I am back from Marrakesh, Morocco (okay, six weeks ago) and I can’t wait to tell you about it.
This was country #70 for me, and I was super duper excited.
If you are interested in how much a trip like this cost, you can find that here.
Also, if you’d like a fun beginning on how this trip even came to be, see the email below that I sent to my group of friends asking them to literally fly to North Africa for a long weekend. I know they are so sick of my nonsense, but, some said yes! So other people are totally crazy with me. I am a very lucky girl.
Friday, May 16th
We flew on the evening of the 15th with TAP Portugal. Nothing exciting to mention about that.
Quick layover in Lisbon, not my favourite airport as I find it really lacks food options.
BAM, it is Friday the 16th and we have landed in Marrakesh!
There were no entry requirements for us and we got through customs pretty fast. Good start to Morocco.
Our AirBnB host organized the pick up from the airport. Uhm. Respectfully, our driver was HANDSOME AS HECK.
If he reads this, yeah buddy, niiiiice.
He was so good looking, I literally thanked the AirBnB host because obviously she knows what she is doing for tourists to have a pleasant welcome to her country. Yes.
We eventually arrived to our castle, ahem, riad, ahem, HEAVEN. It was heaven.
Please see below for photos of our AirBnB, and the link to that is here.
You can also find it on Google by its actual name, Riad Dar Adal.
Four Bedrooms. Four Bathrooms. Rooftop Pool. Holy smokes.
For only three of us in the whole place. I mean??????
I mentioned in my budget breakdown that we could have found a cheaper place to stay, but fuck that. This is the one. If you are coming to Marrakesh you must book this place.
Once we walked up and down the AirBnB in awe, we decided to take a little nap. We were pretty tired from all the flying.
At 5:30pm, it was time for a food tour – yes, I think our naps were maybe 90 minutes.
As you see in the above photos, there was a lot of delicious shenanigans. Thank goodness the food tour didn’t start until the evening because it was still hot outside. I think if this had been done at noon it would have been hell.
The highlight of the entire food tour was the lamb cheek. If you eat absolutely nothing else on this tour, you must try that. What a delight. The link to the tour can be found here.
After eating and walking, it was time for another 90 minute nap. You’d think after the flying and the tour we would be done for the night, but no. When you only have 72 hours in a city, you have to use every single hour.
It was CLUBBING TIME!!
At midnight our driver picked us up and took us to Theatro Marrakesh.
We had pre-booked a VIP table via WhatsApp with one of the promoters. I don’t think this is 100% necessary because they have the bottle list outside and you can just pay for the booth before you enter. I really like that idea because then you don’t have to deal with the loud music inside and ‘how much??’ bla bla bla.
For the three of us it came to a total of $350.00 CAD equivalent. I know people will say that is expensive for Morocco, but as a Toronto resident? Yeah, worth it to me.
At $116.00 per person, we got entry, the VIP and a bottle of Havana Club. I was elated that the rum available to us was my favourite rum on the planet.
Meant to be.
We had a BALL at this club. It didn’t even get super busy until 2-2:30am. It was so litty that our handsome driver eventually joined us to dance as well. The music was amazing, lots of Arabic rap, French rap, some oontz oonts and lots of Hip Hop and R&B. Even some Drake!
I’m going to guess we finally left the club at 5am. An amazing time was had. I do recommend getting a table for maximum-spacious-dancing-shenanigans.
I’d like to add here that our AirBnB was right next to one of the busiest places in Marrakesh – Jemaa el-Fna Square.
We were literally in that square. Bustling. Busy. A lot going on.
Because many people ask me one question over and over again, ‘how was it traveling as women in Morocco?‘ It was wonderful.
The square closed by the time we were returning from the night club. Our driver was actually unable to enter the area with his car, we had to be dropped off by a gas station and walk the rest of the way by ourselves. In our cutesy dresses. We weren’t exactly MODEST in our club clothes okay?
Zero issues.
Not a soul outside, not a soul bothering us. Even when we walked through the square before the club, when it was super duper packed (especially on a Friday night), no one was inappropriate. Not even once.
My friend Deja did get called SISTER OBAMA, my friend Jummy did get called SHAKIRA and I got called (three times) LADY GAGA. We didn’t find any of that offensive, it honestly made us laugh. But if that kind of attention would bother you, it’s something to keep in mind before visiting
But the three of us constantly DID discuss how lovely everyone, yes even the men, were to us in Marrakesh. Because trust me, I saw all those TikTok and YouTube videos with women talking about their terrible experiences. We were fortunate, that was NOT our experience at all.
In the square we were treated nicely and even inside the nightclub, not a single person was inappropriate or rude. Nothing.
Saturday, May 17th
We woke up eventually on this morning because we were all slightly hungover, but more tired than anything. Breakfast was included in our stay at the AirBnB and I mean, look at this spread. Freshly made, just for us three.
Thinking ahead to how exhausted we would be, a spa booking was totally necessary. Months before this trip we booked ourselves a three hour package at Mythic Oriental Spa.
Now, I have never been to a hammam spa, be prepared to be BUTT ASS NAKED. Yes, your whole ass. Not just part of it – the whole thing. Oh, and your boobs.
I probably should have known that, but this afternoon, me, Deja and Jummy were all naked as heck in this hammam. They did give us a disposable thong, which I would like to mention I put on backwards.
So. There you have it. I am very embarrassing because I thought ‘the big part’ was for my butt. It was not.
First step was to go into this shower area where I WAS WATERBOARDED. I REPEAT, WATERBOARDED. Maybe a little dramatic, but this is what I picture waterboarding would be if people did it with kind intentions. Because Deja and Jummy had braids, they didn’t have water thrown at their face. Now me? With my brand new lashes and laminated brows….. no mercy. They threw that hot water at my face, over my head, everywhere. What an experience.
Then they turned on the steam for a bit and we just laid there, naked as heck with the steam opening pores that I don’t think have ever had steam touch them.
A scrub. Some type of mud all over the body. More steam. More waterboarding. Shower. Change into different disposable thong, but facing the correct way this time.
After all that, we had our own private room for full body massages and facials. I was so damn relaxed during my massage I forgot about the facial and BOOM, here comes the extractions. That feeling on your face will wake you up immediately. Lordy.
If this sounds like a great day for you, it will only cost you $200.00 CAD equivalent, per person. For three hours at a spa and my skin feeling so good? Also, working out all the things that were sore from flying and dancing.
Very much worth it.
Maybe don’t have your brows and lashes done like I did prior to this. Just a suggestion.
After the spa our driver took us to the YSL Museum.
We had booked these tickets way ahead of time, a Marrakesh staple to visit. If you’re a fashion person, this is for you. As I am someone who lives in Roots tracksuits, not so much me. But the smoothies you can buy were delicious!
I don’t even recall having time to nap after the spa and museum, dinner reservations were waiting.
Tonight we would dine at the very popular Safran by Koya.
These reservations were made two months ahead. Don’t mess around, definitely book this as soon as booking is available. We had our table for 8:30pm because I read the performances were at 9:30pm. They say on the site and when you sit down that you only have a two hour seating window, but we definitely stayed past 10:30pm and no one bothered us about leaving at all? Maybe we were lucky.
There was some worry this place would suck, because any place that tourists hype online 9.6/10 times will be a total letdown. I will tell you, this place was everything you see online, but even better.
First of all, the ceviche. Let’s talk about that starter. I have been to Peru twice, I know my good ceviche and this was delicious. You must have this as your starter. I can’t entirely remember what my friends got as their main dishes, but I had the octopus and it was also very good. Followed by some chocolate mousse thing, now that dish was thicker than me. THICK. Very good.
There was a performance by the belly dancers and drummers at 9:30pm. It was really fun because everyone in the restaurants gets up to dance. We even saw a group of men go through an entire Macarena routine together. Amazing vibes.
Sunday, May 18th
We did not go out again after Koya because we had to be up at 4:00am.
Yes, that is four ante meridiem. Brutal.
The night before we were coming home from a club past this time, and now we had to wake up.
Today we were off to do a hot air balloon ride in the desert. Pretty good reason to be up at this time of day to catch the sunset.
It was beautiful. I had never been in a hot air balloon before. We did catch the sunrise while flying. Lovely moment.
The ride is very smooth, if you are someone afraid of heights, I think you would do OK with this. You barely feel the take off or the landing. You just feel like you’re floating the whole time. I found the entire experience to be very relaxing.
Once you land you receive your flight certificate and then walk under a tent to have breakfast. I believe the entire activity from pick up to drop off maybe took four hours. If you are interested in doing this as well, click here.
Finally, some time to relax.
After all the go go go this weekend, we got to just relax at our riad. Nap. Take a dip in the pool. Just do nothing. It was so needed and necessary for all of us.
For our final night, we had reservations at the famous Le Jardin.
We didn’t need to be driven to this restaurant as it was walking distance within the square.
Listen, the place is beautiful, the food was good. You can see the photos below. However – THE CREME BRULEE? ARE YOU DUMB?
I love creme brulee in my regular degular life. But Le Jardin took that up a whole other notch. Deja had ordered it as her dessert and once Jummy and I tried it, we regretted not getting four of those for ourselves.
Creme brulee with saffron in it.
I know it is just a dessert, but this is the main dish I dream about from this entire trip. Knock your socks off good.
Monday, May 19th
Today we had to fly home, unfortunately.
We had one final breakfast at the riad and our amazing host, Hanna, literally sent me a WhatsApp invoice for all of our trips with the driver and how much we owed. As someone who works in finance, this was a first for me with an AirBnB stay. She had perfectly itemized, dated and put prices for every trip we took so we knew exactly how much we owed. Big fan of that.
She might be one of the best hosts I’ve had on any of my trips.
Back to the airport – Marrakesh to Lisbon to Toronto.
I still dislike Lisbon airport and their crappy food options. But, made it home safe. Yay safety.
We had such a wonderful time on this trip, everything went perfectly. The people are nice, the weather was hot, the club was lit and the food was delicious. What else could you possibly need? That is perfection.
I realize going to North Africa for a long weekend is kind of crazy, but guess what? If I saw a flight deal for a weekend, I’d do it again. In a heartbeat.
You should totally visit Marrakesh.
Eat some lamb cheek, ceviche and creme brulee. The trifecta of joy in your mouth.
Book a gorgeous riad. Get a massage. Go party. Go to the desert.
Maybe wear your disposable thong the right way……
What an adventure.
- Mirna