5 Days in Marrakech Travel Guide

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The purpose of our trip to Marrakech was to celebrate a family member's 40th birthday. We both had never been to Marrakech before, although Merilin had been to Morocco (visited Casablanca and Tanger many years ago).
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Booking.com

We had couple of days before the birthday celebrations just for two of us and we decided to splash out on a hotel and stay more central with easy access to all the tourist activities.
So for our first stop we stayed at the Hotel & Riad Art Place right by the medina.
​Its a great location for a short visit as everything is walking distance.

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​Hotel & Ryad Art Place Marrakech

Link Here

Our stay was from Thursday to Saturday and cost €401 (Junior Suite) for 2 nights (breakfast included).
We arranged an airport transfer with the hotel for our convenience, but we found out later that it was a rip off so do not do it, or make sure the price is right.
The hotel charged us €25 for the transfer from the airport to the hotel.
They added it on our accommodation bill and they paid the driver themselves, which makes it easy for them to take the huge cut.
Moroccon currency is Dirham.
1 MAD = 0.0924423 EUR
1 EUR = 10.8176 MAD
We found out later that they have a set price for local taxi drivers and it also has to be displayed on their car window together with the rates. From Medina to airport it was set at 100 Dirham (~€10). We paid more than DOUBLE!
We were not happy about it!

Our Junior Suite was lovely and service was very friendly in the hotel. They had a porter who brought our bags in our room. They gave us refreshments on arrival and we also had refreshments in our room.
The place was very clean and even though it was right by the busy and loud medina, we didn't hear a thing when we were in our room.
​There were no windows in the hotel room by the way. Probably due to the hotel being right at the centre and very close to other buildings.

Roof top had a small but nice pool. They provide slippers, sun loungers and towels. No alcohol served at the hotel, but they had lovely non alcoholic cocktails (which we spiked with the spirits we brought with us ).

Breakfast was lovely and was included in our room rate. They had fresh juices and freshly cooked Moroccan pancakes made to order.
Selection was great for breakfast and it set us up nicely for the day.

We had dinner only once at the hotel and it was fairly good as well.
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Top Tips when visiting Marrakech

Before the trip we did little bit research about dos and donts in Marrakech, but this is what we experienced ourselves during our visit:

• Alcohol
  Morocco is a Muslim country and therefore alcohol is served only in limited bars and restaurants. Also, they restrict bringing in alcohol into the country. The limits are not very clear but various sources said that you can bring in 1 bottle of spirit and 1 bottle of wine per person.
  We ended up bringing in just 1 bottle of rum and 1 bottle of JD between two of us. They do scan your bags when you arrive at Marrakech airport as you are on your way out after you pick up your luggage from the baggage collection area.
• ​Take cash with you
  We exchanged our pounds into Dirhams at the hotel. Beware to check in advance if your hotel does currency exchange. There are few small places to change your cash to Dirhams by the medina, but stay away from cash machines. Quite often they don't work and we heard that sometimes the machine takes money from your account but gives you no cash in return. On our third day we also exchanged cash at the small currency exchange spot by the medina. 
  Most restaurants and bars do take card payments but its better to check before you order.
• Dress appropriately
  When we travel, we like to make sure that we respect the locals and their culture. Before the trip Merilin made sure she had packed enough shawls and modest dresses to wear when out in public covering her shoulders and knees.
  You do see lots of tourists that are in short and skimpy clothing, but we recommend to be mindful and not to draw unwanted attention.
• Drinking Water
  The drinking water in Marrakech is filtered and safe to drink, but we preferred to stick with bottled water that is readily available and affordable. Our hotel had complimentary 1.5L water bottles for us on arrival and we continued buying bottled water throughout our trip.
• Street Food in Marrakech
  Most of the restaurants in the immediate square area are not that good. They're not dangerous to eat (you wont get food poisoned), but they don't have the quality and freshness. We tried pizza once from a small local cafe and I don't think I can even call it a pizza. Food took ages to come and had very poor quality. If you want to have a good Moroccan meal, then look for more touristy places with more expensive menu. We had fantastic local food in a nice settings with belly dancing entertainment and live musicians to compliment the meal.
• Don't bother following the map
  We were given a map and shown places to visit by our hotel concierge, but as soon as we hit the streets it was chaotic. The market is packed with tiny alleyways leading from one place to another and its literally impossible to follow any directions. We decided to just follow the roads and see where it takes us. We thought that if we do get lost then we will just take the cab back to our hotel. Along the way we actually stumbled on few places marked on our map by accident, which was a great result.
• Be alert
  Watch out for cars, bicycles, motorcycles, donkeys, horses, donkeys with trailers, horses with carriages, stray cats, people carrying heavy loads, roaming juice and food sellers with their carts, street vendors with snakes, lizards and ladies aggressively grabbing you to do henna on your hands. There are no footpaths, no lanes and very few traffic lights. It's an absolute chaos, so keep alert as you’re walking around the streets.
• Get a cab
  We love walking everywhere, but If you’re not keen on walking on the hectic streets in the hot sun, then get a cab to your destination. The area inside the medina is quite small, so getting from one end to the other end shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. Also cabs can drive into the medina at certain hours during the day. Also taxis are fairly affordable compared to London prices. A cab fare within the medina shouldn’t cost more than ~ 40 Dirhams, which is less than £3.50.
  Being a passenger of a taxi is an experience itself, as the crazy traffic can be observed from a whole other perspective.
  Agree on price before you get in the cab!
• HAGGLE!!!!!!!!
  Yes! Get your haggling on! If you haven't tried it yet, then now is your chance.  We loved it! Do it with a smile and a sense of good fun, because that’s what it is! The trick is to ask for a price first.... then think for a minute (do your maths in your head for how much it would cost you in your country) then offer THIRD of what they first asked. YES! THIRD!
  And then the fun starts.... Keep haggling until you are happy with the final price. Before we left to the airport we had some local cash to spend and we wanted to get gifts for our kids. We end up getting great things for very good price and always paid about half what was asked at first. Once we even walked away and they kept following us to other vendors calling us back. We agreed on the price in the end.
• Tipping in restaurants and bars
  There is no rule to how much you should tip. Some places already add service charge on the bills which is normally 10%. Do check your bill! If the experience has been wonderful, then we normally leave a little extra on top. Otherwise we always tip at least 10% cash on the bill.
• Spend before you leave
  Dirham is a closed currency, which means that you can change your money for Dirhams when you arrive, but you won’t be able to change it back on your way out. Spend it on leather goods, spices, rugs, tagines or hundreds of other beautiful and exotic items that you can bring home as a gift for loved ones.
• Get to the airport at least two hours before your flight!
  When you arrive at the airport, before you even enter the building properly, they scan your belongings and question everything and anything that you are trying to take out of the country.
  Give yourself enough time for check in and security checks.
  Don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a small airport and allow plenty of time to get through to your departure gate.
• Solo travelling and travelling with kids in Marrakech
  We saw lots of families travelling with kids and even met a solo traveller. We did not feel unsafe at all. We were even wondering the streets at night time. Birthday guests had kids from all ages with them and they all enjoyed their time in Marrakech. Moroccan people were very friendly and respectful. The only aggressive ones we saw were women doing henna on the streets. One of them grabbed Merilin's hand and forcefully gave her a henna tattoo, so watch out for that.
• Vegan in Marrakech
  We are a vegan family and found it little bit hard in Marrakech food wise. Moroccan vegetable tagines and couscous was lovely, but eating the same thing 5 days on a row was getting boring for us. Also watch out when you are in the restaurant as once they gave us a soup that had meat scraped out presenting it being vegan.

Secret Garden - Medina Marrakech

One of the places that we accidentally found while walking the streets was a Secret Garden Le Jardin Secret at the heart of Medina in Marrakech.
This place was also recommended to us by our hotel.
The entrance for both of us was 120 Dirhams, which is about €6 each.
They also had a lovely Cafe overlooking the garden inside the complex.
We had a little stroll around the garden and took some pictures in there.
See below...

The Palais Clementina Marrakech

Link Here

After spending 2 days by the Medina it was nice to venture little bit out of Marrakech. Birthday celebrations were at The Villa Palais Clementina & Spa and it had a huge garden and pool.
Birthday boy had arranged everything for our stay there. We had belly dancers, fire show, live music and camel ride during our stay there.
We dressed up in local clothing for the main party night and felt like true Moroccans.

During our stay we saw lots of people travelling with children as well so we would like to come back with our boys in the future.

​All in all we had a great stay and recommend anyone to visit Marrakech.

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