Marrakech, Morocco | Traveling Photographer Blog

Marrakech, Morocco

Travel Blog

For our honeymoon, we spent ten days exploring Morocco. We arrived by ferry in the northern port town of Tangier, then took a bus to Chefchaouen (click here to see our travel blog from Chefchaouen), and finally, we took an overnight train to Marrakech.

Side note: If you're planning on traveling throughout Morocco, we highly recommend taking their trains. We had a "couchette" which is a room with bunk beds, pillows, and bedding. It was efficient, pretty affordable, and we slept SO well!

Originally, we were planning on having our intimate wedding in Marrakech. We found the most amazing venue just outside of the city. We would get married in the desert and then camp outside in large canvas tents. There would be candles, traditional Moroccan food, and live music. But in the end, we decided to get married in Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Marrakech is overwhelming, noisy, and full of smells (spices, food stalls, animals, mud). The first couple of days we walked around with wide eyes. We loved exploring (and ultimately getting lost) in the souk. There are so many little streets to go down and shops to browse.

Our first stop in Marrakech was the Ben Youssef Madrasa. It is the largest Islamic college in all of Morocco. The college itself is closed now, but you can still explore the tiny student dorms and admire the wooden and marble carvings of the courtyard. We also visited the Museum of Photography, which was full of many many gorgeous photographs. We were even able to buy a few of our favorite prints to take home with us!

Jamaa el Fna (Marrakech's main square) wakes up as the sun goes down. Crowds of people surround dancers, drummers, monkey trainers, snake charmers, and food stalls. We had the most fun exploring the souk at night. As it got later, the streets began to empty out and the shops began to close. Once the medina went to sleep, we returned to our riad and sat on the rooftop watching the glowing city around us.

On our last day, we were ready for a quiet break from the city, so we walked to Jardin Majorelle which was full of cacti and trees. We decided to walk 2.5 miles to the garden because we love exploring new cities on foot. On the way, we passed by the Koutoubia Mosque and even stopped at a modern shopping mall. We are budget travelers and we typically stay in inexpensive hotels and Airbnbs. So we were curious to take a peek into Marrakech's most expensive hotels: La Mamounia and Royal Mansour. We were able to explore La Mamounia a little bit, but we couldn't find its famous tiled room. Then we got turned away at the door of Royal Mansour. Our last stop of the day was the Saadian Tombs, which were incredibly beautiful.

One of our favorite parts about being in Morocco was the five call to prayer times per day. Each mosque plays its own call to prayer over a loudspeaker, so you can hear it echoing through the city. When we talked to locals, they were often surprised that we enjoyed hearing it so much (particularly the one at 4 am), but something about it was just so beautiful.

Marrakech is overwhelming, eye-opening, intimidating, beautiful, delicious, and colorful.

Photographs

Colorado Elopements

Destination Elopements

Hi There!

We're Lisa + Alex, the goofballs behind Vow of the Wild. We live in Colorado, but we’re passionate about exploring new places. Being elopement photographers + videographers is a dream for us and we can’t imagine doing anything else (other than being professional dog petters).