The first time I visited Morocco was March 2013. At the time I was recently divorced and wanted to experience things that I never had a chance to experience (see my story). My idea was to travel to Morocco first, then travel to other countries. At the time, I never thought I would be writing about my favorite cities in Morocco.
I had never really traveled to Morocco or really anywhere that far before. After that, I would travel to other countries every year and be a world traveler. Well after Morocco, I didn’t see any new countries. The reason for that was because I fell in love with Morocco.
This was exactly the type of country I was looking for. You see, in Canada, I always felt I was rushing from one place to another, even if I was on vacation. In Morocco, I felt so relaxed and it’s as if time would stand still. After that first trip, I’ve been pretty much going at least once a year. And yes, there are several years where I traveled more than once to Morocco. Let’s take a look at my favorite cites in Morocco.
Here are my favorite cities in Morocco
You would think after all the times I have visited Morocco, the list of my favorite cities in Morocco would be a lot bigger. Well, there are some cities I still haven’t visited yet and others that haven’t really impressed me, we’ll discuss these later. For now, let’s have a look at my list of my favorite cities in Morocco.
Agadir
Agadir, a city along Morocco’s south Atlantic coast. It is a popular resort destination, known for its wide crescent beach and seaside promenade lined with cafes, restaurants, and bars. The weather is generally warm with average highs from 20 to 26 Celsius.
What I enjoyed about Agadir
The thing I really loved about Agadir is walking up the hill of the Casbah. The Casbah was a fortress built-in 1572. Walking up the hill takes about 1 hour and for some may seem like a lot but the scenery along the way is lovely. If you enjoy walking like me this hike is worth the trip to Agadir alone. None the less there are other things that I enjoyed
The seafront promenade is a walkway along the beach with shops along the way. Going during the day you can take a stroll watching the glistening of the water. Going at night you can stop at a restaurant while watching the illuminated inscription on the Casbah hill. The inscription says Allah al wat an all malik which translates to Allah (God), the homeland, the king.
Finally, the last thing I really enjoyed was the beach. The beach is like any other beach but I really liked the way it curved. It just had a nice look to it. The other thing was that the beach was next to the seafront promenade. I thought that was really convenient. Especially after going out in the water for an hour or so. It’s nice to know that there is a restaurant to eat at nearby.
Essaouira
The next on my list of my favorite cities in Morocco is Essaouira. The city of Essaouira was built during the mid-eighteenth century by the Moroccan King trying to increase business relations with Europe. One of the king’s goals was to establish a harbor at the closest possible point to Marrakesh. One of the things you will notice is all the blue boats on the port. Essaouira is also renowned for its kitesurfing and windsurfing since the powerful trade winds are blowing practically constantly. I haven’t seen this personally but folks have told me about this. Lastly, Essaouira is also a center of argan oil production. The interesting thing is that I couldn’t find cheap Argan oil. Maybe because it’s known as a center for oil production, people come to buy Argan oil and this drives the price up. If you want cheap Argan oil just go to Agadir.
What I enjoyed about Essaouira
Essaouira is known for its sardine. I have never been a fan of sardines. I remember eating them as a child, watching my mom opening a can of sardines and cooking them in a pan. The smell alone turned me off of these smelly fishes.
In Essaouira when you buy fish, you buy them near the port where the fish are just caught and then they bring it to the restaurant and they cook it for you. I decided to try the sardines since they were popular there. When I tried to eat them in Essaouira I had my reservations. After I ate, I was changed. They basically fry the fish and put some salt on it and served with bread and olives. It was so delicious and was one of my favorite experiences in all of Morocco.
The other thing I liked was walking through the souq. The souq in Essaouira has many small arts and crafts shops as well as leatherworking shops. As interesting as it was to see these shops the best part is when they led me to the ramparts. Seeing the cannons faced at the Atlantic Ocean while the waves crashed onshore is a beautiful sight.
Rabat
Rabat is the capital city of Morocco. It is an administrative city. It does have many shopping districts and residential neighborhoods but it was never a plan of mine to visit Rabat. I assumed it is an administrative city, it would be boring. So why then did I go to Rabat?
Well in order to get married to a Moroccan you will need some documents from your embassy (check out my article on getting married in Morocco). After spending a few days in the capital, I found myself enjoying the city quite a bit. After I finished with my paperwork my wife and I took a stroll to Hassan tower and mausoleum. Hassan tower was supposed to be the biggest mosque built in the world. Unfortunately, the ruler Yacoub al-Mansour who had initiated the project died before it could be completed. In 2012 the incompleted mosque became part of the UNESCO world heritage sites and now everyone can walk around and see the beauty of the unfinished project. After seeing this magnificent site, I knew there was more to Rabat than I originally thought.
What I enjoyed about Rabat
As I mentioned before seeing the Hassan tower and mausoleum was an absolute pleasure. After Hassan tower and mausoleum we walked around in the medina. To be honest, the medina was like any other medina in the other big cities in Morocco. The thing I liked about this one was that I saw a lot of different people selling different things from all over the world. With the thousands of people in the medina, it made it feel like the place to be. Outside of the medina, we walked around the city. I do enjoy nature, and seeing calm scenic places, but from living in the city, I do feel some sort of comfort in seeing the hustle and bustle of people in a big city.
Safi
Safi or Asfi (as the Moroccans call it) is a city in western Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s pretty much a quiet city. Being a coastal city it has the typical things you expect in a coastal city (beach, fishing port, etc…). My wife claims that Safi is better if you want to buy fish. She says they get more variety than Essaouira. The weather is generally warm throughout the year with temperatures averaging between 18 to 29 Celsius. Safi is also known for Le Plus Grand Tajine Du Monde.
Le Plus Grand Du Monde was an event in 1999 where 200 women prepared a gigantic Tajine dish. The tajine consisted of 6 tons of sardine dumplings. The tajine is 6.3 meters in diameter and 4.5 meters high. The event was recorded by the Guinness book of records as making the largest sardine dumplings in the world. As of now, the Tajine is situated on Place Mohamed V. At the time that I went to Safi, I wasn’t aware of this event that took place so I didn’t visit Le Plus Grand Tajine Du Monde.
What I enjoyed about Safi
I enjoyed walking through the souq just like the souq in other cities but this souq had a lot clay decorations, You would see all sorts of decorations and beside you can watch the men as they create there next decoration. I have always seen finished products being sold, this was the first time I would see a tajine decor being built from clay, baked, painted and then sold. It was truly remarkable.
The next thing we did was go to eat some of this delicious fish. We stopped at a restaurant and sat on a patio. This time we didn’t pick the fish from the restaurant but we did get fresh fish. There were a few types of fish that I couldn’t recognize because they were deep-fried and they were served with French fries and bread. Needless to say, the food was delicious and when I return to Safi, I will be eating fish again.
The last thing we did was head up ras lf3a. Ras lf3a is a winding road that when you reach the top you can see the entire city of Safi. One thing I remembered were these huge stairs you can use to get to the top of ras lf3a. We drove up the road and took some time enjoying the view.
Marrakech
Finally Marrakech. Of all of my favorite cities in Morocco Marrakech is my favorite city. I have spent the most time here. In fact, if I was to ever become an expat, I would want to live in Marrakech. It is located west of the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Whenever I arrive in Marrakech, there something about seeing the Atlas Mountains in the background that gives you that sense of awe. Perhaps it’s the fact that I don’t live near any mountains. In any case, I love Marrakech. Marrakech is one of the busiest cities in Africa and serves as a major economic center and tourist destination. The city is popular with the Europeans, and numerous Europeans own property in the city. Marrakech has the largest souq in Morocco. The Menara gardens are located to the west of the city, at the gates of the Atlas mountain
What I enjoyed about Marrakech
Besides the general vibe of the city, there are places that I enjoy seeing in Marrakech. Gueliz is an area in Marrakech that is the city center. Here you find shops, malls restaurants all built with a modern look and feel. Here you will see the majority of tourists as they will be staying somewhere in Gueliz. If you are visiting Marrakech for the first time, I highly suggest staying in Gueliz. Gueliz is right in the middle of everything in Marrakech and you will everything you need in this area.
A word of caution though there is a spot beside the McDonald’s where a lot of people will be begging you for money. Be careful when giving anyone money. Once you give money to one person many more will start asking you for money and will not stop begging. There are police around so if you find people are not leaving you alone walk towards the police. They will back off if the police get involved.
Jma3 el Fna is the largest souq in Morocco, this is the popular attraction for tourists visiting Morocco. You will find almost everything in this souq, however, you must be ready to haggle on the prices. There are no displayed prices on anything and everything sold will be overpriced. When you start getting closer to Jma3 el Fna you will see the traffic get busier and busier until you reach the Koutoubia Mosque. From there I would suggest to just walk because the traffic is ridiculous at this point.
Your most likely going to walk within a sea of people so protect your bags, wallets, etc… Before entering the actual souq you find a lot of stores and tons of people on the street selling all kinds of stuff. Once you pass that you find the guys with small monkeys and snake charmers. If you go at night you may dancers. After you pass this there will be food vendors. I have eaten fish here and the food is good. Once you get through the food vendors, you have finally made it to the front of the souq. This souq is huge, with a labyrinth of paths taking you through all different ways.
Menara Garden is located to the west of Marrakech. Here you will see trees and shrubs surrounded by a huge rectangular basin of water. The basin has fish in it, during the day you will see children throwing bread into the basin watching the fish come up to eat the bread. It’s actually a very beautiful place and great to come out and just relax. There is a lot of other things to see and do like visit chez Ali, visit Agdal gardens, visit Majorelle gardens, go to the Palm Grove to ride the camels but besides walking around in Gueliz and Jma3 el Fna, nothing makes me happier than just sitting at a café, sipping on some tea on the patio and just watching the city.
As you see, in Marrakech there is plenty to do and see, but at the same time when you want to relax, you can do that as well. This is why out of all my favorite cities in Morocco, Marrakesh is at the top of my list(yes I realized that I listed it last).
One place I didn’t like as much
Most of the places I visited in Morocco I enjoyed. The only place I didn’t enjoy was only Casablanca
Before visiting Morocco I only knew the city of Casablanca. From that movie in the 1930s, I thought Casablanca was the most romantic city in the world. After talking to several Moroccans, this is far from the truth. The city of Casablanca is a working city, the majority of jobs are located in Casablanca. Most Moroccans go to Casablanca just to work. Even knowing this I still wanted to visit it. The Moroccan mall was cool and so was the streetcar. Other than that nothing really impressed me.
How I traveled to these cities
For me, there are many ways to travel to my favorite cities in Morocco. The ways I traveled were one of two ways
ONCF is the train that travels throughout Morocco. There are stations in all major cities, To buy tickets go to the train stations you will see booths where you can speak to someone. The other options are some machines where you can enter your destination city, whether the trip is a return or one way and the machine will tell you how much the fare will be. It accepts both credit cards and cash. The seats you can buy are 1st class and 2nd class. I suggest you buy a first-class ticket.
There is no real difference except for the fact that the 1st class is a bit more expensive but there will be fewer people there. For longer trips between cities, the extra room will be worth it. For some cities, you will need to transfer trains. In these situations, your ticket will have more than one station printed. People at the station and on the train are there to help you. I really like trains because you get to see the scenery of Morocco. The only problem is that the trains have a limited schedule so if you have to plan your trip accordingly.
CTM is a bus service that will take you to different cities. They are available in most cities. They work earlier and later than the trains so if you need to arrive in a city really early or leave a city really late CTM would be a good choice. most of the time the trains and buses will take the same time but for certain cities traveling with trains will require you to transfer. This will add more time to your travel, however, you can usually find a bus passing by the city which will not take as long as the train. The negative thing is that the buses are not as comfortable as the trains.
Some cities I would like to visit in the future.
I plan on visiting other cities in the future. Although I do see myself staying in Marrakech every time I visit Morocco I would like to take some day trips to other cities. Perhaps the list of my favorite cities in Morocco will change? Some of the cities I have in mind are:
Tangier – This is a city in the north of Morocco, I heard you can take a ferry to Spain from Tangier
Fes – I heard this is the oldest city in Morocco and there is a lot to see here, especially the leather tanneries
Ifrane – Ifrane is supposed to be one of the only cities in Morocco that gets snow in winter. Also, the architecture in the city is supposed to be similar to European cities.
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Casablanca is the best of all