Africa & Middle East

Zagora isn’t the real Sahara. The locals will tell you so before you’ve finished breakfast — there’s a famous sign outside town reading “Timbuktu, 52 days” that gently mocks how far away you still are from the proper dunes. But…

Marrakech in summer is a city designed to defeat you. The medina walls trap 40-degree heat well past sunset, the souks are airless, and by 2pm the locals have gone indoors. That’s when Oasiria stops being a water park and…

Mount Toubkal is the highest peak in North Africa — 4,167 meters of granite and scree two hours south of Marrakech. Climbing it takes two days, doesn’t require technical gear in summer, and delivers one of the finest summit views…

Horseback riding in Marrakech is the underappreciated cousin of the famous camel ride. Smoother gait, more responsive animal, and a properly equestrian experience in the Palmeraie palm groves. If you’ve ridden horses at all before, the Marrakech tour will be…

The buggy is the underrated Marrakech adventure. It’s faster than a camel, more social than a quad (you can talk to your passenger), and safer for novice riders because of the roll cage. A half-day in the Agafay desert or…

Tangier is Morocco with one foot in Europe. You can see Spain from the coast on a clear day, the Strait of Gibraltar is 14km across at the narrowest point, and the city itself carries 2,500 years of mixed Phoenician,…

Marrakech’s Palmeraie is 15,000 palm trees just outside the city walls. For a thousand years it’s supplied dates, shade, and now — mostly — camel rides for tourists. It’s not the Sahara, but it’s the easiest camel experience you’ll find…

The Bahia Palace and Saadian Tombs combo tour is the cultural centerpiece of any Marrakech visit. Two hours, two sites, and the best architectural storytelling in the medina — painted cedar ceilings from the 19th century in one place, and…

The Ourika Valley is where locals go when Marrakech gets hot. An hour south of the city, the road climbs into the High Atlas, the air drops 10 degrees, and by the time you reach Setti Fatma the river is…

Agadir is Morocco’s beach resort — 300 days of sunshine, 10-kilometre Atlantic beach, 22°C average temperature, and a restaurant-bar strip that caters to Northern European winter escapees. It’s the least “Moroccan” of Morocco’s major cities, which is either a feature…

I got lost in Fez medina within 20 minutes of entering. My phone showed three different streets simultaneously. A local pointed me toward a landmark that wasn’t actually nearby. Another guide offered to lead me out for 100 dirhams. The…

Chefchaouen is the blue city. Every wall, door, step, fountain, and plant pot painted in some shade of blue — cobalt, cerulean, powder blue, indigo, turquoise. From a distance, nestled against the Rif Mountains, the whole medina looks like a…

Casablanca is the Morocco that Moroccans actually live in. Not the romantic medina labyrinth of Marrakech or the royal gardens of Rabat — Casablanca is a port city of 3.7 million people, the country’s economic capital, Art Deco buildings mixed…

By the end of the exfoliation I was convinced my attendant was trying to start a fight. She was not. She was just doing her job — scrubbing my back with a black gommage soap and a rough glove called…

The first time I saw Aït Benhaddou, I’d been in a van for 3.5 hours crossing the High Atlas. The kasbah emerged around a bend — a fortified ochre pile rising out of a riverbank, palms at its base, looking…

Youssef was our guide, a Marrakech native with strong opinions about bread. He led us through five medina streets to a bakery he said was “the only place still making real khobz,” ordered four loaves for a table of six,…