Sasoom Couture: Holiday in Marrakech

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Holiday in Marrakech

Salam Ladies,

I was debating whether or not I should put up a holiday post and some of you commented saying you would like to see one so I thought why not.

The one thing I often find when going on holiday to new places is things to do there. Yes you always have 100 websites that come up with what to do and what not to do, but peoples personal experiences are definitely more valuable. For example tripadvisor we all use that before booking a hotel don't we?

For my husband's Birthday I booked a getaway to Morroco, Marrakech for 6 nights, we wanted it to be a relaxing break as well as visiting the touristy spots. We opted to stay in one of the Riad’s very close to the main square.

Jemaa el-Fnaa, This is a square and market place in Marrakesh's medina quarter. It remains the main square of Marrakesh, used by locals and tourists. It is open during the day with everything from, spices, fresh orange juice, dried fruits, Leather goods, to souvenirs, and 100’s of cafes and restaurants by night. Staying in the Riad amongst the locals, gave us a real feel for life in Morocco. And we were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of great Moroccan hospitality.

This is during the day, it is a lot more lively during the night.

We arrived on the Saturday and spent the Sunday visiting the Bahia Palace, this is one of two famous palaces in Marrakech. The palace has a lot of beautiful Islamic artwork, and character, tickets can be purchased on the day and if I remember correctly they were less than £5 for both my husband and I. The palace was walking distance from our Riad, and most places are very easy to get to by walk, the local people go out of their way to help you.

The one thing about Marrakech which really surprised me was the amount of oranges this place has, that are hanging in the streets, and no one picks them, beautiful view Alhumdulilah.

Another one of the places of interests is the Badi Palace, this was my favourite of the two it is all outdoor, and very much an open space, it was nice and peaceful and just a stone throw away from the busy streets of Marrakech. Again it was surrounded by orange tree’s which is something you see pretty much in every street in Morroco. The price was around £2 per person, it was very peaceful here and we had some amazing pictures taken.

One of the other popular touristy places was the Jardin Majorelle this is a famous garden known for its royal blue painted walls, and spectacular plants, ponds, and a variety of colourful fish. And the sounds of the birds makes it a very calm and peaceful place to visit. It is a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of Marrakech, they have benches, a variety of shops, including a café, and we just enjoyed being amongst the birds, fish and the pretty environment in the nice and hot weather. The entrance fee was quite expensive compared to the other places to visit at £10 per person, but it depends if it’s your kind of thing we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We decided to do one excursion throughout our trip, and the one we went for was the trip to the mountains to Ourika Valley, this was great value for money at £33 per person, it included a pick-up, downside was we had a bus full of people and had to go round picking everyone up, but when we finally got on the road we had a lot of very picturesque views.

The first stop off was at a plant factory where, they would grow plants such as Aloe Vera, ginger, Pure argon oil. They had ladies sat there grinding the argon seeds into oil, and we were able to see this, we also got a tour of the garden and saw all the different plants, and then went up to the shop where they were selling lots of natural beauty products. And we were able to test some of their sample teas to help digest food naturally. It was a great experience, really enjoyed this.

The next stop was to a Berber village house, we actually visited a house where a family lived, they invited us in showed us how they live and cook and, we were able to see their traditional Berber village house, bedrooms, living rooms, and bathrooms, and one family member was having lunch as we arrived so we were able to see the wife/mother prepare this in the kitchen. We were very pleased to have visited this place and the tour guide was also very good.

Next it was time for lunch we were offered a three course meal each for £20 between us, which was quite good. the restaurant was right by the valley as you can see in the picture.

After lunch we set off to climb the mountain and get to the top to see the waterfalls. I was not expecting this and had to make do in my converse trainers, I could have done with a bit more support but it was great just as well. We climbed all the way to the top, and saw some breathtaking views along the way, see below some of the pictures.