A slow unfolding of Marrakech, one quarter at a time: the roar of Jemaa el-Fnaa, the carved silence of the madrasas, your hands in a tagine, the cobalt of Majorelle, a desert sunset, and a green Atlas valley. Built to breathe, with free afternoons, pool time, and slow mornings built in, so you never double back and never waste the good light. Treat the times as a rhythm, not a rulebook. Marrakech rewards getting pleasantly lost.
Day 1
Description: You land, drop your bags, and walk straight into the noise. Day one is about surrender, not ticking boxes. After checking into your riad, you'll let the medina pull you in, drifting up the main souk lane and learning the rhythm of the place: the haggling, the calls to prayer, the way the light moves across the rooftops. You'll eat easy, catch the sunset behind the Koutoubia, and watch the great square ignite after dark from a rooftop edge. Nothing is rushed. You'll go to bed already a little in love with the chaos.
1:00 PM — Marrakesh Menara Airport (arrival, transfer to riad)
2:00 PM — Riad Yasmine (check in, settle) — hotel
3:30 PM — Café des Épices — lunch
5:00 PM — Souk Semmarine (a first, no-pressure wander)
6:00 PM — Plaza Rahba Kedima
6:45 PM — Koutoubia (sunset in the gardens)
8:00 PM — Nomad Marrakech — dinner
9:30 PM — Jemaa el-Fnaa (after dark, from a rooftop edge)
Day 2
Description: A gentle first full day in the northern medina, around Place Ben Youssef. You'll see only three things, but they're three of the most beautiful in the city, so you can take them slowly: the carved-cedar madrasa, the tiled palace-museum beside it, and a quiet photography museum with the best free rooftop view in the quarter. Lunch is a long one in a green courtyard. Then the afternoon is deliberately yours, for the souks, the riad pool, or a nap, before a candlelit dinner in an old merchants' inn.
9:00 AM — breakfast on your riad rooftop
9:30 AM — Madrasa Ben Youssef
10:45 AM — Marrakech Museum
11:30 AM — House of Photography in Marrakech (rooftop mint tea)
1:00 PM — Le Jardin Restaurant Marrakech Medina — lunch
2:30 PM — free afternoon: souk shopping, or the riad pool
8:00 PM — Le Foundouk Restaurant & Rooftop — dinner
10:00 PM — Riad BE Marrakech — hotel
Day 3
Description: The Mouassine quarter, then your hands in the food. You'll start with coffee in the grand Bacha coffee house, take in its palace and two more hidden gems nearby, then have a rooftop lunch over the souk. The afternoon is the trip's centrepiece: a traditional cooking class with a dada, a Moroccan home cook, where you'll make and then eat your own tagine and bread. It's relaxed, hands-on, and the dinner cooks itself. You sleep where you cooked, in a historic riad hotel.
9:30 AM — Bacha Coffee — breakfast (go early to beat the queue)
10:30 AM — Dar El Bacha Museum
11:30 AM — Le Jardin Secret
12:15 PM — Museum of Mouassine Music
1:30 PM — Terrasse des épices — lunch
4:00 PM — Hotel La Maison Arabe — cooking class, then the dinner you cooked, and your bed for the night — hotel
Day 4
Description: A change of palette, and the trip's big day out. You'll start with French pastries in the modern city, then spend the morning in the two great gardens: the cobalt dream of Majorelle and the sleek YSL museum beside it. After a contemporary lunch in Gueliz and a slow pause at the mountain-backed Menara pool, you'll trade the city for the desert, a 45-minute drive to Agafay, where rocky hills roll toward the Atlas. Camel ride or quad bike as the light softens, then a fire-lit dinner under the stars, before heading back to one of the medina's most beautiful rooftops.
8:30 AM — Pâtisserie Amandine — breakfast
9:30 AM — Jardin Majorelle
11:00 AM — Yves Saint Laurent Museum
12:30 PM — Plus61 — lunch
2:30 PM — Menara Gardens (Atlas reflection, slow stroll)
4:30 PM — Agafay Desert (camel/quad, sunset, then fire-show dinner at the camp) — dinner
10:30 PM — El Fenn Hotel, Restaurant and Rooftop Bar — hotel
Day 5
Description: The southern medina: palaces, tombs, an old gate, and a proper reward. You'll move through the grand 19th-century rooms of Bahia, the dramatic stork-topped ruins of El Badi, and the jewel-box Saadian Tombs, nearly all within a short walk of each other, with quick photo stops at the lantern-makers' square and the old blue gate in between. A Lebanese lunch breaks up the tagines. By mid-afternoon your feet have earned a traditional hammam, steam, scrub, and a long exhale, before a lively dinner-with-a-show and a night in a five-star Kasbah riad.
9:00 AM — Cafe Clock — breakfast
10:00 AM — Bahia Palace
11:15 AM — Tinsmiths Square (quick stop)
11:45 AM — El Badi Palace
1:00 PM — Naranj Libanese — lunch
2:30 PM — Saadian Tombs
3:15 PM — Bab Agnaou (quick stop)
4:00 PM — Les Bains de Marrakech Morocco (hammam, allow 2 to 3 hours)
8:00 PM — Comptoir Darna — dinner
10:30 PM — La Sultana — hotel
Day 6
Description: Your last full day climbs into the mountains. After an early start, you'll drive southeast toward the Ourika Valley, stopping at the surreal Anima art garden on the way. In the valley the air cools and a river threads between Berber villages: hike toward the waterfalls, then eat lunch at a table set right in the stream. Back in the city by evening, you'll clean up and end the trip the way Marrakech deserves, a theatrical palace dinner, then one last night in the city's most legendary hotel before flying out tomorrow.
8:00 AM — breakfast at your riad (early start)
9:30 AM — Anima (André Heller Garden)
11:30 AM — Ourika Valley (waterfall hike, riverside time)
1:30 PM — lunch by the river in the valley
5:00 PM — back in the city, rest and refresh
8:00 PM — Dar Yacout — dinner
10:30 PM — La Mamounia — hotel
(Next morning — Marrakesh Menara Airport, departure)
