Morocco - Too many tourists in Marrakesh

A weekend in Marrakesh

There are not too many countries in Africa that are suitable to visit on a weekend when coming from Europe. But Morocco is one of them and the city of Marrakech was a good choice. However, I was definitely not the only visitor there. This city is probably the busiest city filled with European tourists in the whole of Africa.

I expected Marrakech to be busy but not like what I experienced this weekend. Especially after the incident with some tourists recently, I thought everybody will avoid visiting Morocco for the next fifty years. 

In addition, it was a weekend in mid of February. This city surely will be extremely crowded during holiday times.

But when not looking at the amounts of tourists, Marrakesh is a pleasant city where in every corner are cafes that sell delicious mint tea for very cheap.

With photos of things to see



A weekend in the most touristy city in Morocco

My weekend in Morocco started at 10am on a Friday and lasted until Sunday afternoon.

It was definitely enough time to see Marrakesh, but during my stay I found out that it would have been possible to make a day trip to the beginning of the Sahara Desert, leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening. Or a trip to Casablanca or a trip to the coastline to see the harbor with the boats.


Unfortunately, I didn't inform myself well enough before coming here, so I had to spend my time in Marrakech only.

After checking in one of these so-called "Riads" hotels, I already went sitting down in a restaurant to drink the first mint tea. I realized this will be a pleasant weekend with a lot of mint tea and tourist-crowds-watching!

Big central market with many people

There is a huge market area, the "Jemaa El Fna Square", with changing themes during the day and very crowded in the evening, especially on Friday.

In the evenings there is a tremendous amount of people, locals and tourists in the thousands, all eating stuff and drinking tea or shopping for all kinds of things from the markets.

Rude salespeople in the market 

Very annoying but included in the market area are the very ignorant and rude and annoying salesperson. Never experienced such rude behavior in any other country, but probably they smell the money with all the tourists and get mad when they don't get it. Unbelievable that some of them even block the way when walking.

Don't know what's wrong with some of them...


This made me realize one more time the big differences between places with many tourists and places with almost no tourists.

One more time I realized I prefer the latter. One more time I realize that when a place is mostly devoted to tourism, there is a big chance that it's becoming a more and more unpleasant experience for visitors. And this shows one more time how tourism is changing the world and people' behavior.

Whatever, I found it pleasant to overlook the busy place with a mint tea from a rooftop.

The big central market with rude sales person
Djemaa El Fna,Infront of the Djemaa El Fna,There are lot of tourists in the center of MarrakechMTT is called mint tea time and my inventionmain square of Djemaa El Fna is covered with tourists which glimpse on the roof tops over the squareMorocco is the disneyland of AfricaDjemaa El Fna is busy from morning until eveningNot dangerous at all with locals and tourists



Tourists Tourists Tourists, we are everywhere!

It's not difficult to get lost but even when getting lost here in the Medina, it's just a matter of a few more corners to find the next tourist stream that leads back to the bigger corners.

So getting lost here is somehow fun. 

Marrakesh is a real tourist capital as written in a script book. Almost impossible to walk for one minute and not see other tourists in big amounts. I would even estimate that Marrakesh has the biggest stream of western tourists all over the continent. Crazy!

People walk around in so-called Moroccan Djellaba's.

At least it looks like the people in Morocco came straight out of the bed
Traditional clothes in moroccoSome form of fast-dress clothesA pyjama in MoroccoMoroccans wear it all dayEverywhere are people wearing the comfy clothesPeople with Djellaba along the streets in morocco


There impressive Castle

Definitely the most impressive construction in Marakkesh, the El Badii Palace.

This thing took 15 years to be completed. The palace shows the remains of earlier times and it's a good place to visit, but also to watch the storks sitting on the walls.



Medina, the old town

With donkeys everywhere. But with good mint tea along the way when strolling through the small aisles.

Unfortunately, the many mopeds racing through the streets are a real scourge. The air is dirty in the streets and I can imagine that the residents and shopkeepers surely got used to it over the decades.

The mopeds are forbidden in the old town, but no one cares.



Around Kashba in the south of Medina

Busy Kasbah covered with very old souks, and street-food vendors selling grilled meats.



Uptown area "Gueliz"

They even have McDonald's here, although I chose to have another Moroccan mint tea.



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