1 destination · 28 things to do

Morocco

Marrakech is the Red City, a thousand-year-old imperial capital of pink earthen walls, palm groves and snow-capped mountains on the horizon, and no city in North Africa is more intoxicating for a first visit. At its heart is Jemaa el-Fna, the great square where storytellers, musicians and smoking food stalls have gathered for centuries, and around it spreads the Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage maze of souks selling leather, lanterns, spices and rugs, with the Almohad minaret of the Koutoubia watching over everything. This guide books the city properly in its current form: the Jardin Majorelle and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum on the official timed tickets that are now sold only online, the painted courtyards of the Bahia Palace, the carved cedar and stucco of the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs and the vast ruins of El Badi while their post-earthquake restoration continues, and the calm of Le Jardin Secret in the middle of the souks. Then it takes you out of town, to the Berber villages of the High Atlas around Imlil, still rebuilding after the 2023 earthquake and glad of respectful visitors, to the stony Agafay desert for sunset, up in a hot-air balloon at dawn and west to the blue-and-white port of Essaouira. Finally it matches you to the right bed, from La Mamounia and the Royal Mansour to an art-filled riad near the square, a family-run garden hotel in the Kasbah and a resort among the palms, because in Marrakech where you sleep shapes the whole trip.