Marrakech

At the centre of Marrakech life is Jemaa el-Fnaa, the great square that has been the city's gathering place for nearly a thousand years and is the single most famous sight in Morocco. By day it simmers with orange-juice stalls, henna artists, water-sellers in costume, monkey handlers and snake charmers; as the sun sets it transforms into an enormous open-air food court, with dozens of stalls firing up grills under clouds of fragrant smoke, surrounded by drummers, musicians, acrobats and storytellers in a scene UNESCO recognises as a masterpiece of intangible cultural heritage. The cafés and rooftop terraces ringing the square are the classic vantage points to watch the spectacle. Leading off the square to the north is the labyrinth of the souks, the covered markets where the city's craft traditions are on full display — carpets and kilims, brass and iron lanterns, dyed leather babouches, spices, ceramics, woodwork and jewellery, grouped loosely by trade. Getting (gently) lost in the souks, haggling over mint tea, and emerging back into the light of Jemaa el-Fnaa is the quintessential Marrakech experience.

The medina is studded with the monuments of Marrakech's imperial past. The 12th-century Koutoubia Mosque, with its great minaret visible across the city, is the architectural model for towers in Seville and Rabat and the medina's defining landmark (non-Muslims cannot enter, but the gardens around it are lovely). The Bahia Palace is a 19th-century masterpiece of Moroccan craftsmanship — courtyards, carved cedar ceilings, zellij tilework and tranquil gardens — while the nearby El Badi Palace stands as a vast, atmospheric ruin of a once-fabulous 16th-century pleasure palace, now home to nesting storks. The Saadian Tombs, sealed and forgotten for centuries, reveal exquisitely decorated royal mausoleums; the Ben Youssef Madrasa, a former Quranic college, is one of the most beautiful buildings in Morocco; and museums such as the Marrakech Museum, the Maison de la Photographie and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent enrich a visit. Threading between them, the residential medina of narrow derbs, fountains and hidden doorways — behind which lie the courtyard riads — rewards slow, curious wandering.

For all its intensity, Marrakech is also a city of calm retreats. The most famous is the Majorelle Garden, a serene oasis of bamboo, cacti and lily ponds painted in an electric cobalt blue (the “Majorelle blue”), created by the French painter Jacques Majorelle and lovingly restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé; it sits beside the Berber Museum and the striking Musée Yves Saint Laurent. The older Menara Garden, with its olive grove and pavilion reflected in a great basin against the backdrop of the Atlas, and the royal Agdal gardens offer further escape. Central to the Marrakech experience is the riad — the traditional house built inward around a planted courtyard and fountain, many now converted into exquisite boutique hotels where the noise of the medina falls away behind heavy doors. Add the rituals of the hammam (steam bath) and the spa, the rooftop restaurants and the cafés, and Marrakech is as much about indulgence and atmosphere as about sightseeing — a city to be lived in slowly between its monuments.

Marrakech is the launch pad for some of Morocco's greatest journeys. Rising just south of the city are the High Atlas Mountains, their peaks snow-capped well into spring: the Berber villages of the Ourika Valley and Imlil (the trailhead for Mount Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak) make popular day trips, as does the small ski resort of Oukaïmeden in winter. To the north-east, the spectacular Ouzoud Falls tumble through a gorge, and the fortified ksar of Aït Benhaddou — a UNESCO site and famous film location — lies over the Tizi n'Tichka pass on the road to Ouarzazate. That same road continues into the south and the Sahara, where multi-day tours reach the great dunes of the Erg Chebbi and Erg Chigaga for camel treks and desert camps. West, three hours away, the breezy walled port of Essaouira offers Atlantic beaches and seafood. With its international airport and central location, Marrakech is the natural hub from which to combine the city with the mountains, the desert and the coast.