Exploring Morocco: From Marrakech to the Sahara

The call to prayer woke me at 5 AM on my first morning in Marrakech, and I lay in the dark listening to the muezzin's voice echo across the medina rooftops. Over the next two weeks, I traveled from that ancient walled city, through the snow-capped Atlas Mountains, and into the Sahara Desert where the silence was so complete I could hear my own heartbeat. Morocco is not a country you visit — it is a country that happens to you.

"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." — Gustave Flaubert

Marrakech: The Red City

Marrakech hits you like a wave. The medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, hidden courtyards, and sudden explosions of color and sound. I arrived at the main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, in the late afternoon and stood there for twenty minutes just watching: snake charmers, henna artists, orange juice vendors, and musicians all competing for attention against a backdrop of the Koutoubia Mosque. At sunset, the square transforms into one of the world's largest open-air restaurants, with dozens of food stalls setting up under canvas tents and the smell of grilled lamb and spices filling the air.

I stayed at a riad called Riad Yasmine in the Derb Dabachi neighborhood for 450 Moroccan dirhams per night (about 45 USD). A riad is a traditional Moroccan house built around an interior courtyard, and Riad Yasmine had a small plunge pool, a rooftop terrace with views of the Atlas Mountains, and breakfast included. The location was ideal — close enough to the square to walk in five minutes, but far enough to escape the noise at night. Riads in Marrakech range from 200 to 2,000 dirhams per night, and I found that the 300 to 600 dirham range offered the best combination of authenticity and comfort.

The souks (markets) of Marrakech are organized by craft: the spice souk, the leather souk, the metalwork souk, the carpet souk. Navigating them requires patience and a willingness to get lost. I spent an entire morning wandering without a map and discovered workshops where artisans were hammering brass lamps, dyeing leather in stone vats, and weaving carpets on looms that looked centuries old. Bargaining is expected and even enjoyed — I bought a leather messenger bag for 250 dirhams after starting at 600, and both the vendor and I seemed satisfied with the deal. The key is to negotiate with a smile, be prepared to walk away, and never feel pressured into buying something you do not want.

Over the Atlas Mountains to the Desert

The Trip from Marrakech to the Sahara Desert takes you over the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, which at 2,260 meters is one of the highest mountain passes in North Africa. I booked a three-day, two-night desert tour through a company called Morocco Desert Trips for 1,800 dirhams per person (about 180 USD), which included transport in a 4x4, a night in a kasbah in the Dades Valley, a night in a desert camp, meals, and a camel trek. The tour picked me up at my riad at 7 AM, and by 9 AM we were climbing into the mountains.

The Shape over the Atlas is spectacular. The road switchbacks through Berber villages where terraced fields cling to the hillsides and women carry bundles of firewood on their backs. We stopped at a roadside cafe at the pass itself, where the air was cold enough to see my breath despite the bright sunshine. The descent on the far side of the mountains is even more dramatic, with the Scene shifting from alpine greenery to semi-arid scrubland and then to the red rock canyons of the Dades Valley. We arrived at our first night's accommodation, a kasbah called Kasbah Xaluca in Dades, by late afternoon. The kasbah had a swimming pool, a terrace overlooking the valley, and a dinner of tagine — a slow-cooked Moroccan stew — that was included in the price.

Second day took us through the Todra Gorge, where towering canyon walls rise 300 meters on either side of a narrow river, and then south through increasingly barren Scene toward Merzouga, the gateway to the Erg Chebbi dunes. The dunes appeared suddenly on the horizon around 4 PM, golden and surreal against the flat desert floor. We transferred from the 4x4 to camels for the final 90-minute trek into the dunes to our desert camp. Riding a camel is uncomfortable — there is no gentle way to say it — but watching the sunset from the top of a dune, with the camel handler pouring mint tea from a height of two feet into a small glass without spilling a drop, made me forget about my sore legs entirely.

A Night in the Sahara

In the desert camp where I spent the night was a collection of about twenty large tents arranged in a semicircle around a central campfire area. My tent had a proper bed with clean sheets, a small table, and a battery-powered lamp — far more comfortable than I expected for a camp in the middle of the Sahara. The camp cost was included in the tour price, but standalone desert camps in Merzouga charge 400 to 800 dirhams per night depending on the level of luxury. Some upscale camps offer private tents with en-suite bathrooms and even air conditioning.

After dinner — a spread of harira soup, chicken tagine, couscous, and fresh fruit — the camp staff played Berber drums around the campfire and sang songs that echoed off the dunes. The sky that night was the darkest I have ever seen, and the Milky Way stretched from one horizon to the other with a clarity that made me feel genuinely small. I woke at 4 AM to watch the sunrise, climbing the nearest dune with a group of other guests. The sand was cold underfoot and the air was still, and as the first light appeared, the dunes shifted from gray to gold to deep orange in a matter of minutes. It was one of those moments that no photograph can fully capture.

Practical notes for the desert: bring a headlamp or flashlight (the camp has no electricity), a warm jacket for the early morning and evening (temperatures drop to 5 degrees Celsius even in summer), and a scarf to protect against sand and wind. Sunscreen is essential during the day. I also recommend bringing your own toilet paper and wet wipes, as the camp bathroom facilities are basic. A 1.5-liter bottle of water per person per day is the minimum — I brought three liters and drank most of it. The camp provided bottled water at meals, but having your own supply between meals is important.

Fes: The Oldest of the Imperial Cities

After the desert, I took a shared grand taxi from Merzouga to Fes, a Trip of about seven hours that cost 300 dirhams (30 USD). The taxi left when it was full — six passengers plus the Guide — and wound through the Ziz Valley, past the Middle Atlas town of Ifrane (which looks like a Swiss alpine village, complete with red-roofed chalets), and into Fes in the late afternoon. The Shape is long but the scenery changes constantly, from desert to farmland to forest to mountains, and the shared taxi experience itself is a window into daily Moroccan life.

Fes is the cultural and spiritual heart of Morocco, and its medina, Fes el-Bali, is the largest car-free urban area in the world. I hired a guide through my hotel for 300 dirhams for a half-day tour, and this was money well spent — the medina has over 9,000 alleys and getting lost without a guide is not a matter of if but when. My guide, Hassan, took me to the Chouara Tannery, where leather has been processed using the same methods for over a thousand years. The sight of the stone vats filled with colorful dyes — red from poppy, blue from indigo, yellow from saffron — is one of the most photographed scenes in Morocco. Entry to the tannery viewing platforms is free, but the leather shops around the perimeter expect you to browse and potentially buy.

Food in Fes is extraordinary. The city is famous for its street food, and the stalls around the Bab Boujloud gate sell everything from msemen (flaky flatbread) for 3 dirhams to grilled sardines for 10 dirhams. My best meal in Fes was at a tiny restaurant called Cafe Clock, which serves a camel burger for 75 dirhams — yes, camel, and it tastes like a leaner, slightly sweeter version of beef. The restaurant also offers cooking classes for 450 dirhams, which I did not take but heard excellent things about. For a more traditional experience, the restaurants around the R'Cif market serve tagine and couscous for 30 to 50 dirhams per dish.

Getting Around Morocco

Morocco's transportation system is functional, affordable, and occasionally chaotic. Trains, operated by ONCF, run between the major cities of Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, and Tangier. The trains are comfortable and reliable, with first-class seats costing roughly 50 percent more than second class but offering reserved seats and air conditioning. A first-class ticket from Marrakech to Fes costs about 250 dirhams (25 USD) and takes roughly seven hours. I always booked first class for Trip over three hours — the extra comfort is worth the small premium.

For routes not served by trains, shared grand taxis are the standard option. These are large Mercedes sedans that operate on fixed routes between towns and depart when full. Fares are set by the government and posted at taxi stands. A shared taxi from Marrakech to Essaouira, a popular coastal town, costs 70 dirhams and takes about two and a half hours. The taxis are cramped — six passengers in a car built for five — but they are fast and efficient. Private taxis are available for about four times the shared fare and make sense if you are traveling in a group of three or more.

Buses are the cheapest way to travel between cities. CTM and Supratours are the two main companies, and both offer comfortable coaches with air conditioning and assigned seating. A CTM bus from Marrakech to Fes costs about 200 dirhams and takes nine hours. I took the overnight bus once and regretted it — the seats do not recline far enough for actual sleep, and the multiple stops at police checkpoints make uninterrupted rest impossible. For daytime travel, the buses are perfectly fine. Local buses within cities cost 3 to 5 dirhams and are useful for getting to areas not served by taxis.

What to Eat and How Much It Costs

Moroccan food is one of the great cuisines of the world, and eating well here does not require a large budget. The staple dishes are tagine (a slow-cooked stew of meat, vegetables, and spices served in a conical clay pot), couscous (traditionally eaten on Fridays), and pastilla (a sweet-and-savory pie made with pigeon or chicken, almonds, and cinnamon). A tagine at a neighborhood restaurant costs 30 to 50 dirhams (3 to 5 USD), and a plate of couscous costs about the same. At restaurants catering to tourists, prices double or triple, so the strategy is simple: eat where Moroccans eat.

Street food is everywhere and consistently good. In Marrakech, the food stalls at Jemaa el-Fnaa serve grilled meats, fried fish, harira soup, and fresh orange juice for 5 to 20 dirhams per item. I ate dinner at the square three nights in a row and spent less than 50 dirhams each time for a meal that would have cost five times as much at a restaurant. In Fes, the street stalls near Bab Boujloud sell msemen with honey for 5 dirhams and grilled sardines for 10 dirhams. In Essaouira, the port area has fish stalls where you choose your fish, it is grilled on the spot, and you eat it at a communal table with bread and salad for 60 to 80 dirhams per person depending on what you select.

Mint tea, called Berber whiskey by locals, is the universal social drink and is served at every opportunity — in shops, in homes, at bus stations, and in the desert. A glass costs 5 to 10 dirhams at a cafe and is often free if you are browsing in a shop. Moroccan pastries, sold by weight at bakeries and market stalls, are incredibly sweet and incredibly cheap — a bag of assorted cookies costs 15 to 20 dirhams. My daily food budget in Morocco averaged 150 dirhams (15 USD), which covered two restaurant meals, snacks, and tea. It is possible to eat for less, but at that price point you can eat very well indeed.