LoughboroughLion Posted November 20, 2017 Share Posted November 20, 2017 Heading to Marrakech with a couple of mates in a few days. Flights were cheap, decent weather and I'm keen on a day trip to the Atlas mountains. Anyone got any tips? Restaurants, things to do, bars? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 (edited) Atlas Mountains is a couple of hour drive so I’m not sure how much of it you will see in a day trip ... I hiked to the summit( was a 5 day hike all in all ) but didn’t see any roads once you get much past the posh virgin resort out there As I was hiking I only spent 24 hours in Marrakesh so can’t offer a huge amount ... but it’s very easy to get lost in the narrow streets as they all look the same so take a ball of string with you and un roll it behind you when you walk so you can find your way back out the maze of houses /markets !! Town square by the main mosque has a nice vibe at night time and you can eat outside there … some of the museum / places of interest are not obvious so I had someone take me around …however the tour guides will try and take you to buy , herbs , spice , soap ,carpets and anything else you can think of so take that into account …. No wow factor like Istanbul but all kinda interesting Edited November 21, 2017 by tonyh29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 My advice is dont go. I absolutely did not like it. The people were horrendous that I encountered. (sorry to be negative) but i have absolutely no intention of going back there. Such a shame as the country itself is beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 30, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted November 30, 2017 (edited) I've been and it was an amazing place. Marrakech can be scary. It is so busy and streets are so narrow and samey that losing your way is very easy, and you always feel like you're going to get mugged. That feeling wears off, it's just a product of the business and tightness. Keep your wits about you as you would anywhere, but don't worry too much about it. I'd advise you that wherever you're going, work out how to get there before you go. Don't just wander around looking for places. It's not dangerous, but you'll get lost, I guarantee it. As soon as someone notices you lost or looking at a map they'll offer you directions. Most of the time the directions will be right but they will expect to be paid for the service. Bars are hard to come by. Alcohol is generally frowned upon. Something like you can't drink in view of a mosque or something. And there are lots of mosques. We didn't really visit any bars, but from memory they tended to be in hotels rather than stand alone bars. Visit the night market. The big market in the middle of the main square. It's amazing. Loads of street food to sample and things to see. it's a bit risky eating at those, some of the food can be a bit dodgy, but I think they're generally ok. We visited a few of the restaurants surrounding the main square too. I forget the names, but they were all decent and pretty reasonably priced. As for things to do, we visited the mountains and hiked up to one of the lower villages. Easily done in a day, but don't expect to be going to any summits. We also found an all day cooking class. Cost about 100 euro each i think, but that included some cocktails, plus they took you shopping for all the ingredients (using the money you'd given them) and including the spices which meant you got to tour a few of the spice shops which are pretty cool, taught you some arabic so you could do the shopping, and showed you how to cook everything, gave you recipe books etc. And then you get to eat all the food, and there was loads! I can't remember the name of it, but if you found something similar it was really good and worth doing. It was almost 10 years ago that I went so if I remember anything else I'll chuck it in here. Edited November 30, 2017 by Stevo985 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 Take a gps. Never been so lost for so long, ever. And I had a map. Yes to the street food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted February 16, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted February 16, 2018 Was there in 1981. Scary place at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 On 16/02/2018 at 19:15, AVTuco said: Was there in 1981. Scary place at night. We had stones lobbed at us, as night was falling. We were a family, with kids who would then have been about 14 and 6. We were lost, just looking to get back to somewhere recognisable. The stones weren't aimed to injure, just intimidate, but it was unpleasant. The feeling of being utterly lost, with no possible source of help, made it much worse than the fairly trivial incident warranted. And then we happened upon some local guy we had met earlier, who showed us the way out, and it was over. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 going next week, return flights to rabat for £14, one night there then the train to marrakech, its a place i've wanted to go for a while but i think the lucky lucky men are going to do my head in, will try and do the atlas mountain and the waterfall whatever its called, guessing like most places thats better to organise once i get there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted September 19, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted September 19, 2018 7 hours ago, peterms said: We had stones lobbed at us, as night was falling. We were a family, with kids who would then have been about 14 and 6. We were lost, just looking to get back to somewhere recognisable. The stones weren't aimed to injure, just intimidate, but it was unpleasant. The feeling of being utterly lost, with no possible source of help, made it much worse than the fairly trivial incident warranted. And then we happened upon some local guy we had met earlier, who showed us the way out, and it was over. As a child, I was just amazed and somewhat scared. It was so different and kind of intimidating, even if nothing happened to us. I can completely relate to your feelings. We were lost many times, but our guide "Muhammed" always appeared back from somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 (edited) The airport taxi rank in rabat might be one of the maddest things ive seen abroad, mini riot over who will take us in their cab, men screaming at each other as we get pushed and pulled from one car to another (as do 2 other couples) we were in a car and the driver got out to go arguing so we got out, got put in another who of course didnt know where the **** our hotel was, his mate joined us for part of the journey and he didnt know either, he then tried to tell us to get out and walk 10 mins to which he got told to **** right off, copper got in the taxi, he nore politely got told no deal, taxi drove round a bit more...it was then i realised cars cant get in to the medina and i did have to walk Crazy introduction to the country Edited September 25, 2018 by villa4europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 im back from my trip, 1 day in rabat, 3 days marrakech, another day in rabat, the rabat bit was because of the flights, the ball ache of flying stansted to rabat but the flights were £14 return which is daft, train to marrakech was £20 each way for first class (i think 2nd class is slightly less but you know how it is...) rabat i would say 1 or 2 days is about right, not a great deal there, they are building a huge modern area there, the grand theatre is probably 6 months - 1 year away and the rest starts including a big tower, about 5 years away in total from being all done, that might be worth a look, the medina is tight and windy and really hard to navigate but its also a lot quieter, there are only 4/5 stretches of it with anything going on the rest is just like alleyways and back streets, stayed in a riad which was awesome but again i would say 1 or 2 nights was enough for the novelty, i wouldnt want a week in one the train was 5 hours, comfortable enough, cold if anything with the air con but boring as ****! we had window seats and thought we would be ok but there is just vast vast amounts of nothing out there, its the most uninteresting country i can ever remember travelling through marrakech, i really enjoyed it, it was hard not to put it up against the measuring stick of istanbul and egypt, both of which were ruined for me because of looky looky men being almost desperate and constantly pestering me (especially with restaurants in istanbul which i found a horrible experience) it compares very favourably from my experience, a polite nod and they left me alone, most of the markets didnt even speak to me as i browsed them which is how i like it, as expected i got lost in the market but that was ok, the surprising thing for me was the bikes going through it, saw the snakes, paid £1 to take a photo and of course got collared by a bloke holding one and had one thrown round my neck (out of nowhere) and got blessed by a lucky snake, he then wanted £20, he got told to **** off and i had a 30 second barney with him before he went off* went to the ouzoud falls on a day trip for i think £30, luxury mini bus, really nice place, we couldnt swim because it properly pissed it down the night before (amazing sunset with a lightning storm above) so lots of dirt was washed in to the river so we ended up being given the usual 30 minute stops in various village shops along the way instead which is always frustrating, the drive was ok thanks to the incredible visible rain storms on the horizon apart from the rain on the night it was uncomfortably hot in the day, 35 degrees in the afternoon perfect sunshine but not tourist weather which made everything a bit harder, we stayed in a hotel with a pool on the roof (in gueliz which was ok, some slightly nicer stuff on the night, some restaurants that weren't value for money and some street food places that could possibly get a hygiene certificate but 45 minute walk from the medina) food was incredible, got given bread and then a variety of dips and olives with all local food (but those around us eating pizza or burgers etc didnt) i had tagine every night and loved it, tried nems which are basically spring rolls, tanjia which is a clay pot rather than a tagine and IMO not as good, found an awesome french bakery for cakes etc and drank a lot of peppermint tea, only 1 of the 5 restaurants i went to served beer, i've come back ok the missus has a bit of delhi belly * as i said in my other post every day i was there i saw a row, its a very angry place! the driving is mental and crossing the road is interesting, twice i ended up in an argument, the one with the snake guy died down very quick, had another on the train back with 2 women sat in our seats, there was a french speaking yank in our compartment who told them they were in the wrong seats and they had to move (wrong carriage let alone seats) they went **** mad! there were spare seats in the compartment but i had booked window seats and wanted them so i argued back, same thing happened with other people on the train there, first day in the big square i saw 2 different snake guys shouting because the one had set up too close to the other, saw kids fighting in the street twice as a final thought, flying out there with just hand luggage at stansted i had my bag scanned once, showed my boarding pass twice and had my passport checked by a ryanair member of staff just before getting on the plane, rabat airport....bag scanned at the front door, police passport check, you then have to check in at the desk even though i had just hand luggage and already printed my boarding pass, so they check your passport, you then go through a weird 3 man thing with police and airport staff and have your passport checked another 3 times and an immigration card, i then went through customs, you then do passport control, then my bag scanned and boarding card and passport checked again, then you go to your gate and get both checked again, then i got called to a special line where someone opened up my bag and went through it and checked my passport again, then the ryanair staff checked my boarding pass and passport again, might have missed something out or got something the wrong but i counted it as 9 times someone looked at my passport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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