Guide from Marrakech·24 hours
24 Hours in Marrakech When You’re Traveling Alone
One day in the medina, mapped for someone who would rather not be the story.
Traveling alone in the medina is not difficult. It is conspicuous, which is a different problem and a solvable one. The fix is mostly pacing: move like you have been here before, eat at the hours locals eat, and do not stand still in the middle of a lane with a map open.
Morning
Be in the souks by eight, before the tour groups come through Bab Agnaou. Two hours of that is enough. The Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace both open at nine and both empty out by eleven if you go straight there. Buy nothing before noon; the first price of the day is a formality.
Afternoon and after
Lunch alone is easiest at a rooftop, not for the view but because a table for one on a roof is unremarkable, whereas a table for one at street level invites conversation you may not want. Jemaa el-Fnaa is worth an hour at dusk and no more. For dinner, the food stalls are fine and cheap, but the ones with laminated photographs are for you and the ones with a crowd of men eating standing up are for everyone else. Choose accordingly.
1
Jemaa el-Fnaa
Arrive in the late afternoon rather than at midday, and walk one full circuit before stopping anywhere. Prices are quoted per person and the first number is never the number. Solo, the edges are more comfortable than the middle.
2
Koutoubia Mosque
Five minutes west and immediately calmer. Non-Muslims cannot go inside, but the gardens around it are open, free, and the easiest place in the medina to sit alone without being spoken to.
3
Souk Semmarine
The main artery north out of the square. Going alone, agree the price before anything is wrapped, and be comfortable walking away twice. Getting lost here is expected and the souk is smaller than it feels.
4
Le Jardin Secret
A restored riad garden in the middle of the medina, and the single best eighty dirhams for anyone travelling on their own. Two courtyards, shade, a tower worth the extra ticket, and nobody selling anything.
5
Bahia Palace
Twenty minutes south through the Mellah. Go early or late; the courtyards are the point and they photograph badly with a crowd in them. Seventy dirhams.
6
Jardin Majorelle
Outside the medina walls and the one stop worth booking ahead, because the queue is genuinely an hour otherwise. Go at opening. About a thirty minute walk north, or take a petit taxi and insist on the meter.
6 stops in Marrakech