Marrakech is beautiful with all the terracotta buildings dotted around - i fell in love in the taxi ride from the airport! The traffic is crazy - a complete free for all! We only had to cross the road a few times but i felt grateful for surviving that! Even more grateful for the survival of taxi journeys! After a while you become accustomed to the swerving and almost hitting people - however there were a few VERY close calls!
We stayed in the Imperial Plaza Hotel which was about 15 minutes from everything you need to go and see. The hotel was clean, the majority of the staff were friendly and helpful and the pool was lovely!
We spent our days in the sunshine on the rooftop pool. From here you could see across the entire city far into the distance! So relaxing and a well deserved break from normal life!
By night we were led to all the cities hot spots with Charlottes trusty guide book. Remember Miranda in SATC2 - not a patch on our Charly with her fab prepping! Evenings normally consisted of tasty meals followed by drinks and the weekend was spent clubbing in Africas biggest nightclub Pacha Marrakech. This houses two stunning restaurants - (although you may need a personal loan to enjoy more than one course) along with a terrace bar which is filled with Morrocco's finest until after 1am when everyone heads down to the main club.
My favourite place of all our restaurants was a little cubby-hole restaurant which is run by a French family and is situated just outsite the Souks. From its open air first floor table area you can see the local Storks nesting on top of ruins and houses and down below you get a great view of people going about their daily business.
Here you could get the most gorgeous Tagine for just a few quid! A well deserved hearty dinner ladened with the added special touch of homecooking - scrumptious but incredibly difficult to finish a whole one!
The main square is a place you have to see. This place is more filled with people than you could ever imagine in one place but is well worth the hustle and bustle! If you do visit the square make sure that you are as covered up as possible considering the heat which stays humid until the early hours of the morning! The local men on the stalls like the Western woman - from Hannah Montanna to Gazzelles, we were called it all! I also do not recommend choosing to sit near children as a safer option - they are street kids and if you make the mistake of pulling out cigarettes - like we did - you will be chased and chased until you drop them for the scavenging beggars to collect from the floor!
The stalls in the market are amazing - spices, orange juice, clothes, jewellery and homeware galore! I would have loved to have bought a real Morroccan lantern, yet with my restricted RyanAir baggage allowance all i purchased was a traditional shisha as a gift for Jordan.
Marrakech is a place well worth a visit, the culture alone is something to experience! I would most definately recommend taking a guide book which includes a map as even the local taxi drivers are "unsure" as to exactly where you want to go. Some other amazing places we visited were CafeArabe which served well presented, tasty dinners and had a sultry atmospherically lit terrace bar above the restaurant for after dinner cocktails. This place was so impressive that we actually went there twice! For a true Morroccan experience including dinner, drinks and traditional dancing - head to a supper club. There are plenty around the city and the guide book will point you in the right direction of the best ones.
This is a perfect city for either a romantic getaway for two or a fun in the sun holiday for friends! The weather is lovely, the pools are in abundance and there is no shortage of things to do and see!
xxx
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