Marrakesh is a city I love and could not live in. Three nights is exactly right: enough to fall for it, not so long it wears you out. It will try to wear you out.
You arrive into the red plain with the Atlas behind you, and the medina swallows you whole. Here's how to do it without being destroyed by it.
The three-night shape
Day one — the medina. Jemaa el-Fnaa at sunset, when the food stalls light up and the square comes alive. The souks. The Saadian Tombs first thing, before the crowds. The Bahia Palace. Get lost on purpose, then ask your way out.
Day two — outside the walls. The Majorelle Garden and the YSL Museum in the cool of the morning. A proper hammam in the afternoon (steam, scrub, mint tea, reborn). Dinner somewhere lovely — Nomad, or El Fenn's rooftop.
Day three — quiet. A rooftop. A book. An early-evening walk through a quarter you haven't seen. Marrakesh is loud; the trick is to give yourself somewhere soft to land each day.
Getting there
I arrived by coach — the tickets were very reasonable, just three hours from Agadir, with a stop at a service station that was nothing like home. Not a packet sandwich in sight. When everyone rushed off the coach I didn't understand why, until I watched them wolf down a quarter of chicken-and-preserved-lemon tagine each, with some of the sweetest onions I had anywhere in Morocco.
Where I stayed
I loved YAAD City Hotel — generous rooms, a lift to the upper floors, and a small pool that's perfect for escaping the heat (not heated in winter, so a little chilly then). Modern, but small enough to keep that air of Moroccan hospitality, with a delightful courtyard around the pool. The location was excellent — and so was the rate — with great eateries on the doorstep. (If you'd rather a classic medina riad, Riad BE and Riad Yasmine are lovely mid-range.)
The croissant I returned for daily
A short walk away is the patisserie Yesna, where the chocolate croissant has layer upon laminated layer inside crisp walls. So good I went back every single day. It's also where I discovered avocado juice — thick like a smoothie, blended with milk or orange juice, somehow both savoury and sweet. Healthy, filling, and the most refreshing way to set up a day.
The Bahia Palace
Breathtaking. The hand-painted cedar ceilings, the zellij tilework, the carved stucco — it's the finest domestic craftsmanship of its age, the rooms left deliberately bare so nothing distracts from the surfaces. Go early, with a bottle of water on hand: the colours, the ceilings, the crowds and the heat all build fast. Entry is about 70 dirhams (around £5–6; ~30 for children) — but check before you go, prices creep up.
The meal I planned from London
Mechoui from Chez Lahmine — whole lamb buried and cooked in huge underground ovens, unseasoned, crisp-skinned, cooking in its own juices. It wasn't just Jimmy who sent me; I'd watched Phil (of Somebody Feed Phil) and even Gordon Ramsay eat in this same unassuming spot, so I'd planned my visit before I left London. You order by the kilo (1kg was plenty for two — ask for the shoulder, or the ribs and the fattier belly cut that Tyler loved). It comes with harissa, a simple Moroccan salad of onion and tomato, a little bowl of spiced lentils and bread — which you use to pick up the hot meat and protect your fingers. The simplicity was the beauty: every ingredient sang.
The rooftop that stopped me
Don't miss the Moroccan Culinary Arts Museum — a cup of tea in the beautiful downstairs salon, masterclasses if you want to learn, and then up to the rooftop restaurant, which is genuinely magical. Above the rooftops of the medina, with the Koutoubia and the Atlas beyond, even the simplest thing — a plate of sliced oranges dusted with cinnamon — becomes the whole point. It's the kind of place you sit longer than you meant to, and leave a little changed.
When you need a break from tagine
Marrakesh is a cosmopolitan city. We had crispy, moreish Korean fried chicken at Gons (the kimchi sets it all off), caught a World Cup game at Sbar sports bar (where I tried a "Wembley" gin I've genuinely never seen in England), and loved Le Petit Thai — everything authentic, from the soups to the salads, built on the best Moroccan produce.
And for a nightcap
The cocktails at Baromètre Marrakech (also walkable from YAAD) are works of art — a gazillion ingredients, theatre, bespoke glassware, and a back-bar display worth studying (use the black light to find its secrets). The menu illustrations are divine. Do not skip the bar snacks. Poached pear and goat's cheese. Yum.
