When Mark and I first arrive in a new city, we like to book a tour with a local guide. For us, this is the perfect way to pick up tips about the best places to eat and sights to see. It helps us really get under the skin of a place. We often use Urban Adventures, an Intrepid company. They are a pleasure to deal with. The booking process is easy. Their guides are friendly and extremely knowledgeable. We have always had great experiences with them. This is my review of Urban Adventure’s ‘Tastes of Marrakech’ Tour, Morocco.
In this article
Essentials
- Name of Tour – A Taste of Marrakech: Inside the Medina
- Operator – Urban Adventures
- Number of People – Maximum 12
- Duration – 3.5 hours
- Itinerary – explore the hidden local food shops in Marrakech, sample Moroccan delicacies in the souks, visit a local spice market, walk around the legendary Djemaa El-Fna as it comes alive at night, enjoy a traditional Moroccan dinner
- Cost – US$49.50 per person, including tastings and dinner
What Happened on Our Tour?
Meet and Greet
The starting point for our Tastes of Marrakech tour was outside Café France in Djemaa El-Fna, Marrakech’s main square. We arrived promptly at 6pm and didn’t have to wait long for our guide, Ali. We were joined by just one other tourist, a lady from Scotland. I love the fact that the groups on these tours are usually so small (it was just the two of us on our Urban Adventure’s walking tour of Casablanca) – it makes for a very personal experience.
Ali immediately put us at our ease and gave us a comprehensive introduction to the history of Morocco and the geography of Marrakech. It was really interesting and gave context to our surroundings. After giving us some useful safety tips, Ali led us into the souks for our education in Moroccan cuisine.
The Tour
Doughnuts
Our first stop was at a local café where we enjoyed mint tea and freshly cooked doughnuts, known as sfenj. The place was heaving! It’s a popular haunt for workers on their way home. The hot, sweet pastries are the perfect filler between lunch and dinner. It was fascinating to watch the chef shaping the dough into rings, frying them in piping hot oil and then dipping them in honey before piling them up on paper for the waiters to serve to the customers. Apparently, the guy we watched makes an average of 3000 doughnuts every day!
The Communal Bread Oven
After enjoying our doughnuts, Ali guided us off the main thoroughfare and down a side alley to a local bakery. This is where women bring bread and pastry they have prepared at home to be baked. We had seen several of these during our tour around Morocco.
The baker also produces small flattish bread rolls which are filled with sardines and salads and sold on the nearby street stalls. We got to try this delicious bread straight out of the oven.
Olives Galore!
Our next stop was at the olive market. I just love the effort the stallholders put into their intricate colourful displays! We enjoyed sampling several varieties and marvelled at the huge range available to buy.
Sweet Cookies
We visited a sweet cookie stall made famous when TV chef, Jamie Oliver featured it in his programme about Marrakech. It’s been in the same family for decades. We were lucky enough to be served by the founder of the business who was proud to show us an old city guide with his photo on the front!
We tasted several different pastries, including m’hencha (meaning snake), a spiral-shaped variety flavoured with almonds. They were all a little too sweet for Mark, but we bought a box to take for friends we were visiting in Spain en route back to the UK.
Djemaa El-Fna
By the time we made our way back to Marrakech’s main square, it had been transformed into a massive outdoor eating area with over 100 stalls. The noise, colours, and cooking aromas were enticing. Had we been there on our own, I’m sure Mark and I would have been bewildered by the choices on offer and we probably wouldn’t have been brave enough to sit down on any of the benches sited immediately in front of chefs stirring steaming pots of stews and soups. With Ali to guide us, though, it was a breeze!
He took us to his favourite harira stall where we enjoyed this classic spicy tomato and lentil soup served with dates and strips of sugared pastry. It was delicious, but by now we were already full and very worried that we still had our main meal to come!
Dinner in Mechoui Alley
Mechoui Alley is a small street just off the north-west corner of Djemaa El-Fna. It is world-famous as the best place to eat roast lamb or mutton. The carcases are roasted whole in underground clay pits. The meat is then served by the weight with salt, cumin, warm bread and mint tea.
The alley is also known for tanjia, not to be confused with tagine. Tanjias are stews of meat and vegetables cooked overnight in clay urns in the heat of the local hammam.
The third item on the menu is roasted sheep head. It is considered a special treat in Morocco and people come from far and wide to eat it.
Each restaurant in Mechoui Alley has a stall downstairs where you can watch the meat being cooked and where you can buy takeaway, and a seating area on the roof where you can enjoy your meal served to you while you look down on the activity in Djemaa El-Fna. We shared a beef and vegetable tanjia and some mechoui – amazing!
The area is certainly not a place for vegetarians (or for the squeamish!), but we loved it and will definitely return one day.
Here is a video to explain more:
Digestif
The final stop of our Tastes of Marrakech tour was back out in the chaos of Djemaa El-Fna. Ali took us for a glass of herbal tea which he assured us was the best digestif after all the rich food we’d eaten. I thought it tasted like the worst cough medicine in the world and found it to be totally undrinkable. Mark and our fellow traveller disagreed and drank it with relish!
Our Guide
Ali was a great guide! He was friendly and knowledgeable. Born and bred in Marrakech, he was clearly passionate about his city and wanted us to understand its history and culture. He exceeded our expectations in terms of what he showed us and what we learned. He went over the allotted time, but he didn’t seem to mind.
As we have always found with Urban Adventures, they employ the right people!
What did we Think of the Tour?
We loved it! We felt it was excellent value for money, especially when you take into account the amount of food we consumed! We would definitely recommend Urban Adventure’s Tastes of Marrakech tour to all visitors to this incredible city. You will get to try things you would probably not dare to try by yourself and will be left with lasting memories and the desire to dash home and try to recreate some of the flavours you’ve tasted!
Ready to Book Your Own Tour? Click Here:
READ MY COMPLETE MOROCCO TRAVEL GUIDE
Watch Jamie Oliver’s Programme About Marrakech
Check out my Morocco colouring books!
Unlike most colouring books on the market, mine, suitable for both adults and older children, are full of line images created from photos I have taken on my travels. This means that they are highly detailed. They are not line drawings where you can colour between every line. The pictures invite you to be creative. Apply a colour wash with watercolour. Use coloured pencils to create texture. Blend colours together. Add detail with a fine ink pen. The choice is yours! Create your own work of art! When you’re happy, remove it from the book. Stick it on the fridge as a reminder of a place you’ve already been to or somewhere that’s on your bucket list. You could even get it framed. Display it on the wall for people to admire.
Here is a selection ofmy Morocco titles:
If you like what you’ve read, PIN IT!!
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