Life with insatiable wanderlust.

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I Didn’t Like Marrakech

djemma el fna square marrakech morocco

There. I said it. I didn’t like Marrakech.

Now before you come at me with torches and pitchforks à la Gaston going after the Beast yelling, “but you’re a travel blogger!”, know that not every place visited is going to be a dream fantasyland. Also know that as for Morocco, I LOVE MOROCCO. Morocco as a whole could be one of my favorite places, I just didn’t care so much for Marrakech. Which is truly unfortunate because it’s pretty much the tourist epicenter.

(Before I go into detail, I’ll say that we didn’t visit other cities like Fez, Chefchaouen or Casablanca. We spent four days in Marrakech then hit the road to the Sahara so we spent more time in the towns east of the Atlas Mountains like Ouarzazate and Merzouga. You can read my tale of Morocco here.)

Here’s my rundown of why I didn’t care for Marrakech.

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There is no rest

Once you leave the comfort and tranquility of your accommodation, most likely a riad in the Medina, your senses go haywire. And not always in a good way. The second, and I mean the second, you step outside the doors onto the street you are bombarded by locals who want to show you “the way” to wherever it is you are going. (“The way” possibly not even being correct; they occasionally misdirect you on purpose.) Even if you tell them a hundred times you know where you are going, they will follow you and insist you are in fact going the wrong way and that they will show you…always for a few dollars of course. It’s very hard to shake them off because I didn’t want to be rude, but I also just wanted to be left alone to walk with my husband in peace and enjoy the sights. That doesn’t happen.

 

 

 

Wherever you walk, locals will approach you to try and help show you somewhere or to try and sell you something. Now, don’t get me wrong and roll your eyes and say that happens at plenty of places around the world. Yes! It does! I’ve experienced plenty of it. Typically you can give a kind “no thank you” and be on your way, but not in Marrakech. I’ve never ever experienced the kind of…I’ll say it…harassment…by locals in my life. They actually get angry if you tell them no thanks or try and walk away faster. I had a child come up to me and try and sell me something or other, and I nicely told him that I didn’t want whatever it was and then I turned around. He actually said “fuck you” to me. He was about 10. Okay kid.

Another time, we were sitting at a restaurant overlooking the square. I was adjusting my camera settings at the same time a group of local teenagers were doing some kind of acrobatic performance and I suppose I happened to be pointing my camera in their general direction. After they were finished, which I hardly even noticed because I was playing with my camera, they came up to our table and demanded I give them money because I was filming them (not true). I told them no and they yelled at me.

This was constant.

The flipside: Your riad will always be a very welcome oasis after Marrakech days. It’s the perfect place to relax away from all that hustling.

It’s impossible to browse

The souks in Marrakech are something to behold. Everywhere I looked I saw something sparkly or velvety or leathery or just downright beautiful. I wanted to buy all the things….but I couldn’t because no one would leave me alone. You cannot just stroll around and look and touch and decide casually if you’d like to buy something. If you are walking through the souks and stalls, the second you make even the slightest eye contact with its owner you will basically be physically dragged into their shop with lots of “No buy! No buy! Just look!” and then eight seconds later “How much will you pay?”

Dude. I just want to look around.

 

 

 

I desperately wanted to buy soooo much more stuff but I didn’t because I don’t particularly like feeling attacked while I’m shopping. I did manage to grab a few lanterns, ceramics and hand carved wood things which I love, but it was a stressful experience getting them. Again, it’s not like this was my first rodeo with haggle shopping stalls, it was just more like an extreme sporting event than fun.

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The flipside: No matter the stress, you will eventually walk away with something amazing. My lantern started at $45 and I got him down to like $15 or something insane like that.

The Djemaa El Fna is kind of sad

The Djemaa El Fna is the center square in the middle of the Medina. During the day it’s full of people with animals on chains and drugged up cobras. It is pretty upsetting. You can hear the hypnotic sounds of their flutes, but I didn’t want to go anywhere near it. Not because I was scared of the cobras, but I just didn’t want to see it and be forced to pay money to something so horrible. The same with the other animals. There are little monkeys on chains. I just stayed away.

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The flipside: If you stay away from all the sad animals, you will find delicious orange juice stalls. Don’t miss!

There isn’t much to DO

Apart from shopping and eating and looking at things, I found there wasn’t much to do. There are a few museums and the Jardin Marjorelle is really gorgeous, but it’s really just a bunch of shopping and eating…and that’s even if you can get any shopping done with all the hassling. After a while, not only we were tired of just walking around, we were tired of being followed and pestered to death.

The flipside: What I wasn’t tired of, however, was all that eating. Morocco has some of the best food I’ve ever put in my mouth and mealtimes could never come around fast enough.

 

Basically, It was almost painful to have to leave our riad every day and once it was time to get our rental car and head for the Sahara, we were more than willing to go. I have a love/hate relationship with Marrakech. I’d maybe give it another shot, but I feel like I got everything out of the city I could and the experience itself probably isn’t going to change. I do want to go back to Morocco though and spend more time in the smaller desert towns we drove through, those seem more my vibe.

Have you been to Marrakech? What did you think? Do you think I’m out of my mind or totally right? Let me know in the comments!

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36 responses to “I Didn’t Like Marrakech”

  1. Really enjoyed reading this! Thank you so much for being honest! I haven’t seen many bloggers post like this. It’s always nice to know the other side (non glamorous side) of traveling to very touristy places like this!

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  2. This is actually the first travel blog post I’ve ever read haha and it’s because the title caught my eye. I felt very similar while we were there. Luckily, we did a food tour which was outstanding, and bcs it was led by a local, we were able to shop in peace with him by our side. I agree with much of your thoughts and it was cool for you to write an honest piece! All you ever read/see is about the glamour inside all the riads!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing! The title definitely caught my eye especially because I’m traveling to Morocco next month. So this is quite good information to know and a heads up.

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  4. Even Moroccan internal tourist suffer from that, I am from Morocco I go to Marrakesh only if there’s an event because it crowded & I experienced similar encounters. Tourist police are trying their best to decrease this kind of violence, you will never see them because they are dressed like civilians to catch those kind of thieves.
    If you noticed this is only in Marrakech, and those type of kids/ people are impolite….

    I hope you will try to visit center or north of Morocco(Tangier, chafchaouen, caponegro etc…)
    peace ✌️

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  5. I loved marrakech the first time but subsequent visits have left me with the same feeling as you. The locals do there utmost to make me feel unsettled and a bit scared if I’m honest. I so wanted to wander the souks and parks but the constant hassle was too much. Also felt that as a tourists were overcharged for everything. Still love the ambience of a riad and that’s the only thing that would make me return to Marrakech

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  6. I have been to Marrakech before! I completely understand where you are coming from- it was a bit annoying to be bugged, it was cold when I went and rainy so that did not help, and I definitely did not like the animals chained up. It is great though for new culture and it is close enough to Europe that it is an inexpensive trip- but you are right it isn’t the best of Morocco (I have been to Tangier and Chefchauen). If I were to go back to Marrakech I would stay at a super nice hotel and lay by the pool- and potentially buy all the nice rugs ahahha

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  7. Finally someone who tells a true story. We are fulltime travelers too and traveling is not always roses and fairy tales, that’s definitely true! But aren’t we, travel bloggers, the one who should inform people in a super honest way in order to give them useful information and inspiration for their next travel destination? Really loved this article! Meaning, you have a new fan! 🙌

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    • Yasmine! Thank you!! Yes, exactly right. I feel like it’s our job to be a GOOD resource for these places. All the instagrammers and bloggers where every place they visit is perfect it’s like really? Maybe they get lucky but I dunno.

      Thank you thank you!

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  8. Thank you for the sharing of you experience! I share your feelings.

    I’ve been to Marrakech for the 1st time about 3 years ago, stayed there one week and didn’t really enjoy it that much. First of all I felt disappointed as I felt it was an overrated place: I found the place dirty, smelly at some places, and chaotic. I also quickly felt that it wasn’t much to see or do. But I think what made me the most uncomfortable was the feeling of being seen as a wallet everywhere, all the time. People are nice and friendly at first sight, but then you quickly realised that it’s all about getting your money, and some can then sometimes quickly start to being kind of aggressive if you don’t give them what they expected. I felt so tired of this feeling of never paying the right price being a tourist and found it difficult for budget control (I had constant feeling of being robbed when taking a taxi).

    I gave it another try this year and spent 3 days with a friend, my friend didn’t like it (because of this same feeling of being robbed all the time), and I got confirmation that this city is not for me 🙂

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    • Hi yes! Being looked at just as a wallet is definitely a good way of looking at it. I’m sorry you also had that experience! If you ever venture to the other parts of Morocco I didn’t feel that way and actually loved it!!

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  10. Wow. Seems like you did stay in the Medina mostly? Didn’t you go to Guéliz, Hivernage and La Palmeraie? Which are absolutely not hectic and quite fancy. Many of my friends (in France and Belgium) go back at least once a year, so it’s quite strange to hear two completely opposite experiences. But I guess you love it or hate it and there’s only one way to find out 🙂

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    • We did go to some of the fancy parts and spend time! And of course it’s not hectic there and very relaxing and beautiful. However i feel like that’s also not as much a part of the true raw authentic experience. The other parts of Morocco we visited werent like this! I actually really like Morocco as a whole, just found Marrakech to be overwhelmingly aggressive.

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  11. Marrakech is absolutely DREADFUL, lbh. I’m glad that you blogged this, but your wording was quite tame! It is dirty, overcrowded, polluted, LOUD, and dangerous (all those motos ZOOMING BY inside the souk… I literally dogged one every 20 seconds! As someone who was hit by a vehicle in childhood, they scared the living bejesus out of me! The worse for me was the noise, pollution (asthmatic), the harassment of vendors, and those damn Motos! I imagined only parts of India to be so chaotic and unclean. I have been to over 20 countries in 5 continents and have never actually HATED any city… Until now.
    Rabat however, was GORGEOUS, and clean, and modern, and friendly and WONDERFUL. There I would revisit in a HEARTBEAT. The ocean, the architecture, the cool weather, the FOOD, OMG. There’s also the world’s second largest music fest in Rabat yearly! With huge acts from US, Africa, and Latin America! That was my initial reason for coming!

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  12. Oh thank you so much for this post. We are now in Marrakech and it is depressing the heck out of me especially the condition of the animals especially the working horses. It’s horrifying and takes away from being actually able to enjoy the cultural experience. We travel a lot but I think in my old age, I am unable to handle all the sadness and pain I am seeing on the road, be it human or animals.

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  13. Leaving marrakesh tomorrow, I honestly can’t wait. Thank you so much for writing this post because I thought I was crazy. So many people told me how amazing it was here. It is an absolute shithole. Granted we did stay right inside The Médina ( which google told me was a great idea to get an “amazing” experience) the Riad was actually decent. But not enough to make us stay. Last night we booked it outa there early and headed to a more expensive chain hotel outside of the Médina, and spent the last day of our honeymoon relaxing by the pool in the sun and at the gym, away from the craziness of the outside world. We didn’t even care about losing money on the Riad that we already paid for. And you hit the nail on the head when you said would have bought way more items if they just left you alone in the souks. I spent more money on some stuff in the hotel lobby which is crazy I thought I was going to by all these cool gifts for people. Anyhow that’s enough blabbing on how disgusting marrakesh is. Thanks again for the post!

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  14. Just got back from this hell hole of a place !!!! We were meant to be staying 4 nights and moved the flights and came back after 2! Never in all my life have I wanted to leave somewhere so badly. If you are thinking of going – don’t ! The animal cruelty broke me. The city is dirty and the harassment is beyond intimidating. You said everything I wanted too. Thank you for being so honest !

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  15. 2024: and its just the same! I’ll say the only difference 6 years later, is the sellers are more generous when you say “no.” They just walk away. Otherwise, the monkeys and cobras are the same. Truly upsetting and something i too didn’t provide money for.

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  16. Stumbled on your blog browsing the web to find other people’s experiences of Marrakesh because I feel like my experience was so different from everyone’s else’s! I’ve just returned from 5 days and I’ve never had such a bad experience whilst travelling. Everything about Marrakesh is hostile, from the endless “you’re going the wrong way” harrassment of children and young men who are seemingly just hanging around on rubble strewn streets (most of which is not earthquake damage but simply an entire lack of governance) to the motorbikes clogging up most of the Medina. What, in the souqs, could have been a magical experience was entirely ruined by having my elbows clipped more than once by speeding motorbikes whilst choking on the diesel fumes from the ancient engines. We stayed in a riad about 15 mins walk north of the souqs and, maybe some of it is my fault and I did Marrakesh ‘wrong’ but I have travelled all over the world and walked. Walked cities over and over and taken in the sights and smells. And this time, I probably should’ve just taken taxis to the restaurant we wanted to go to rather than relentlessly sticking to my guns and walking everywhere. Although I could just do that in London! I can find amazing Moroccan and North African restaurants if all I want to do is eat! And you’re right, the El Fna is sad. Again, I imagine that once it had a magical romance to it, with oral storytelling and amazing dance. But, like everywhere else in Marrakesh, is now just a tourist trap filled with deceit. Everything I hated about Marrakesh is not because I do not embrace other cultures… motorbikes, toxic fumes, endless harrassment and deceit are not culture. I’m so happy I read your blog as I genuinely thought I was going crazy!

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