Marrakech: first impressions

Visiting Morocco was a wish for a long time. I always imagined it as a place where the "One thousand and one night" tale would come to life, materializing in a true Arabic fairy place. Before actually coming here, I've read countless stories and travel guides in order to understand what would be the ideal way to explore its countless treasures. Morocco, being a country of old cities, seashores, mountains, forests and desert, offered incredible opportunity to have a very diversified trip and to enjoy various scenery in a relatively short period of time.

We had 10 days to take in as much Morocco as possible, and the final itinerary of the trip looked as following (total length - almost 2100 km, starting and ending in Marrakech):

The cheapest flight from Holland we could find was with Ryan Air leaving from Eindhoven Airport. It was cold and raining when we left Holland, but already three hours later we could enjoy warm and humid September air of Marrakech.

Since hotels are definitely NOT the place to stay in Morocco, we arranged a very nice family Riad for the night and weren't disappointed. After reading in multiple sources that succeeding in finding your own away in Marrakech for the very first time was close to impossible, we asked the Riad to arrange a transfer.

After warning the Riad that we were almost there, the taxi dropped us of at the small square just outside of the old medina.

The owner was already waiting when we pulled over and suggested that we follow him on foot. It was a good thing he showed us the way, because although the Riad was just about 200 meters away from the square, we would have never found it on our own. Small alleys, going in every possible direction, immediately formed such a spectacular maze, that we immediately felt lost. 

The owner offered some Moroccan tea as soon as we got to the Riad and showed us the room. The building was old but well maintained and  we absolutely loved our room on the second floor overlooking the small inner courtyard.

We didn't want to waste any time, so leaving our bags unpacked, we went on to explore the old city. According to the owner, the walk from Riad to the main Jemaa El Fna square was about 10 min if we go through the maze of medina streets, and about 20 min, if we will go around, following the main road. Counting on our excellent sense of direction (not!) we decided to try our luck and chose the first option.
Getting back to the square wasn't a problem, but identifying the alley that leads to the main square became an immediate challenge. Hoping that "all roads lead to Rome" and in our case - to the Jemaa El Fna - we chose an alley that we thought was going in the right direction and started walking.

Because it was late afternoon, some of the shops were already closed. Still, the alleys themselves and the shops that were open, created the exact atmosphere we wanted to see - that of an old medieval Arabic town, barely changed in the last couple of centuries.

On the streets of the old medina all imaginable things are for sale.

Before coming to Morocco I was warned several times that people here don't like their picture to be taken and can get really mad if you do. Personally, I didn't experience this problem, although I tried to ask for permission whenever possible.

All throughout medina the buildings are beautifully decorated with carvings and stones.

Our sense of direction was better than we though because we managed to get lost just a little bit, but then still found our way to the main square without even asking for help. 

Asking for help was another thing we were warned about several times. Apparently Moroccans don't help foreigners for free and even if they try to convince you that no money will be charged, once they get you to the right destination, they demand to be paid after all. We were also warned that we will be constantly hustled by people pretending to want to help but just being after our money in the end.
To be honest, we didn't experience this as a problem. Indeed, at the Jemaa El Fna square we were stopped several times and the people were quite insistent on getting us inside their shop/stall/diner, but we soon learned that a phrase "may be later" get them to leave you alone very fast without unnecessary bad feelings.

When we got to the Jemaa El Fna, the square wasn't completely filled with food stalls as we expected. We didn't know, but apparently the stalls are being assembled every evening and then dismantled again at night.
Instead, there were plenty of fortune tellers, snake charmers and women doing the henna tattoos.

Here, at the square, the diversity of traditions and culture of Marrakech is incredibly noticeable.

Since the advises on whether or not to eat at the square were some what contradicting (some said that the food here is great, the others complained of being absolutely sick after), we decided not to risk a food poisoning on the very first day and took a taxi to a proper restaurant, recommended by the TripAdvisor.

I liked mine, but Dima wasn't that much impressed with his.

Altogether, good but not fantastic.

After dinner we came back to the Jemaa El Fna square, which by now was complete packed with food stalls and people.

After walking around some more we decided to call it a night.

Next morning we arranged for a guide, because walking the streets on our own, although doable, was still proven a bit tricky and we didn't have much time to get lost. We had till 4pm to see everything worth seeing in Marrakech, as we had to pick up our car and leave for Essaouira in the late afternoon. That left us with about 6 hours.

Our guide was an older Moroccan teacher who had lot's of stories to share. And the first place he took us to was the school :-)

Next, we went to see the crafts quarters, where most of the thing sold on the streets are made by hand.

The musicians have their own quarter.

At some point our guide decided that it was time to may be earn some extra cash and took us to the carpet store, where we could also watch the carpets being made. 

The carpet store owner tried to convince us that we absolutely must buy a carpet but we were persistent in saying "no" and he eventually gave up loosing all interest in us. Our guide, once it became obvious that we are not buying anything, kind of lost interest in telling us anything as well and pretty much stayed silent till the end.
Since we already 've been to the Jemaa El Fna, we asked the guide to take us to the market instead. I simply love Asian markets with its smells of fresh vegetables...

... my absolute favorite - spices!...

... and all kinds of other tasty things...

Street food being prepared here is really delicious too.

Next, we went to see the old Palais Badia. It's uninhabited now, except for tourists and storks :-)

The streets just outside the medina walls are almost as old.

 There are several gates to medina, but this one is the oldest.

The last stop on our walk was the visit to the royal tombs.

After this, we walked back to the riad, picked up our bags and got a taxi to the car rental place. 

We were there at 4pm sharp. The girl informed us that the car we were suppose to get wasn't ready, so they will give us a different car which was an upgrade. When the car arrived they tried to rush us into taking it and leaving, explaining it as "it's not allowed to park in front of the building". Nonetheless, we insisted that we photograph the car before we leave to avoid any possible claims later. The girl wasn't happy but didn't say anything and we made her sign the overview of every single scratch we found. Further, to be on the safe side, we installed the video registration cam in the car in case anything happens (always good idea with rentals). It turned out later that it had another positive side effect - when police saw the video cam filming everything they didn't even bother to stop us. 

We said good bye to Marrakech and started to drive towards the coastal town of Essaouira which is about two hours drive.

Conclusion: Marrakech is absolutely great to start with. It makes more sense than Fez and you can feel quite comfortable here without a guide if you planning to stay for 2-3 days. It's absolutely doable in one day as well, but then taking a guide is a smart thing to do, as it saves a lot of time. In terms of food and accommodation, there is no lack of both. There are plenty of gorgeous riads at affordable price that you can choose from and eating is good everywhere, just don't take unnecessary risks. Despite what everyone said, people here don't really bug you that much, and you can usually get rid of anyone by simply saying "may be later". We recommend to see the most places of interest described as would be given in any standard guide; they will not take up too much time to visit, but together will create a really nice impression of the town and of Morocco.
If you are planning on buying something here - bargain! With some patience, you will get 60-70% off the initial given price guaranteed.

Next: Essaouira - the anchorage of the Moroccan coast