves Saint Laurent, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jean-Paul Getty spent significant time in the city, attracting many more tourists to the city. Medina of Marrakesh is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (wow – again, we lived at least a few days in a world heritage site!
There are two major options to travel around the city – either on foot or by taxi. Walking is almost the only way you can move around Medina, although walking bigger distances may also be a nice way of spending time there. If you have gone too far away, you can always catch a taxi to get back home – will not need to spend a fortune on your trip back.
For example, we visited Jardin Majorelle (the Jardin Majorelle is one of the most visited sites in Morocco, open every day at least from 9am till 5pm) walking both ways from and back to Medina – around 4 kilometres altogether.