The TRUTH about travelling Morocco - Ultimate 2 Week Itinerary | Morocco Travel Guide

In this video we're going to take you with us on an epic two-week journey around Morocco. We're going to show you the very best things to do and see from trinket-filled souks to mind-boggling rock formations all the way to the vast orange desert. Our journey begins in Morocco's bustling capital city Marrakesh where we're kicking off our trip with some nice cheap budget accommodation. So this is the room that's £15 a night. I'm just going to quickly show you around. It's going to take approximately one second. This is the room. There's Jake. He's woken up. It's basically just a bed and a sink and some beautiful tiles. After a quick look at the views of the city from the hotel rooftop it was time to set off to explore the medina. So the location of the £15 a night hotel is actually pretty good. It's like right in the medina and the medina is an area of small lanes and shops. There's no cars either so motorbikes can't go through here though. So when we first arrived we got dropped off just outside of the medina and walked in so it's a good idea if you're looking at hotels to see how far in the hotel is. If it's on the outskirts of the medina you don't have to walk that far and our bags are light and we don't have much stuff with us so it wasn't too bad but that is definitely something to think about. Can you imagine what it would have been like without google maps? Impossible. It's like a maze isn't it? Now let's explore bahia palace. It costs 70 dirham to get in and you can spend as long as you like inside. It's a really nice activity for a hot day because there are lots of shady spots you can sit and soak in all the different textures colours and intricate designs. It's actually pretty huge in here. There are loads of little rooms to explore and the garden area smells like blossom. As you can see from this video we've pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. That's because we arrived at opening time which is at 9 am which is definitely something we recommend because by the time we were leaving it was packed. Next we wandered down to the souks. They are what Marrakesh is famous for after all. As we walked further and further down these winding streets we saw local artisans making the beautiful items that fill these shops. We made sure to ask if it's okay to take a video and although some politely declined some were extremely happy to show us their craft. Spices line the streets in all their colours and the Moroccan lanterns shine bright in the shade covered alleyways. Straw bags are popular here as well as traditional clothes. Although cars aren't allowed inside the medina you do come across the occasional motorbike with a large trailer. The souks feel endless. You could explore here for days and you'd still find new things to see. Something to be aware of is how the pricing works in Morocco. You won't see a price tag here. You'll first be suggested a price that's about 10 times more than the actual price and then when you decline they might ask you what you would like to pay. The back and forth can last quite a long time so it's really useful to research how much things cost before you go. I ended up buying one of these traditional Moroccan lipsticks for 5 dirhams. Juma Elfnal Square is a must visit in Marrakech. During the day it feels quite empty but at night it transforms into something I can't quite explain. I've never seen anything like it in my life. But in the day you'll see chained up monkeys, snake charmers, lots of people selling t-shirts, ladies offering henna tattoos and lots of food stalls. Be prepared to have lots of people trying to convince you into their market restaurant Our next stop is Ben Youssef Madrasa. Jake will explain a little bit more about what a madrasa is and the history of it in a moment but for now I'll leave you to enjoy the pure magic and serenity of this place. So right now we are sat inside the Ben Youssef Madrasa. Now if you're like me you know what that means. Basically it was an Islamic college originally built in the 1300s but the building which we can see today was built in the 1500s and like this room where I'm sat right now it was for students to to live while they came here and studied. Honestly I've never seen a more beautiful incredible school area. It is the most beautiful place we've seen so far in Marrakech. Much nicer even than the Bahia Palace and we just can't get over the intricate details. Absolutely fascinating. Quite popular. We came here at 9am or we came at 10 to 9 actually and it only cost 50 dirham per person which wasn't too much and we had it for ourselves for 20 minutes so that nice footage you can see there's no other place like that unless you get here at opening time. So we have just made it to Le Jardin Secret which is the secret garden and it's crazy to think how it's in the centre of the medina because it's so peaceful and quiet here. Pan is one of the largest riads in the medina but obviously most of it is taken up by the garden which is pretty incredible. Very peaceful, quiet, cost 80 dirham for us to come in. But if you just wanted some peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle of Marrakech it's quite nice to come in here and there's loads of benches everywhere you could just bring some music to listen to or bring a book and sit in here. So this is our car from Morocco and we have left Marrakech now and this is where the true adventure begins. Funny story we'll tell you later on about picking up the car but we've got a Peugeot 208 and I must say it's been a smooth drive so far. It's very nice it's not the car that we reserved for the hire car. We reserved a little Fiat 500 but this is a free upgrade because they basically didn't have the car that we wanted so it's fine it's been really good. So let's go to the Panis to go from Marrakech all the way to the desert Erg Chebbi Merzouga and then continue up to Fez. Quite a hefty drive but let's give it a go. So hiring the car was quite easy we did it all online ready for collection for 10 a.m. We got there at but we didn't get into the car until about half 11 so true Moroccan slow style. Not even 30 seconds away from the rental place did we run into some trouble though. Yeah there was a policeman literally 30 seconds down the road who stopped us he waved us down because apparently we're in for a red light and I am 99% sure there was not even a traffic light there. He just wanted a bit of extra money and he kept saying red light red light no license and I was like hang on wait we both have a license. Do you want to see it? Jake handed over the license. He was holding it while saying no license oh in Morocco this 400 dirham fine so I was like okay okay okay yeah I had my wallet in my hand it's like 400 and he was just trying to ask us questions trying to be all friendly. Yeah he was like is this your wife do you have children where are you from and I was like I have three children all this kind of stuff. I was like we just want to go please and then for you it's okay only 200 dirham so obviously it wasn't a real fine and he was just trying to make some quick money. Yeah but in the end he gave your license back and we went on our merry way and so far that's the only time we've been stopped by the police but we have met other couples who've been hiring cars and a guy who's been hiring a car who've all all of them have been stopped by the police and fined for the randomest thing. So before we embark on this journey into the desert we just need to grab a few supplies so we're going to get water, snacks, basically everything we need in case we break down in the desert for a few days I don't know just like to be sensible. Four giant bottles of water apples, bananas, baby wipes, nuts, chocolate and raisins that came to £10.45 so I think that is not actually too bad. This is our little car let's hit the road. Jake wasn't keen on the idea of hiring a car he wanted to do his trip as part of a tour so I just want to say in advance in case anything bad happens I'm sorry Jake and I take full responsibility. The roads were actually really good and nice to drive on but there were some roadworks on the mountain pass which slowed us down quite a bit as well as being stuck behind the occasional truck. It was really interesting driving through the small towns and villages and we didn't really find ourselves getting bored on this long journey. The plan was to make it to Ait Benidou before it got dark so we could watch the sun go down behind this Moroccan wonder. So we've now made it to Ait Benidou we've just woken up on our first morning here we had a really nice meal with some other travellers that we met last night which was lovely and today we're going to go down there and walk up to the top and explore all the way through the street so we're really really excited. The old part of Ait Benidou is separated from the new part by river. Since your accommodation will be located in the new part you'll have to cross the river on foot either by pedestrian bridge or by hopping over the sandbags. In theory entrance is free but you'll most likely have someone ask you for money when you enter. We paid an old man who let us look inside his house and walk all the way up to the rooftop which I actually really recommend for the experience. The way the entire building was made from this mud and straw like material was fascinating. This Casbah complex is extremely well preserved and one of the best of its kind which is why it's a UNESCO world heritage site that you might even recognize from films like Lawrence of Arabia, The Mummy, Gladiator, Prince of Persia and was even used for the city of Yunkai in the Game of Thrones. It's like a maze but if you keep walking uphill eventually you'll reach the top. We met an assortment of really interesting people in Ait Benidou. One of them really quite pushy making it difficult for us to leave without buying something but mostly the people here were really welcoming and friendly. The local artists here were happy to chat to us about the tea paintings that are famous in the area and also answered some of the questions we had about the local history. The locals seemed really really proud to live here which was nice. So we've just walked around Ait Benidou. It's really really cool up there. There's a lot of people selling paintings which are made from like tea which Jake bought one. They're really really really beautiful and the guy showed us how he draws it and then puts it on the flame and it comes to life. There's also a lot of people selling these scarves and I bought one because it's a special Berber one which they use for the desert and he taught us how to wrap it around my head. But you got a little bit of difference in prices. Yeah you go up to one person and they say 300, you go up to another person and they say 30. So you've got to kind of know the price of things before you go pay for it but it's a beautiful place to walk around. We walked all the way up the top. The view from the top isn't as good as the view from down here because from down here obviously you can see the whole thing but from up there you can see like the town which is still nice. It's still nice to walk up there and definitely recommend this place. It's just so impressive. So we are back on the road after Ait Benidou which was absolutely incredible. We dropped off the guy who owned the homestay that we're staying at who was at hospital to visit his cousin so we'll insert a picture here. As our little rental car was getting more and more covered in dirt and sand we were getting closer and closer to our next stop. Only a couple of hours away. I love this part of the drive. The roads were clear and the popular hitchhiking culture here made us realize how community is at the forefront of Moroccan culture. So we have just been driving through Dardes Gorge which is unbelievably beautiful. Honestly I did not know Morocco was going to be this picture-esque and beautiful. The gorge was just incredible. We're making our way up to a really famous hairpin turny thing at the top of Dardes Gorge and then we want to drive all the way back, hit the main road and another hour to reach our destination. But how cool is this spot here? We finally made it to the famous snake road of Dardes Gorge. We timed it really well as little did we know there was a storm approaching. We're really grateful to be in this little car and not in our van going down all of these steep bendy roads. Although it can be easily done in a van so we've heard. So that was Dardes Gorge and if you couldn't doubt it had some strange downpour at the top. The first rain of Morocco and apparently it was very very rare. It was weird because all of a sudden it was so windy that it was like absolute mental and then it just started raining. Not expecting that and didn't expect that at all. But we got to see that little viewpoint and it was very nice, very cool. Got a good little photo here. Very nice. That's one of the tour things. So basically we rented a car to do our own tour at our own pace. Next we made it to Todra Gorge which I personally think is one of the most beautiful non-man-made places in Morocco. So as you can see all around us we are at Todra Gorge. One of the two most famous gorges in Morocco. Yesterday we obviously went to the Dardes Gorge. This one is a lot more like towering cliffs but also it's lined with people trying to sell things. But it's not too bad. Most of the places we walked past people trying to sell things. They didn't actually hassle us. There's a really popular place for climbing here and the rocks are just so orange and so giant. Like it is actually really really cool. So we're just going to wander around here for a bit. Not a massive walk. There's a three-hour walk you can do. We don't really have time for that today because we have to cram so much in but let's go. We started to become really happy and confident with our decision to make this journey ourselves. The feeling of freedom on these open roads was spectacular. Excitement was brewing as we got closer and closer to the much-anticipated orange sand dunes of the Sahara Desert. So welcome to Merzouga. We have checked in one night here in a place on the edge of the town overlooking the sand dunes which is incredible. Today we are going to go on a desert tour and actually stay in the desert tonight for the next two days. But this place is actually really nice itself. The owner was lovely. It cost us about 30 pounds to stay here. We are truly in the middle of nowhere and it is nine o'clock and it is already scorching hot. I can't imagine what it'll be like in mid-summer. Apparently it goes up to 50 he was saying. But let's have a little look. I'll show you around this hotel. So you've got 30 quid and Merzouga can get you which I did think was quite expensive from Morocco but it's justified I believe. This is the entrance to our hotel and if you look closely a lot of the structure is just this incredible mesh of hay and straw and mud or clay and it's impressive how all the villages we drove past they all seem to be made out of this. So it must be fairly easy and cheap to build. And it's very strong obviously. And obviously it must be really strong. It's incredible. It gets cooked in the sun and hardens. I love it. So we're just packing up. This is our room in the Merzouga hotel. It's quite pretty as you can see and my favourite feature is this picture hung up with five different nails. I thought that was quite unique. But this is what 30 quid will get you in the Merzouga town itself. Even in here you can see the whole you know almost clay-like walls which I think is really cool and quite impressive. So that's what this is. We're heading off now to meet our driver to take us deep into the desert. If you want to stay at a desert camp it will include the transport over the sand dunes to get there. This will either be by 4x4 or by camel. Our driver Hossein was very friendly and experienced and he told us so many interesting things about desert life. The camp itself was beautiful. I'm a big fan of hot weather so a few days in the sun with no internet was very appealing to me. Despite being extremely remote and far from anything it had everything you could need. Water, shower, toilet, somewhere to charge our phones and cameras, good food and plenty of places to sit and relax. So with desert stays a must on everyone's Morocco itinerary there are over 100 camps to choose from and we are staying at this one and it is sublime. It is really really nice. To get here we had to basically leave our car in a car park and take a 4x4 into the desert. The ride over the top of the sand dunes was absolutely insane. Jake looked a bit green. Oh my god it was actually quite scary it was like a roller coaster. It was it was so fun and then we arrived here so peaceful like you wake up in the morning and you hear absolutely nothing like it's just been a really really amazing couple of days. Now you might be wondering about snakes and creepy crawlies because I certainly was before we went but it turns out there aren't many. The only ones we saw here were the friendly little scarab beetles that leave remarkable patterns in the sand. The snakes and scorpions are only around in the hot summer months when the camps are closed anyway due to extreme temperatures and sandstorms. The camels are calm and love to munch on the greenery that I was surprised to see in the desert. If there's a moment that I'll never forget in my life it's running as fast as I can over the dunes with nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. So if you're searching for the ultimate peace and you can definitely find it here. So when you are booking your experience in the desert you can either choose from one night two nights even three nights days and I think one night is a good option if you want to just if you have that much time. Two nights is probably the best but I would recommend doing something organised on the second day so that you can still explore the area. We did ourselves obviously in the rental cars you've seen and that's given us the freedom and the flexibility to come and go not here obviously because we can't drive our own car here but other places but I think a tour would be worth it if you want to just you know sit back and relax and just get from get between each destination without having to worry about anything yourself or anything yeah. But driving has been very uh easy actually. That's nice to know. We then said a sad farewell to this sandy paradise and all of the camels who call this home to embark on our next big journey to Fez. We had such a lovely few days we have a digital detox because there's not much signal there it was lovely um and now we are on route to Fez at the moment this says uh six hours and 11 minutes left but Jake's been driving for like almost an hour 45 minutes um people are saying it takes between seven and eight hours um without stops without stop well seven hours without stop so we'll be stopping we think it's going to take like eight and a half hours maybe it's supposed to be quite scenic but it is almost a long chunk of driving for one day but the road looks really good like obviously you saw our footage between Marrakesh and Mazuga there was like a big mountain pass to go over which was like gravel in some places where they're doing a lot of road work there's a lot of potholes and stuff like that but this road apparently is really smooth and like a really good road all the way so it shouldn't have any problems. The drive to Fez was pleasantly uneventful it's worth mentioning the police stops that you will come across if you're driving through you must make sure to stop at the sign and wait for them to wave you through if you drive past they'll likely find you you'll find these stops usually just before or after a town or village and before the cities there are quite a lot of them so keep your eyes peeled for the circular sign before a sometimes hidden police car we made a few stops just to stretch our legs and one of the places we came across was full of monkeys so we stopped and shed some of our fruit the drive was simple but long it took about nine hours and we didn't film much because we're focused on getting to Fez to drop the rental car off but watching the landscape change from orange to green was the best thing about this journey so that was a hectic day but look where we are now veggie pause in Fez with a burger chicken pizza and a vegan pizza you look you look very tired i'm tired this is a well-deserved treat even the guy at the hotel thought i was impressed that we drove all the way here in one day yeah anyway time to eat so good morning today's our first day in Fez we arrived last night after that long old drive and we're going to kick things off by visiting the famous tannery which as vegans is probably a bit questionable but it's a one number one thing to do in this area so we're still going to go and give it a go and see what we think yeah we're very briefly honest about what we see here and uh yeah because that's how that's how we do things isn't it jake yes as you can see the streets are so quiet it's currently ramadan so the mornings and the sunset times the shops are closed and streets are really calm this is really quite nice because we were just on our way to check out the famous Fez tannery and we already knew exactly where to find the best view really really good view basically they take all the leather they clean it in ammonia and that ammonia is made from pigeon poo and then they dye it using saffron which is yellow mint which is green indigo which is blue and poppy petals i think which is red and i can't remember the orange one but they're really really bright colors and you can stand up here and watch all the people walking away which is pretty crazy considering right now it's ramadan and these people down here are not eating or drinking all day and the non-drinking water thing is like crazy for me because they're working in the hot sun but it's really really interesting to see the smell isn't as bad as we thought but it is a little bit iffy so overall really interesting thing to come and see and now we are in a madrasa um we'll put the name of it here so you don't miss it but it's really beautiful fairly similar to the one in marrakesh but maybe a bit smaller but it looks older to me like all of the patterns it's like less white it's more like brown colored i think it's really really beautiful obviously um but yeah it was 20 dirhams per person and i think there's a discount if you're coming in a group but very nice the madrasa was lovely it's not quite as busy as the one in marrakesh but i still recommend getting here early to see it in all its glory because it's a photographer's dream after a calm morning at the madrasa we walked to the park it really didn't feel like we're in the city anymore there were so many different plants and flowers and smells and my favorite thing obviously there were so many really cute friendly cats and then we walked over to the golden gates tourists aren't allowed through the gates but they're pretty impressive from the outside the temptation to use one of those gigantic door knockers was almost too much so we've been wandering around all morning and we didn't have breakfast so it's time for lunch and early lunch 11 o'clock we're gonna have some falafel and my drink i've got like this mint um fresh mint lemonade and it's so nice we finished the food and i didn't film any of it because we were so hungry and that's why we're not food vloggers it was very good the souks of fez were lovely but in the end we actually preferred the ones in marrakesh the first souks were very narrow and most of the things for sale were leather which is to be expected but we aren't really interested in leather there were also a lot of chickens being slaughtered on the side of the streets and full carcasses hanging up which really isn't our thing but we did enjoy seeing the local artists and the handmade products we definitely found ourselves down some less touristy streets where there are lots of fruits and vegetables for sale wandering through as the locals went through their everyday routines meeting friends drinking tea and buying dates to break their ramadan fast was pretty fascinating since it's so far away from what we've experienced before so we made it into the madrasa um it was supposed to open at nine o'clock um but the gates were closed um so we're gonna wander around i think it's not as picturesque and as the one in marrakesh um but it's really really really really beautiful the madrasa was lovely but if you're really short on time it's pretty similar to the other ones so you could potentially skip this one we then took a scenic bus journey to the famous blue city of morocco chef chowen it cost 200 dirham for both of us and it leaves at either 8 a.m or 10 a.m but we chose the 8 a.m so we can make the most of our first day in chef chowen hello and welcome to this as you can see incredibly blue little town in the mountains of morocco this is called chef chowen and as you can tell we've left the busyness of faiz and marrakesh and we've made our way to this quaint little place to explore all it has to offer so far we absolutely love it don't we and it is noticeably completely a different vibe than anywhere else we've been in morocco it's really chilled out isn't it it's very chilled very like hassle-free relaxed and as you can see it's very very instagrammable so we're going to go around and find all the best little nooks and crannies and points to find we'll show you we'll take you along with us and show you what this town has to offer chef chowen is one of morocco's most picturesque locations nestled among the rolling green hills and mountains the village is famed for its many shades of blue painted streets chef chowen was founded in 1471 spain captured chef chowen in 1920 forming part of spain's territory in morocco the city was then given back to morocco when the country gained independence in 1956 during the middle ages local tribes moors from spain and jews populated the area there are many reasons for the blue streets which include keeping in line with jewish custom and culture because in jewish beliefs the color blue represents the sky which in turn reminds people of heaven and god the older generations say that the blue shades were found mostly in the jewish quarters and the streets were actually white in other parts another reason might have been to keep away the mosquitoes it's said that they might have noticed less mosquitoes in the blue parts of the city causing the blue color to spread another reason they started to paint more and more blue is to keep their houses cool but some other reasons might be to attract tourists and simply because it looks nice there are so many reasons but maybe we just don't know we really enjoyed walking around here it was much more peaceful and the shopkeepers weren't as pushy as we walked through the vibes were really relaxed compared to other places in morocco that we visited so this is a really really cool spot the building is like really really skinny and really tall i don't think it used to have a gate on it but obviously tourists are probably quite annoying around here so they put a gate on it to stop you walking up and having a photo so i wanted to buy a rug in morocco because that's what people do in morocco and i've just bought a rug and it was a very long process of back and forth and it started on 300 but it started on 300 dear and i got it for 170 170 which is about 15 pounds this is the main square where most of the restaurants are we found it quite a challenge to be vegan in morocco but one of our favorite places we call bilmos this had the most incredible pastilla and a really really good tagine and we don't usually love to jeans this much okay so we made it to a viewpoint which is really quite nice if you look up here but if you look down here unfortunately it is somewhat of a dumping grounds and a bit of a reality check for you which is a big shame to see really obviously but then you've got to remember we're in morocco and it's not a first world country so we are currently heading up to the spanish mosque on this pathway which is about 10 10 to 20 minute trek up to the spanish mosque not too difficult actually first initial slump and then it's okay for the rest of it and we're going to watch sunset which apparently everyone else is doing and it looks quite busy up there so we're on our way there now it's like two hours on the bus yeah we're looking at a private transfer and that was going to be 50 quid where this is only 13 quid if i know it should be less than that this is about eight quid a top tip from us wherever in the world you are if you're in a taxi keep your eye on google maps and make sure you're going the right way please always do this take it from us then we stopped off to say hi to spain in the distance before hopping on a train back to marrakesh to end our trip this looks like a bullet train so quick so smooth so efficient so easy didn't really seem like it was going that fast because it was so so smooth this is the lovely first class layout our first class area beth is going now and we are back on the plane it is smooth sailing all the way to calgary in approximately three hours to go