Best places to visit in Morocco: a local's guide

Marrakech, Fes or Casablanca? Mountains or coast? Local expert Ruben Derksen shares the best places to visit in Morocco and how to combine them into one trip.

Choosing where to go in Morocco is a nice problem to have.

You could wake inside the walls of an ancient medina, walk between villages in the High Atlas, watch fishing boats unload on the Atlantic coast or see Casablanca light up from a rooftop bar.

To help narrow things down, we asked Morocco local Ruben Derksen for his take on the best places to visit in Morocco, from big-name Marrakech to cities and coastal spots that often slip under the radar.

Marrakech: best for first-timers and full-throttle city life

Go for: souks, contemporary design and street food
Pair it with: Essaouira, the Atlas Mountains or Agafay
Ruben’s don’t-miss: look beyond the traditional medina and seek out Marrakech’s contemporary art scene

For a first encounter with Morocco, Marrakech makes a compelling opener. Palaces and gardens sit behind rose-red walls, the medina tangles into a maze of souks and workshops and there always seems to be something sizzling, clattering or being bartered over.

But living in Marrakech, Ruben knows there’s plenty more to the city than its famous sights.

He recommends leaving plenty of time to get thoroughly sidetracked in the souks, then seeking out the city’s contemporary art galleries, a side of Marrakech that many visitors completely miss. For modern Moroccan design, head to Sidi Ghanem, where designers are taking traditional materials and craftsmanship in fresh directions.

Come lunchtime, make room for tanjia, an essential Marrakchi dish to try around Souk Ablouh, just off Jemaa el-Fnaa.

When you want to turn the volume down, there’s Guéliz. Much of everyday life happens here, among cafés, restaurants and parks where Marrakchis meet friends rather than sightsee.

And Marrakech makes an easy jumping-off point for seeing more of Morocco. Ruben’s favourite first-time pairing is Marrakech and Essaouira, while the Atlas Mountains and Agafay put mountain trails and rocky desert landscapes within easy reach of the city.

Got Marrakech in your sights? Get to grips with the medina, know your souks from your riads and work out where to start in a city that rarely sits still. Read our first-timer’s guide to Marrakech.

Make your holiday: Our Marrakech Twin Centre trip

Fes: best for history and craftsmanship

Go for: an extraordinary medina, artisans and a deep dive into Moroccan heritage
Pair it with: Rabat or Casablanca
Ruben’s don’t-miss: climb to Borj Nord to see the medina from above

Its vast old medina may draw you here, but for Ruben, its living traditions are what make it particularly special.

Spend time with an artisan and you’ll see ceramics, zellige, metalwork, leather and wood being worked by people using skills passed between generations. Watching the making rather than simply shopping for the finished piece changes your understanding of the city.

Then get above it. “Borj Nord gives you the scale of the medina in a way that is impossible to understand when you are inside it,” says Ruben. From here, that jumble of lanes and rooftops suddenly reveals just how enormous the old city is.

And don’t assume Fes begins and ends at its ancient walls. Head into the Ville Nouvelle and the lanes give way to wide boulevards and 20th-century architecture.

Need a breather from the medina? Make for Jnan Sbil towards dusk. Just outside the old city, these historic gardens are where locals come to walk beneath the trees and gather around the fountains. After a day deep in Fes’s lanes, all that greenery feels like changing the channel.

Make your holiday: Cities and Medinas of Morocco

Essaouira: best for coast and culture

Go for: Atlantic walks, seafood and surf-town spirit
Pair it with: Marrakech
Ruben’s don’t-miss: leave the medina for a few hours and follow the coast towards Diabat and Sidi Kaouki

Essaouira is Ruben’s pick when Marrakech needs an Atlantic counterweight.

“Marrakech gives you the intensity – food, souks, palaces, gardens, noise and energy – and Essaouira gives you almost the exact opposite: the Atlantic, seafood, walking, wind and a much slower pace.”

That contrast is precisely why the two work so well together. Essaouira still has its medina, ramparts and shopping, but resist filling your itinerary. Wander. Visit the working fishing port. Walk the long sweep of beach. Find a rooftop for sunset.

For Ruben, Essaouira’s appeal is that “it feels like a real town that happens to be beautiful rather than a place that exists for tourism.” Fishing boats still arrive, children play football on the beach and local life carries on around the surfers, artists and travellers who have fallen for the place.

Hungry for more? From Friday couscous shared around one enormous plate to Fes pastilla and fish straight from the market in Essaouira, see what to eat in Morocco with our local’s foodie guide.

Agadir: best for beaches and easy exploring

Go for: beach time with a modern Moroccan city attached
Pair it with: Morocco’s southern Atlantic coast
Ruben’s don’t-miss: step beyond the resort bubble and see more of Agadir

Agadir is the place Ruben thinks visitors most often get wrong. Its long beach and resort hotels have given it a fly-and-flop reputation, but there’s a busy Moroccan city beyond the sunloungers.

It’s a place shaped by university students, open boulevards, cafés and restaurants, with surf culture adding another layer along this stretch of coast. That makes Agadir an interesting choice if you want the ease of a beach holiday without being completely cocooned inside a resort.

To see another side of Agadir, start at Souk El Had. This enormous market sells everything from food and spices to clothes, furniture and household goods, with locals here to shop rather than simply sell to visitors.

Agadir is also well placed for exploring further afield. Head north and you’ll reach Tamraght and Taghazout, where residents often make for the coast at weekends. Turn inland instead and the foothills and Anti-Atlas open up, with Taroudant making a good addition to a full day away from the beach.

That’s one of Agadir’s big advantages: city, mountains and Atlantic coast are all within striking distance. You can dip into the market in the morning, head for the hills when you fancy an adventure, or decide that today calls for absolutely nothing more strenuous than the beach.

Make your holiday: Our Marrakech, Mountains & Beach trip

Rabat: best for a calmer city break

Go for: history, walkability and a less hectic pace
Pair it with: Casablanca or Fes
Ruben’s don’t-miss: walk from the medina through the Kasbah of the Oudayas towards the Bouregreg

Morocco’s capital has historic architecture, a medina and Atlantic air, but explore it on foot rather than charging around with a checklist.

Wander through the medina and into the blue-and-white Kasbah of the Oudayas, then continue towards the Bouregreg River and Salé beyond. Around Rue Souika and Bab El Had, local bakeries, cafés and shops give you a window into a city going about its business.

If you want the history of an imperial city without quite so much medina commotion, Rabat hits a gentler pace.

Make your holiday: Cities and Medinas of Morocco

Casablanca: best for contemporary Morocco

Go for: Art Deco architecture, restaurants and nightlife Pair it with: Rabat or Fes Ruben’s don’t-miss: walk the city centre instead of seeing it through a car window

If your mental picture of Morocco is all tiled riads and ancient medinas, Casablanca is ready to rearrange it. Hassan II Mosque may be the big draw, but explore the city centre on foot. Look up and you’ll spot Art Deco and Mauresque architecture that’s easily missed when you’re being driven through, then carry on to Marché Central and the Habous district.

Then there’s the food and nightlife scene, which says a lot about modern Casablanca. Try contemporary Moroccan cooking at Dar Dada, female-owned Gare aux Gorilles and international restaurants such as Porta Lisboa. Jameson Rooftop comes with cathedral views, while Lucy in the Sky is known for its music and local DJs.

What Ruben likes most is who you’ll find in these places: young Moroccans, families and friends out enjoying their city. Spend some time in Gauthier, Maârif and Racine and you’ll find cafés, galleries, restaurants and bars alongside a young, creative and international side of Casablanca that visitors can easily miss.

Casablanca isn’t trying to be another Fes or Marrakech. Come here to see a Moroccan city looking firmly forwards.

Make your holiday: Cities and Medinas of Morocco

The Atlas Mountains: best for walking and village life

Go for: High Atlas peaks, remote villages and walking trails
Pair it with: Marrakech
Ruben’s don’t-miss: make the journey part of the experience

It doesn’t take long to swap Marrakech’s medina walls for mountain horizons. Ruben particularly likes Oukaimden outside the ski season. At this altitude, with High Atlas peaks all around, it feels far more remote than places closer to Marrakech. Walk out towards the nearby villages and the landscape becomes more lived-in, with shepherds, grazing flocks and small farms along the route.

Some of the best moments are smaller. After walking between villages, stop for tea and lunch in someone’s home: bread and tagine on a terrace with the mountains stretching out in front of you.

If you’d rather see the view from the road, Ruben has a favourite route. It runs from Marrakech to Skoura across the High Atlas, stopping around Telouet before taking the old road towards Aït Ben Haddou, then continuing through Ouarzazate and into the Skoura oasis. “The scenery changes constantly, from mountain villages and high passes to desert landscapes, kasbahs and palm groves.”

Timing changes the mountains, too. Spring brings green valleys and blossom, autumn means harvests, walnuts and cooler walking weather, while winter puts snow across the higher Atlas.

Ruben has plenty more ideas for getting beyond Morocco’s headline sights, from meeting Marrakech’s makers to taking the old road across the High Atlas. Discover his favourite ways to experience Morocco like a local.

Make your holiday: Our Marrakech and Atlas Mountains twin centre

Agafay: best for an easy Marrakech add-on

Go for: stark landscapes, sunsets and nights under the stars
Pair it with: Marrakech
Ruben’s don’t-miss: stay into the evening rather than treating it as a quick photo stop

You won’t find rolling Saharan dunes here. Agafay is rockier and more lunar, with the High Atlas rising in the distance. Its great advantage is that this dramatic change of scenery lies less than an hour from Marrakech.

Arrive in the afternoon and explore by e-bike, stopping for tea and watching the landscape change as sunset approaches. Then stay. Two of our top picks for making a night of it are The White Camel Agafay and Emeraude Luxury Camp.

Dinner outside, darkness settling across the rocky plains and a sky full of stars are all part of the experience. And that’s Agafay’s trump card: a short journey from Marrakech buys you a very different view by nightfall.

Make your holiday: Our Marrakech, Desert & Beach trip

The information is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication.