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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Morocco 2025 Day 10: Around Marrakesh
Morocco 2024 Day 10: 24th April (Thursday)
Riad Tassili Marrakech>Majorelle Garden>YSL Museum>Jewish Square>Bahia Palace>Jemaa el-Fnaa Square>Riad Tassili Marrakech.
This is page 10 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
Route recommendations, here are some tips on travelling to and around Morocco:
1. Traffic Directions!
Driving in Morocco is left-hand drive, and driving is on the right-hand side of the road. Do look to the correct side when crossing roads.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
2. Immigration & Customs Requirements
For Morocco, citizens of Malaysia do not need a visa to enter for travel purposes and can stay in the country for 90 days without a visa. Click here for visa requirements for other countries.
3. Getting to and around Morocco.
Morocco is easily accessible by air as most major airlines serve Morocco and have flights to major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech. We flew return via Emirates to Casablanca with transit in Dubai at a fare of MYR4,430 per pax. Do note that Emirates now charges for seat selection.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For out-of-pocket spending, we exchanged Euros to Moroccan dirhams (MAD) at local money-changers in Rabat and Rissani. As a contingency, we brought along our Wise debit cards, do note that this may not be acceptable at many places.
4. Places & Things of Interest
En route were several places of interest, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for a directional map to respective places):
a. Jardin Majorelle (Majorelle Garden) (website) (GPS: 31.64120, -8.00323).
a. Jardin Majorelle (Majorelle Garden) (website) (GPS: 31.64120, -8.00323).
c. Boutique Majorelle (GPS: 31.64197, -8.00281).
d. Medina of Marrakesh (UNESCO Listing) (GPS: 31.62248, -7.98986).
f. Bahia Palace (website) (GPS: 31.62170, -7.98196).
g. Jemaa el-Fnaa Square (GPS: 31.62595, -7.98904).
h. Ben Youssef Medersa (GPS: 31.63203, -7.98725).
5. Food
a. Breakfast
Inclusive hotel Western & Moroccan breakfast at Riad Tassili Marrakech (GPS: 31.62383, -7.98749) (website) in Marrakesh.
b. Lunch
c. Dinner
6. Accommodations
Second of two nights at the Riad Tassili Marrakech (GPS: 31.62383, -7.98749) (website) in Marrakesh.
7. Dressing
I brought two long pants along and four shorts. In the end, I didn't wear the shorts as the weather can get quite cold in the morning and evenings, especially with stronger winds at the seaside.
When entering mosques, men can wear shorts, but ladies have to cover up their legs and heads. Scarves and long pants are recommended; if wearing shorts, bring a sarong or something to cover one's legs.
8. Communicating with Each Other
When travelling in a group, it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one gets lost from the rest.
Upon arrival at Casablanca Airport, booths selling pre-paid sim cards can be found just before exiting the luggage reclaim area. There were booths selling Maroc, Orange, and Inwi pre-paid tourist phone sim cards. We opted for the Maroc sim card as it provides better coverage even in remote areas, which I found to be true, and it only had poor or no signal at remote stretches far in the hills or desert. We got the 15 Gb card, which is valid for one month for 100 MAD. Should this be inadequate, memory can be topped up at any phone shop.
9. Communicating with Locals
At favourite tourist destinations, markets and medinas, many locals speak fairly good English, some French and Spanish. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English, and our local guide was most helpful in translating for us.
10. Weather
Useful weather forecast sites for Marrakesh are AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.
11. Navigation
I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.
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PRELUDE
A day earlier, we had looped back westwards to head for Marrakesh. Along the way, we entered the Valley of Roses and visited the rose oil factory, operated by the Rose Cooperative Rosamgoun. Nearer to Marrakesh, a few of us became actors at the Atlas Studios.
Today will be an easier but interesting day of visiting the interesting spots of the city, including a lush garden, and a beautiful, impressive palace.
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DAY 10: AROUND MARRAKESH
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Most of the posts below are linked to my Facebook postings during the trip and are embedded here with some comments. (NOTE: Click on respective posts to link to the FB post for more details. If you can't see the posts, please log out of your Facebook first.)
Starting the day with a Western & Moroccan breakfast at Riad Tassili Marrakech. We're getting bored with the local food, but apparently our riad was serving a better breakfast than that of another friend's group. The saving grace was the cool rooftop setting, the fresh fruit juices and the nice assortment of Moroccan jams.
Walking through the streets of the Medina of Marrakesh, heading out to meet our driver-guide, Oualid.
We will visit the Jardin Majorelle (Majorelle Garden), and later in the afternoon, go on a guided walking tour of the medina.
Taxis in Marakesh are painted in ochre colour.
Most of the taxis we saw were the subcompact Daicha Sandero, which is only allowed to operate within city limits. They can carry up to three passengers and are equipped with a meter, ensuring regulated fares.
Visiting the Majorelle Garden, the first section of tropical and subtropical flora, did not interest us that much. Sure, there were green palms, tall bamboos and colourful bougainvillaea. Coming from the tropics, these were commonplace to us.
It was a later section that would grip our attention.
Further along, a Japanese koi & Water Lily pond.
Tortoise and frogs came out to join in the fun too!
Tortoise and frogs came out to join in the fun too!
And the part that captured our hearts with the spiny and thorny flora of the Cactus Garden in the Majorelle Garden. For us,
this was very interesting.
Didn't know that there are so many different types
and shapes of cacti, and that they can flower so beautifully.
Architects perhaps draw inspiration from these!
The garden was created by Jacques Majorelle, who first visited Morocco in 1917 and, loving the country so much, moved to Marrakech, and in 1923 bought the land where the Majorelle Garden is. Between his day job as a painter and decorative artist and through his many journeys across the country, he spent 40 years collecting flora to create this beautiful garden.
Fashion at Boutique Majorelle.
Artwork at Boutique Majorelle.
1:00 pm - Chinese lunch at Marrakapok Chinese Restaurant (瑞喜宝).
Marrakesh Medina Square (Jemaa el-Fnaa Square).
It's super hot today!
It's here that we met Kaseem, our local guide, who will take us on a walking tour through the colourful streets of the Medina of Marrakesh!
Along the street and shops of the Medina of Marrakesh.
The walk through the medina led us the Bahia Palace, to admire the beauty. It's truly a beautiful place and should not be missed. Don't get Bahia mixed up with Baháí like I did, though!
Construction of the Bahia Palace was first begun by Si Musa, grand vizier under the Alawi sultan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman, in the 1860s. It was expanded by his son Si Ba Ahmed ibn Musa, grand vizier of Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz. The name al-Bahia, meaning "the Brilliant", was reportedly the name of Ba Ahmed's favourite wife.
More photos of the palace:
The Grand Courtyard.
Tour of the palace done, Kaseem led us back to our riad.
Too tired after a long, busy day, we decided to have take-away noodles - ordered through Glovo food delivery service and taken at the rooftop of our riad, Riad Tassili Marrakech.
(That's "Goodnight" in Arabic)
(For more photos of Day 10, Click Here)
This is page 10 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
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You are at - Jotaro's Blog /AhPek Biker-Footsteps /Morocco 2025/ D10: Around Marrakesh | Go to D1/D2/D3/D4/D5/D6/D7/D8/D9/D11/D12/D13-14
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