Planning a winter travel isn’t easy. You’ve probably got a packed schedule with only a few days off, and you want to make sure you also have time for your family. In November, my friends and I started having conversations on planning our winter trip. We initially considered Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Costa Rica as destinations, but when we realized that a 10-hour flight wasn’t doable for a 5 day holiday we ended up choosing a pretty famous destination for this 2022: Morocco. It’s a relatively close country (we flew from Rome to Agadir, which is only a 4-hour flight) with a rich cultural heritage and seriously impressive natural beauty. Ludo and Nati were the trip planners this time, and as always, they did a great job. Most of the fotos were taken by Marti (thank you Marti 🫶🏻), you can follow her on insta.

This was a non-typical tour of Morocco. After spending New Year’s Eve in Marrakech, we decided to rent a car ( 9 people van) and travel around. We spent a few days surfing in central/south Morocco and then road tripped up north, with Fez as our final destination. This might sound like an inconvenient tour, but the main reason we planned it this way was because we wanted to spend NYE in a big city (Marrakech), go surfing during our stay, and visit less touristy cities.

Marrakech

When we booked our stays in early December, the options to stay within the Medina (the old part of town) were already limited and not very exciting. We decided to stay a bit outside of Marrakech, at a property called Jnane Allia which is owned by an Italian guy. We had a typical Moroccan breakfast and Casablanca beers at sunset.

Marrakech most typical area is the Medina, a bustling market larger than other Medinas in the country.

Here, you can find almost anything, but be sure to negotiate for the best price – often, this can be as much as 50% less than the initial asking price. One small tip: it’s a good idea to dress in inexpensive clothing when visiting the Medina, as the combination of the many motorbikes and smoke from the stalls can make you smell quite bad by the end of the day.

Another great visit was Jardin Majorelle. This is a 10,000 square meter botanical garden created by Jacques Majorelle in 1931 during the colonial period. Although we bought our tickets online, we still had to queue for about 20 minutes.

On the side you’ll find Yves Saint Laurent Museum, if you are interested in Fashion&Design, or if you just want to know the story of one of the most disruptive personality in the fashion history, don’t miss it.

Jema el-Fnaa is the main square and market of Marrakech. You’ll find many stands selling orange juice, spices, mint leaves, and even snails, as well as monkey trainers (😢). A friend of mine even claimed to have seen a dentist displaying a recently extracted tooth. We visited it in the evening, and from the southwest side of the square, you can find a bar with a great view of the sunset.

In addition to those mentioned above, a few extra places to visit in Marrakech include the Bahia Palace, a 19th century building adorned with stunning stuccos, paintings, and mosaics, that were created with the aim to build the greatest palace of its time.

Another worth visiting is the Ben Youssef Madrasa, a former religious school that is the largest in Marrakech.

For New Year’s Eve, we were fortunate enough to be guests at a villa rented by some friends. However, during our other days in Marrakech, we tried a few different restaurants and found the best ones to be L’Mida Marrakech (be sure to book a table on the terrace) for lunch and Palais Jad Mahal for dinner. Although the latter was quite expensive, we had a great night with live music and performers until 2am. It’s worth mentioning that our friends also tried Comptoir Darna, probably the best in town, but we were unable to get a table for eight people.

A small tip: One of the most common products sold in Marrakech and throughout Morocco is Argan Oil, which can be found everywhere. Be cautious of purchasing Argan Oil that appears too golden, as this may indicate that it has been mixed with other oils to keep costs low. The best way to ensure you are getting the highest quality is to ask the shop owner to prepare it in front of you.

Bonus fotos of Marrakech

Banana Village 🍌

From Marrakech we had a 3 hours road trip from Marrakech to Taghazout, one of the most famous surfing destinations in Africa.

Although I have limited surfing experience, I have never seen such consistently beautiful waves as those in the beaches of Taghazout. The latter and the surrounding cities are full of local surfers, most of whom own surf houses, which can be a convenient accommodation option if you don’t want to spend a lot of money and want to stay with a group of friends. At our surf house, Yassin, the owner, rented us surf boards and wetsuits and guided us to the best surf spots according to our level. He was a great teacher. You won’t find surf houses on booking.com or other portals, but I recommend using Instagram to directly contact the owners. Yassin’s breakfasts were hands down the best. Here is the link to his surf house, Ohana Surf. We had a car as we were a big group, but he’s available to help those without a car too, don’t worry!

After our first surf session, Yassin organized a yoga lesson for us on the rooftop of the surf house. The beautiful views, the sound of the waves, the breathtaking sunset and its orange colors made our yoga session unforgettable and peaceful. It was just what we needed to end such an amazing day.

Essaouira

From Yassin’s house we moved to Essaouira, quite impressed by the nice route, which was mostly looking over the sea.

We were staying on a local Riad, overall the most authentic stay. With its picturesque vibes, Essaouira was an interesting discovery. Especially worth mentioning is its fish market that offers freshly fished seafood. We choose the fish we wanted to eat and for very little money the fishmongers grilled it for us on a simple stove. Needless to say that it was DELICIOUS!

Rabat

Rabat is the capital city of Morocco. With the Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V being the main touristic destinations. The city also has a medina with narrow winding streets, as well as modern neighborhoods with boulevards and gardens, I was positively impressed by its modern style, pretty different from the other areas we visited in Morocco. We spent here less than 16 hours, with our only non-Moroccan dinner at Sa Caleta and an overall good stay at Des Ouoidaïas

Fes

From Rabat we had quite a long car ride to Fez. Here you can walk through 1,300 years of Moroccan heritage that has only recently become a popular tourist destination. As a non-Muslim, you can visit the Madrassa Bou Inania and Madrassa el-Attarine, but you are not allowed in any of the mosques. We hired a local guide to lead us through the labyrinth of the Medina and answer our questions. This was great and you can reach me out in case you need his contact details.

Fez is known for its leather tanneries, of which there were originally 30 but now only 4 remain. We visited the Chouara tannery, which is considered by some to be the oldest in the world. You might wonder why it smells so bad, but this is due to the use of pigeon poop and cow urine in the leather drying process. Don’t worry, you will be offered mint leaves to hold under your nose. The tannery consists of numerous stone vessels filled with a variety of dyes and liquids used to color the leather. You can see men working in the hot sun. Despite the not pleasant odors coming from vessels, this process is completely natural and does not utilize any of the industrial chemicals used to treat leather everywhere else.

For dinner, we enjoyed the typical Moroccan dishes at the ruined garden. , a stunning old garden house.

Meknes

Meknes is one of the four Imperial City of Morocco, and the sixth largest city by population. Not difficult to visit in just half-day we enjoyed the Bab Mansour el-Aleuj which is the city monumental gate (despite the fact that it was undergoing a restructuring) as well as the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail

For our road trip, we had originally planned to rent a car from Avis. However, when we arrived 2.05 hours late for our appointment, we were told that they had given out all of their cars and had no immediate availability of any other vehicles. After a confusing 30 minutes, we decided to accept a deal with Hertz instead. This turned out to be a less than ideal experience, to say the least. Instead of the two cars we had planned for, we had to settle for a 9-person van (overall this was a great choice, traveling all together). However the back doors of the van didn’t work, so we had to enter and exit through the front door. To top it off, the battery of our van suddenly died, and none of the numbers we were given were able to help us (the phone is still ringing ☎️). We eventually made it to Essaouira where a local Hertz employee was able to find a new battery and replace it for us. Based on this experience, I would advise others to avoid renting from Hertz. Our experience was the worst ever, and I frequently rent cars on a monthly basis. Despite Hertz being generally well-rated (I am still unsure how this is possible), if no other options are available, be sure to ask for the personal phone number of the desk employees to avoid being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to move forward. Oh, and make sure to take a foto at the return of the vehicle, better you’d avoid losing 600€ like us for no reason 😂