Jemaa el-Fna
Medina · 60 min
The square before the show starts: the orange juice carts, the sweepers and the Koutoubia above the rooftops. Juice is a few dirhams, and the snake handlers and henna women are not out yet.
Marrakech · Morocco · 3 days
3 days in Marrakech
Three days split by wall and by century: the souks and the madrasa north of the square, the palaces and tombs of the kasbah, then the new town for the Majorelle garden and a long Gueliz dinner at Al Fassia.
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Checked October 10, 2026. That’s the day we last confirmed the hours, prices and closed days.
- 3 days
- 22 stops
- 9 with a ticket
- from 600 a day
When to go
October to April. March, April, October and November sit between 68 and 82°F (20 to 28°C) with cool evenings; December and January are sunny by day and near 41°F (5°C) at night. June to September runs past 104°F (40°C) most afternoons, which turns the medina into an early-morning and late-evening city. Ramadan is expected from about February 8 to March 9, 2027: the sights shorten their hours, cafés in the medina go quiet by day and the square fills after sunset.
Where to base yourself
A riad inside the medina for the first two days; the Kasbah and Riad Zitoun lanes are quieter than the souk side, Bab Doukkala and Mouassine are closer to the taxis. Gueliz for bars, a pool and a car at the door. Send the riad your arrival time: most will walk you in from the nearest point a taxi can reach, which matters at night.
Getting around
Walk the medina; nothing on days 1 and 2 is more than 15 minutes from the last stop. For Gueliz and the gardens take a beige petit taxi (three passengers), say "compteur" and insist on the meter; a ride across town is rarely more than 30 MAD by day and about half again after 8 p.m. Careem and inDrive work and give you a reference price. Grand taxis are for out of town. Google Maps holds up on the main arteries and loses you in the souks, which is fine: every lane eventually meets a bigger one.
Day 1
The medina north of the square
- FromYour hotel in The medina, Mouassine to the souks
- 1
- 8 min · walk
- 2
Koutoubia Mosque from outside
Medina · 30 min
Five minutes west of the square. Non-Muslims cannot enter; walk the rose gardens on the south side instead and look up at the twelfth-century minaret that Seville's Giralda copied.
- 12 min · walk
- 3
The souks by section
Souks · 105 min
Up Souk Semmarine from the square, then Rahba Kedima for spices and baskets, the dyers' lane with the wool drying overhead and Souk Haddadine for the metalworkers. If someone tells you a lane is closed or offers to show you the tannery, say "la, shukran" and keep walking.
- 8 min · walk
- 4
Ben Youssef Madrasa
Souks · 60 min
The sixteenth-century Koranic school, cedar and zellij around one pool, with the students' cells upstairs. Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, with tickets at the door only, in cash.
about 50 MAD
- 3 min · walk
- 5
Maison de la Photographie roof terrace
Souks · 75 min
Three floors of Moroccan photographs from 1870 onwards, then the tagine of the day on the roof with the Atlas behind the minarets on a clear day. Entry is around 80 MAD with the terrace included, and it is open 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
about 80 MAD
- 8 min · walk
- 6
Le Jardin Secret
Mouassine · 75 min
Two restored riad gardens, one Islamic and one exotic, ten minutes from the madrasa in Mouassine; the tower costs about 40 MAD extra and gives the only view down into the souk roofs. It closes at 6:30 p.m. March to September and 6 p.m. the rest of the year, earlier in Ramadan.
about 100 MAD
- 10 min · walk
- 7
Le Grand Balcon du Café Glacier
Medina · 60 min
The rooftop on the south side of the square, where a drink buys the table. Stay for the half hour when the stalls set up, the lamps come on and the drummers start.
- Next door
- 8
Jemaa el-Fna food stalls
Medina · 90 min
Pick a numbered stall with Moroccans at it and read the price board before you sit; a plate of brochettes or a tagine is roughly 50 to 100 MAD, and the bread, olives and salads that arrive unasked go on the bill, so wave them off. Start with harira from the soup carts or snails from the carts at the edge.
Day 2
The kasbah and the Mellah
- FromYour hotel in The medina, Mouassine to the souks
- 1
Bahia Palace
Mellah · 90 min
Be at the gate at 9 a.m. for the painted ceilings in the grand courtyard before the groups arrive around 11 a.m. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with last entry at 4:30 p.m. (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Ramadan), and foreign visitors pay around 100 MAD.
about 100 MAD
- 5 min · walk
- 2
The Mellah spice market
Mellah · 45 min
The old Jewish quarter south of the palace. The covered spice market by Place des Ferblantiers is where locals buy saffron, ras el hanout and cumin by weight, at lower and firmer prices than in the souks, and the Lazama synagogue is a few lanes in.
- 4 min · walk
- 3
El Badi Palace
Kasbah · 75 min
The sixteenth-century palace stripped to its walls and sunken orange gardens, with storks nesting on every tower and the Koutoubia's original minbar in a side room. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for around 100 MAD.
about 100 MAD
- 6 min · walk
- 4
Kasbah Café
Kasbah · 60 min
The roof terrace facing the Kasbah Mosque and the line for the tombs, for a chicken and olive tagine or the lamb with prunes and mint tea after. Café Clock a few lanes behind does a camel burger if you want the other version.
- Next door
- 5
Saadian Tombs
Kasbah · 45 min
Walled up for two centuries and found from the air in 1917, the tombs draw a line for the Hall of Twelve Columns, so look at the garden tombs while it moves. Open 9 a.m. to about 5 p.m. for around 100 MAD.
about 100 MAD
- 12 min · walk
- 6
Dar Si Said or a hammam
Riad Zitoun · 105 min
Dar Si Said is the carpet and weaving museum in a vizier's house on Riad Zitoun el Jdid, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Tuesdays. Or scrub off the souks at a neighborhood hammam: 20 to 50 MAD to enter plus around 100 MAD for a scrub, and bring your own kessa glove and black soap.
about 30 MAD
- 6 min · walk
- 7
A riad roof: Kosybar or Nomad
Mellah · 120 min
Kosybar on Place des Ferblantiers puts you on a terrace level with the storks on the Badi walls and serves wine. Nomad, on Rahba Kedima in the souks, does lamb shoulder and spiced cauliflower on three roof levels; book either a day ahead for a roof table.
Day 3
The new town
- FromYour hotel in The medina, Mouassine to the souks
- 1
Jardin Majorelle
Gueliz · 90 min
Majorelle blue, bamboo and cactus, and the Berber museum in the painter's studio, open 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are online only at tickets.jardinmajorelle.com with a dated time slot, so book the 8 a.m. one before the groups and the heat.
about 170 MAD
- 3 min · walk
- 2
Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech
Gueliz · 75 min
Next door: the couture rooms in a brick building, plus a temporary show. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Wednesdays, which Waystop's hours check flags if you place this stop on one.
about 100 MAD
- 20 min · walk
- 3
Grand Café de la Poste or the Amal Center
Gueliz · 75 min
Fifteen minutes on foot into Gueliz. Grand Café de la Poste is the 1920s brasserie with a shaded terrace (order the fish of the day), and the Amal Center is a women's training kitchen doing home cooking at lunchtime, with a couscous on Friday and a fixed price around 100 MAD.
- 5 min · walk
- 4
Gueliz galleries and Rue de la Liberté
Gueliz · 90 min
Galerie 127 for photography above Avenue Mohammed V, David Bloch Gallery and Comptoir des Mines for contemporary Moroccan artists, then the concept stores and the Thursday-to-Saturday crowd on Rue de la Liberté. Everything is free and closes for a long lunch.
- 2.5 km · transit or taxi
- 5
Menara Gardens
Menara · 60 min
Ten minutes by petit taxi west: a twelfth-century reservoir, a pavilion and a few square kilometers of olive trees, with the Atlas lined up behind the water on clear winter days. The grove is free; go an hour before sunset for the light.
- 2.9 km · transit or taxi
- 6
Cyber Park and the Koutoubia at sunset
Medina edge · 60 min
Taxi back to Arsat Moulay Abdeslam, the old orchard garden between Gueliz and the medina, then walk through to the Koutoubia as the light goes orange on the minaret and the call to prayer starts.
- 2.4 km · transit or taxi
- 7
Al Fassia Gueliz
Gueliz · 90 min
A kitchen and front of house run by women for forty years, known for the pigeon pastilla and the lamb shoulder with almonds. It is ten minutes by taxi from the Koutoubia; book a day ahead.
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Pins are approximate. Tap one for the stop; the directions links open Google Maps.
The practical bits
From the airport
Menara airport (RAK) is 6 kilometers from the medina, 15 to 20 minutes by petit taxi. The official fare is around 70 MAD by day and 100 MAD at night; agree it or the meter before you get in, because drivers at the rank ask double. Bus 19 runs every 30 minutes from arrivals to Place du 16 Novembre in Gueliz and on to Jemaa el-Fna for 30 MAD, 35 to 50 minutes. A transfer booked through your riad costs more but the driver walks you to the door, which is worth it the first night.
What a day costs
About 600 to 1,000 MAD a day per person for meals, tickets and taxis. Day 2's four monuments add up to around 330 MAD, Le Jardin Secret is around 100 MAD, Majorelle is about 170 MAD alone or about 300 MAD combined with the two museums, and the Yves Saint Laurent museum alone is about 100 MAD. A plate on the square is under 100 MAD and a riad dinner 250 to 400, and a spa hammam such as Les Bains de Marrakech adds 400 to 800 MAD for the hour.
Where to stay
Got a day to spare?
Worth knowing
- From the airport a petit taxi should be 70 to 100 MAD to the medina; drivers open at 150 to 250. Say the number, or walk out to bus 19: 30 MAD, every half hour, to Gueliz and then the square, and the ticket covers the round-trip within 15 days.
- Cash runs the medina: souks, taxis, food stalls and most museum desks. Cards work at riads, Gueliz restaurants and online for Majorelle. Draw dirhams from a bank ATM on Avenue Mohammed V or at Bab Doukkala, and spend them down; the dirham cannot be taken out.
- Bargaining is expected in the souks and nowhere else. Open at a third of the first price, settle around half, and walk away once; look at the fixed prices in the Ensemble Artisanal by the Koutoubia first so you know what a lamp or a rug costs.
- Cover shoulders and knees in the medina, men too. It is not a rule, it is how you get left alone. Friday is the holy day: souk stalls thin out around the midday prayer and reopen by mid-afternoon, and the palaces stay open.
- Anyone who walks you somewhere expects to be paid, and a photo of a snake, a monkey or a henna hand is a transaction; agree 20 MAD first or keep your camera down.
Things you can ask once it’s in the app
Plans change. Ask Chat and it proposes a reshuffled day you can apply, or just answers the question.
Our only free day for the new town is a Wednesday, what do we do about the YSL museum being closed?We land at 11 p.m., how do we reach a riad in the medina safely?It will be 108°F (42°C) in July, how should we shape the days so the walking is done before 11 a.m.?Swap Dar Si Said for a hammam that takes couplesWhat shuts at Friday prayers in the souks and palaces?
Questions
Is three days enough for Marrakech?
Yes, for the medina, the kasbah and the gardens at a walking pace. A fourth day would fit Essaouira or the Ourika valley, and a fifth a night in the Agafay desert or the Atlas.
Which day works in the rain?
Day 3: Majorelle is fine wet, the Yves Saint Laurent museum and the galleries are indoors, and Gueliz has cafés on every corner. Waystop's Chat can build a second, rain-proof version of day 3 for you to review; switch to it from the day's menu and the original stays as it was.
What do I need to book ahead?
Only the Majorelle and Yves Saint Laurent tickets, which are online only with a time slot and sell out in high season. Book dinner at Nomad, Kosybar or Al Fassia a day before; everything in the medina is walk-up.
Is the medina safe at night?
The main lanes between the square, the souks and the riad quarters are lit and busy until late. Hassle is verbal and ends when you keep walking; carry small notes, know your riad's lane, and take a petit taxi back from Gueliz rather than walking the ring road.
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