Things to do in Central Morocco & The Atlas Mountains
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Cooperative Artisanale Femmes de Marrakesh
A hidden treasure worth seeking in the souqs. Here you’ll find breezy cotton clothing and household linens made by a Marrakesh women’s cooperative and a small annex packed with items made by non-profit and women’s cooperatives from across Morocco, including sustainably harvested thuyya wood bowls from Essaouira, Safi tea sets and small Middle Atlas rugs.
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Le Colisée
The plushest cinema in town, Le Colisée is plenty comfortable, with great sound and a mixed male-female, Moroccan and expat crowd. Films are sometimes in the original language (including English) and subtitled in French.
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CantoBar
Located behind el-Harti Stadium within staggering distance of Le Sabal bar and Diamant Noir disco, CantoBar completes the night-out trifecta with karaoke and kitsch. Decent mojitos and dark lighting let you quit worrying about going off-key, and afterwards you can collapse on red armchairs shaped like high heels.
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Le Sabal
Days turns into nights spent in this retro-fitted 1925 villa with sunny garden seating and a tent-bar downstairs, and plush, purplish nocturnal lounge upstairs. Now under hip Marrakshi management, the scene is more casual and local, drawn by reasonably priced drinks and an appealing à la carte menu.
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La Maison Arabe
For sheer decadence, try La Maison Arabe, where the basic treatment marinates you in local herbs and minerals with a hammam, gommage and masque of clay, crushed rose petals and geranium oil for Dh300; massage runs Dh600 per hour.
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Aqua
The most romantic of the cafés ringing the Djemaa, with candles, smart modern decor and service that’s attentive but not intrusive. Stick with coffee, tea and sweets, as salads and mains are oddly flavourless.
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Dar Cherifa
Revive souq-sore eyes at this serene late-15th-century Saadian riad, where tea and saffron coffee is served with contemporary art and literature downstairs, or terrace views upstairs.
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Marché Municipale ibn Toumert
For a solid selection of fresh produce, dried fruits and nuts, try the new Marché Municipale ibn Toumert.
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Samak al-Bahria
The best option along this stretch of sidewalk stalls, al-Bahria serves fresh fish and perfectly tender fried calamari with generous chunks of lemon, plus salt and cumin.
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Restaurant Place Ferblantiers
Plop down on a plastic chair in the courtyard, and have whatever’s bubbling away on the burner. The meat and produce are fresh from the Mellah Market across the street, and the chef whips up dishes in front of you.
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Fast Food Alahbab
The awning boasting ‘recommended by Lonely Planet’ must be 25 years old now, and still we stand by our initial assessment of the Dh35 shawarma accompanied by four sauces and just-right French fries, though the avocado milkshake is best avoided.
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Pâtisserie des Princes
This is one of the city’s most famous patisseries, and with good reason. The seductive array of local delicacies, cakes and ice creams will sate any sweet tooth. The small café at the back is a welcome respite for women, or anyone in search of a quiet coffee.
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Al-Fassia
Glassy-eyed diners valiantly grip morsels of bread, scraping the last savoury caramelised onion from what was once a Berber pumpkin and lamb tajine. The mezze of nine starters alone is a proper feast, but there’s no resisting the legendary mains, cooked Middle Atlas style by an all-women team who present the dishes with a heartfelt B’saha! (to your health).
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L’Annexe
French lunches in a mirrored café-bistro setting, handy to all the ville nouvelle boutique action. A welcome switch to light, clean flavours after the umpteenth tajine: duck confit (duck slowly cooked in its own fat) atop salad, tuna tartare and a mean créme brulée.
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Le Foundouk
An enormous, spidery iron-chandelier lit with candles sets the mood for offbeat à la carte choices, including beef with wild artichoke and orange-carrot soup. When the food lives up to the decor, it’s fabulous, and when not, well, at least you got your money’s worth for atmosphere. Terrace seating is scenic but chilly, and you’ll need to call well in advance for sought-after downstairs seating.
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Dar TimTam
Head through the dim restaurant and into this 18th-century riad’s innermost courtyard, where rejuvenating mint tea and a generous assortment of salads makes a fine light lunch amid the songbirds.
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Ryad Jama
À la carte lunches at realistic prices served in a family-run riad restaurant. Generous lamb tajines with prunes and almonds are graciously presented in the leafy garden for only slightly more than you’d pay for a skimpy version shoved your way in the dusty Djemaa.
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Chegrouni
You’re expected to write down your own order, but your server could probably guess it anyway: you’re either a foodie here for the classic Dh50 tajine with chicken, preserved lemons and olives; a vegetarian in for flavourful vegetable-broth-only seven-vegetable couscous; or a tajine-weary traveller in dire need of a decent omelette with superior chips.
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Mountain Voyage
This British-owned company based in Marrakesh provides licensed, English-speaking guides for tailor-made Marrakesh tours, sustainable tourism excursions in the Middle Atlas and High Atlas excursions with stays at its own property, the Kasbah du Toubkal.
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Souk Cuisine
Learn to cook as the dadas (chefs) do at Souk Cuisine, where you shop in the souq for ingredients with your English-speaking Dutch hostess Gemma van de Burgt, work alongside two Moroccan women wedding-feast chefs, then sit down to enjoy the four-course lunch you helped cook.
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Bains de Marrakech
Marrakesh offers upscale spa experiences with Moroccan trappings. One of the best-value treatments are the massages run Dh350 per hour at Bains de Marrakech, but treatments should be booked at least two weeks in advance.
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Actions & Loisirs
For mountain bikes, racing bikes and biking trips through the High Atlas and desert, contact Actions & Loisirs. To escape city traffic, head for the Palmeraie, the palm-shaded district 5km northwest of the centre where you’ll spot mud-brick villages and celebrity villas.
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Mouassine Fountain
The medina had 80 fountains at the start of the 20th century, and each neighbourhood relied on its own for water for cooking, public baths, orchards and gardens. The Mouassine Fountain is a classic example, with carved wood details and has continued its use as a neighbourhood wool-drying area and gossip source.
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Koubba Ba’adiyn
No one knows why the Almohads spared the Koubba Ba’adiyn. They destroyed everything else their Almoravid predecessors built in Marrakesh, yet they overlooked one small, graceful 12th-century koubba (shrine), probably used for ablutions. This architectural relic reveals what Almohad Hispano-Moresque architecture owes to the Almoravids: keyhole arches, ribbed vaulting, interlaced carved arabesques and a domed cupola on a crenellated base.
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Synagogue
Local guides may usher you into the local synagogue, still in use, and the miaâra, or Jewish cemetery, where the gatekeeper will let you in to see bright whitewashed tombs topped with piles of rocks for remembrance (Dh10 tip expected). But to see the vibrant living legacy of mellah spice traders and artisans, check out the Mellah Market and artisans’ showrooms in and around Place des Ferblantiers.
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