Things to do in Marrakech

Landmark · Medina

The great square — snake charmers, storytellers, orange juice and a night food market — with the covered souks running north from it.

Local tip: The square is genuinely worth an evening and genuinely a tourist economy. Locals eat around it rather than in it: the mechoui pit stalls in the alley off the north-west corner, and the grill places on Rue Riad Zitoun. Prices in the souks fall sharply two or three lanes off the main routes.

Neighborhood · New town, west of the medina

The French-built modern quarter — boulevards, galleries, supermarkets, and where most working foreigners actually live.

Local tip: This is the practical answer to 'where do I live in Marrakech'. Rue de la Liberté and the streets around the Carré Eden have the cafés and galleries; the residential streets behind Avenue Mohammed V are quieter and much better value than their reputation.

Culture · Between Gueliz and the Palmeraie

The cobalt-blue garden Jacques Majorelle made and Yves Saint Laurent saved, plus the museum built alongside it.

Local tip: It is the single most visited site in Morocco and the queue reflects that — book online for the first slot of the day. The adjacent Berber Museum is included and is better than the garden, and almost everyone walks past it.

Neighborhood · Industrial zone, northern edge

The design and workshop district — furniture, ceramics, lighting and leather producers with factory-door showrooms.

Local tip: Most workshops sell direct at a fraction of medina prices and will make to order. It is spread out and needs a taxi, and much of it closes early and on Fridays. Go on a weekday morning with a list and measurements.

Nature · 45–60 minutes south

River valleys and Berber villages climbing into the Atlas, with Toubkal — North Africa's highest peak — beyond them.

Local tip: The Ourika roadside restaurants are a Marrakech Sunday institution. Note that the Al Haouz province south of the city was the epicentre of the 2023 earthquake; rebuilding continues in parts of the range, and it is worth checking road and village conditions rather than assuming a route is as it was.

Nature · South and west of the medina walls

Twelfth-century royal irrigated orchards and a reservoir pavilion with the Atlas behind it — huge, old, and mostly empty.

Local tip: Everyone photographs the Menara pavilion and leaves. The Agdal, far larger, is a working olive and citrus orchard fed by the same medieval khettara water system, and on a weekday afternoon you can walk for an hour and see almost nobody. It is also the clearest way to understand how this city was watered before it had a problem.