Taroudant

After visiting Agadir and a nice walk in Paradise Valley we continued our trip as planned to Moroccan city Taroudant. However, we had quite different plans in comparison with what we ended up with.

First time in our lives, we had to go into quarantine due to the COVID lockdown. The good news is that we had booked a very good comfortable (and expensive) guesthouse just a few miles from Taroudant city centre. It was booked for three nights, however, we spent there almost two weeks.

On the positive side, we had a full board throughout our stay, with a local chef – a young Moroccan lady. The host was French, so we got a mix of local Moroccan and French cuisine.

We had a large pool in the backyard, a beautiful garden with turtles and peacocks, a large living room and even bigger bedroom, a huge bathroom, a covered outdoor terrace and French wine with dinner whenever we wanted. So, although our self-isolation was expensive, we enjoyed it as a separate unexpected holiday.

Getting to Taroudant

After we left the hotel near Paradise Valley, we followed directions from Google Maps and got into trouble. Although it rarely happens, Google offered us to go the wrong route. After a mile or two, driving on a very bad road without any pavement, we reached a broken bridge but managed to pass it. However, after each next mile, the road was becoming even worse.

Finally, some local man was waiving us and after a short conversation which was not even close to English, we understood that we would not be able to reach Taroudant coming this way and had to go back to our starting point. So, we drove all the way back to Agadir, then turned to the east and arrived at our guesthouse late in the afternoon – just in time to settle in and be ready for our welcome dinner.

About the city

Taroudant is completely different from Agadir or Marrakesh; there is nothing built with an aim to entertain tourists – no bars, no clubs, no McDonalds and no shopping centres. The city is a traditional Berber market town. Taroudant has a long history; for a while, it even was a capital used by one of the rulers during sixteen’s century.

Taroudant is located in a valley. From the city you may enjoy beautiful scenery towards the High Atlas mountains, however, the most impressive might be the city walls. They are seven and a half kilometres long and have many bastions and towers as well as nine gates.

Taroudant city walls

The major reason we visited Taroudant was the fact that it is traditionally a Moroccan city. Although things did not work out exactly as we were planning, after finishing our self-isolation, we had a quick look at the city centre. The major part of it was closed for visiting; at least, we had a chance to enjoy that magical moment you would feel when entering the city through huge gates.

More or less, that was all our Taroudant experience. With our host’s kind assistance, we managed to get a permit from local authorities to allow us to move around and we decided to continue our trip to our next destination as initially planned a small town Tafraout located in the Low Atlas Mountains even closer to the south.

The only difference – we went there well behind our initial schedule. However, it did not matter anymore as all flights from Morocco were indefinitely suspended and we had to find someplace we could live on our own until getting back home; as it later appeared, we lived in Tafraout for more than two months.