I went to Morocco with five of my best friends as part of our annual international trip that is quickly becoming one of my favorite traditions. It was all of our first time in Northern Africa, and for five of us, the first time on the continent itself. During the trip, we were able to extensively cover both Casablanca and Marrakesh, as well as take day trips out to nearby cities for excursions. Although there were definitely some learnings from this trip that I wish I could go back and alter our itinerary with, it was still a trip with mesmerizing sights, unique experiences, and lifelong memories.

Day 0: Red-eye Flight from JFK to CMN on Royal Air Maroc at 9 PM

Day 1: Casablanca Exploration

• Head to Airbnb using their sponsored transportation van from airport to Airbnb and settle in

• Walk to the nearby Marina Shopping mall to get some cases of water and snacks, exchange USD into cash, and grab a bite at Green Black

  • There is a really nice store with great value clothes called De Facto inside the mall that most of us ended up buying some outfits at

• Drop things off at Airbnb and then head to the Old Medina by calling Careems

• Walk through the souks of the Old Medina and see the famous Moroccan culture

  • These souks are a lot more chaotic, repetitive, and not as colorful as the ones in Marrakech

• Grab dinner at Dar El Kaid

  • We shared the chicken rfissa and a beef tagine, which were both really good at probably the best Moroccan food we had

  • They will have live performances by Moroccan musicians which sounds great in theory, but is pretty loud for the small space that it is, so be mindful when choosing this place

• Walk back home to the Airbnb to walk off the dinner and see more of the city on the way

Day 2: Hassan II Mosque and other Sightseeing

• A couple of our friends went on a run through the streets of Casablanca and ate elsewhere while the rest of us slept in and then headed to Boca Chica for breakfast

• Walk back towards Hassan II Mosque after breakfast along the water and meet up with the rest of the group

• Participate in the mosque tour with other tourists -- definitely an activity worth doing since this is the only mosque in Morocco that is open to non-Muslims

  • This tour was very informative and pretty cheap; the mosque itself is gorgeous and there is a lot of history behind it, despite being very young relative to other important global places of worship

• Careem to the New Medina area to check out the cleaner, more modern part of Casablanca which is also where the Royal Palace is located

• Stop by Patisserie Bennis to grab famous cookies and treats before taking another Careem to the Arab League Park

  • The park is their version of a central park and is beautiful, lined with palm trees and water running down the middle

• A few of us were hungry, so stop by Bondi Coffee and Kitchen for an afternoon snack before walking by the Mohammed Square in the center of the city and heading back to the Airbnb for a quick break

• End the night at Rick's Cafe

  • This cafe was inspired by the famous black and white movie sharing the name of the city and is a great place to have a dinner

    • We were fortunate to get a private room on the second floor due to the size of our group

    • There are three entry times to Rick's for reservations -- 6:30, 8:30, and 10:30 PM and you have to email them to get a reservation

Day 3: Journey to Marrakesh + Light Exploration

• Book tickets through Rail Ninja for a direct train from Casablanca to Marrakesh in the morning

  • Business class tickets are barely more expensive and let you get booth-style seating like in Harry Potter which can fit 6 people

  • Our train ended up hitting a sheep in the middle of its journey out in the middle of nowhere which was really unfortunate, so we ended up having a 45 minute delay, but apparently its pretty common in Morocco so don't be surprised if it happens to you

• Head to riad through the transportation van booked with the Airbnb host

  • We met the maids and then she took us to a nearby spot for lunch at the Rooftop Ali, which is also next to a place with great currency exchange rates

• After lunch, we went back to the riad to unpack and settle in since this was our home for the rest of the week and decide on a plan for the rest of the day

• Walk to Madrasa Ben Youssef which is located in the souks itself and check out a great photo-opportunity building with educational ties before grabbing tea at the Moroccan tea house, 1112

  • This combined set of activities was one of the most underrated parts of the trip as the madrasa is gorgeous and the tea house was some of the best tea we had all ever had with great vibes and a calming interior

• Explore the souks, taking each turn and seeing the colorful, tightly packed stalls with their endless souvenirs

  • At some point, you will end up making a turn that leads to the Jemma el-Fnaa square, the heart of Marrakech and one of the most chaotic and dystopian places I have been in -- even moreso than Times Square somehow

  • There is a mosque in the background of the square that is famous and you can see it from outside and take pictures

• Head back to the Airbnb to relax after an early morning before heading back out for dinner at La Pergola to wrap up the night

Day 4: Atlas Mountains Hike

• Wake up to a breakfast prepared by the hosts of the riad

  • The typical breakfast spread includes bread with butter/honey/jam, vanilla yogurt, orange juice, scrambled eggs, pound cake, and Moroccan pancakes​

• Get picked up in tourist van for Atlas Mountains excursion, which is a long day filled with:

  • Azrou Village viewpoint, which is where one of the oldest Berber villages in Morocco used to be before the 2023 earthquakes decimated most of the buildings and left a shell of the former village standing

  • Women run co-operative where they make Argan oil products like nut butter and cosmetic accessories and you get to try the nut butter with bread, take pictures with the women and their blender devices, and shop for souvenirs

    • Each of the tours in Morocco is partnered with these types of co-ops and we ended up stopping at a different one each day as part of the activities

  • Hike through the Imlil village, another Berber village and near the highest villages in the High Atlas mountains

    • Lots of beautiful views here and our tour guide, Amina, was excellent

  • Lunch at Amoud Luxe, a restaurant that Amina was partnered with and had great Moroccan food

  • Camel ride at the entrance of the Agafay Desert for 30 minutes

    • Lowkey painful for the groin and lower back, so be mindful if these are common pain points

• Stop back at the Airbnb to shower and clean up before heading back out to dinner

  • Some of the group was feeling a little tired of Moroccan food so we ate at Clay Oven, an Indian restaurant that was pretty decent and a nice change of pace

• Grab drinks at Barometer, Morocco's first speakeasy and a bar that I am confident would put up numbers in NYC if the theme and drinks were brought over

• Back to the Airbnb to sleep early ahead of an early morning for the longest excursion of the week the next day

  • Note: One of our friends did not join us for this day's activities pre-dinner due to some work needing to be done as well as his foot started acting weird, so he spent the day at Royal Mansour -- not going into detail since my day on Friday at Royal Mansour ended up being pretty similar to his

Day 5: Ait Benhaddou Visit

• Grab a quick limited option breakfast before heading to the tour pickup van for a day filled with:

  • Stops at viewpoints in the Atlas Mountains on the way to Ait Benhaddou for pictures, specifically along the Tizi n'Tichka pass which is a beautiful winding road through the mountains

  • Coffee break at a "rest stop"

  • Women's co-operative similar to the day before's

  • Ait Benhaddou tour with a local resident, Muhammed

    • Ait Benhaddou is famous for being the location where many movies and TV shows have been filmed like Game of Thrones, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, the Mummy, etc.

      • We were a month late to seeing the place when the cast of the upcoming Nolan movie, The Odyssey, were filming there and missed on a chance to see Tom Holland, Zendaya, and other famous actors

    • The village gets most of its money from the tourism and movie business as most residents end up being extras in the scenes and the village bids for the opportunity to serve as the background

  • Lunch at a restaurant in the village-adjacent area which was not great, and since it was not included in the ticket price, would perhaps consider asking to eat at some other spot

  • Guided tour of the Atlas Studios

    • The Atlas Studios are located in Ouarzazate, aka Ourzawood, since they serve as the filming site for a lot of movies

    • The tour includes the opportunity to walk amongst famous sets from movies like The Mummy, Cleopatra, Prison Break Season 5, etc. and the tour guide goes into depth connecting the various sets and their structure to memorable movie scenes

    • The coolest part of this entire day was that our tour guide, Hamza, directed an Oscar-caliber movie scene with all of us on the tour with cinematic directing and amazing camerawork, despite there being no words spoken

  • Coffee break at a different "rest stop"

• Eat dinner at Naranj, a Lebanese restaurant, after a long day with a majority of it spent cooped up in a van, before heading back to the riad to chill on the rooftop for a bit

Day 6: YSL Gardens + ATV Tour

• Wake up to another high quality breakfast prepared by the hosts, but skip on the coffee to go spend the morning at Bacha Coffee

  • Bacha is a famous coffee shop with only a couple locations in Marrakesh and Singapore and is famous for having coffee beans from all over the world, which we took ample advantage of, trying coffees with ingredients from Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, Chile, and more

  • ​Bacha opens at 10 AM, but if you are not in line by 9, you will likely not get in and will have to wait in line for an hour or so -- bite the bullet and wait since the vibes and pastries inside are well worth it

• Quick stop at the riad to change before heading to the YSL Gardens:

  • Buy the combination ticket that gets access to the Jardin Majorelle, Berber Museum, and YSL Museum

  • The gardens are the prettiest part, filled with exotic plants, beautiful scenes, and lots of greenery

  • The YSL Museum is cool, with pieces that were designed by Yves on display and some history, but the best part of the experience is the garden itself

• Get picked up in yet another tourist van near the gardens for the ATV tour, which follows a schedule of:

  • Camel ride and quad bikes ride

    • We did not pay for the camel ride version since we had already done that earlier in the week; for the ATVs themselves, there is a speed restriction on the bikes, you have to share 2 to a bike, and travel is done in a line with no free reign, so it isn't an activity meant to be exciting to young adults

  • Co-operative stop similar to last two days, but this one had some more cultural lessons behind Berber traditions that the last two did not, along with some new products that we had not yet interacted with

  • Dinner at the outdoor site with a menu of soup, couscous, and tagine

  • A fire show performed by an artist around a bonfire setting

    • This tour was not off to a good start because of the ATV experience, but also was planned poorly for the later stages since the fire show could not start until all groups were ready, but there were other tour groups still riding ATVs when we had already finished eating our dinner

    • We did talk about our complaints with the tour guide though, and L'Hussein was able to pull some strings to put on an earlier, albeit lamer, fire show just for our group since we wanted to leave and not wait

• Drop off at Jemma el-Fnaa again, but this time the rest of the guys grabbed KFC since the dinner was lackluster before heading to the riad's rooftop to relax

Day 7: Solo Morning Time + Final Dinner

• Friday was a day we had all set aside as sort of a solo travel moment, with each of us doing something different for the first half before meeting up for lunch and then splitting again until dinner

  • One of our friends was leaving a day early at 1 PM for a weekend in Madrid, so he left in the morning after breakfast at the riad and we were down to 5

  • Two of our friends woke up at 6:30 AM for a tee time at the Royal Golf Morocco course at 7:20 AM, a course they described as the most beautiful one they had played on yet

    • The course was about 15 minutes away from Jemaa el-Fnaa and the cost to play was about $60 to play 9 holes ($118 to play 18 holes) and another $25 to borrow clubs ($40 for 18 holes) -- caddy prices were pretty cheap, but my friends opted to not 

  • Two of our friends spent the morning with the Madrid-friend eating breakfast and then going back to the 1112 tea house for some bags to bring home and a relaxing morning, before the two of them checked out Le Jardin Secret and did some souvenir shopping

  • I grabbed breakfast at the riad by myself at 8 AM and then headed to Royal Mansour for a hammam

• The Royal Mansour is the second best hotel in all of Northern Africa and really lived up to its name, both as a complex to walk around in, as well as for my experience at the hammam, which was $150:

  • A hammam is traditionally a public bathhouse more commonly known as a Turkish bath, and is famous in most Arabic countries; however, to help make the experience more tourist-friendly, some places offer a private version with a therapist performing it on you instead

  • I arrived at the Royal Mansour at 9:20 AM where I was given a locker in the changing room along with a robe, slippers, comb, disposable shorts for the hammam, and more and then led to the pool and jacuzzi to spend some time before hitting the sauna before my hammam -- I was the only one in the pool which made this hour so relaxing before the real massage even started

  • The hammam at Royal Mansour gets its steam from heated floors that you lay on and the therapist pours water onto the floor, creating a thin layer of cold water for you to rest and feel comfortable on against the hot ground as they get on with the hour-long treatment

  • After splashing me with water and letting me rest to open up my pores, she then came back and applied Moroccan black soap all over my body. Then she left before returning a little later with the glove that gets used during the hammam to scrub and remove all the dead skin on my body that I had accumulated while traveling across the Moroccan desert

  • After the scrub (which hurts a little, but nothing crazy), she applied various rounds of creams and lotions on me and then left me for ten minutes with the classic cucumbers on my eyes

  • After all the products had been cycled through, I was taken to the shower for a quick rinse, before being guided into a cold plunge for three dips to finish the contrast therapy

  • After getting my robe back on, I was then led to a relaxation room upstairs for some detox juice, tea, nuts, fruit, water, and a bed to lie down on for as long as I wanted. I also was able to give the attendant some USD to get converted for me while I spent an hour reading a book and enjoying the vibe

• After I was done being pampered, I headed to Le Jardin, a restaurant inside the hotel, where the rest of my friends came to meet up for lunch and then we explored the complex for a bit, grabbing coffee and pastries at the Piano Bar inside

• Hearing about my hammam experience, three of the remaining friends then booked their own at Les Bains (another touristy spa center with open reservations), and two of us headed back to the riad after a stroll through Cyber Park (Marrakesh's central park)

• While my friend took a nap and the rest of them were off getting hammams, I took advantage of the time to do some souvenir shopping and engaged in my favorite activity of haggling, grabbing a shot glass for $2 (down from $7), a serving set for sauces for my mom $10 (down from $15), and Moroccan sweets for all of us

  • The sweets shopping experience was my favorite vendor interaction of the trip because the man suggested a money-saving/sweets-maximizing plan to give me 2 giant kg boxes of sweets to split into 6 for each of us on my own instead of buying 6 single, smaller boxes, and then kindly explained all the sweets he was packing in a video for me to have to share. He also gave me lots of them to try in the moment and added to the box for free and did not bat an eye when I had unfortunately run out of cash and had to pay less than the original amount

• After shopping was done, my friend and I took a cab to the Menara shopping mall where we had a dinner res with the rest of the group at Buddah Bar (see above for feedback -- don't go here)

• Finish the night, and the trip, with a walk back towards the riad and a stop at Le Churchill, another famous bar in another fancy hotel of Morocco in La Mamounia

Day 8: Flight back to JFK from RAK via CMN