Holidays to Marrakech 
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Latest Marrakech Holiday Offers
Find a holiday in Marrakech using the search form on the left, or choose from an offer below.
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from £316* |
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| Departing Gatwick on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £316* |
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| Departing Gatwick on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £317* |
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| Departing Gatwick on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £315* |
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| Departing Manchester on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £317* |
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| Departing Manchester on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £338* |
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| Departing Manchester on 07/09/2009 | ||
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from £345* |
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| Departing Gatwick on 07/09/2009 |
*Hover mouse over price for offer age. Per person, based on min. occupancy & return adult fare, based on recent search results. Due to the nature of flight + hotel availability, we can't guarantee these prices will still be available.
Transfers not included.
Marrakech Holidays from CheapHolidays.com
With Cheapholidays you can tailor make your own holidays to Marrakech. Trip advisor Marrakech offer something for all holidaymakers, both young and old. Cheap holidays to Marrakech are excellent value for money and ideal for families and couples.
Overview
Overview
Snake charmers, magic potions, hidden palaces: Marrakech brings the most outlandish travellers’ tales to life. The pink city has waylaid desert caravans since the 11th century, as visitors succumb to the charms of its bluesy Gnaoua trance music, steamy hammams (traditional Moroccan spas), and multi-course feasts.
Visitors today often disappear down a maze of winding derbs (alleys) and emerge days later, relaxed and refreshed from their stays in spectacular riads (courtyard guesthouses) where their every need is anticipated by butlers, in-house chefs, and massage therapists.
Adventure awaits at the doorstep in the medina (old city), with its fondouks (artisans’ workshops), seven zaouias (saints’ shrines) and qissaria (pedestrian street) stalls ladling up steaming bowls of snails and sheep’s head soup. The focal point of Marrakech is its celebrated square, the Jemaa el Fna, Morocco’s UNESCO-recognised platform for halqa (street theatre). Towering over the scene is the stately Koutoubia minaret, a template for Hispano-Mauresque architecture and a reminder of the importance of Islam to the lives of the city’s residents.
The caravan culture of Marrakech gave the outpost founded by Beber Almoravids in 1062 a worldly outlook that pre-dates the arrival of rooftop satellite dishes and the Cyberpark, the royal garden retrofitted with Internet kiosks. Morocco was colonised by the French in the early 20th century, though in practice Marrakech was run by a Berber warlord named Madani Glaoui who lavishly entertained colonial elites while ruthlessly suppressing his people. French influence lingers on in the wide boulevards of Guéliz and its few remaining art deco villas, most notably landscape painter Jacques Majorelle’s stylish cobalt blue retreat in the Jardin Majorelle.
Making a fashionable late arrival in Marrakech were foreign hedonists and idealists. Yves Saint Laurent, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones rubbed shoulders with William S Burroughs and other American Beat generation writers. Hippies and visitors following spiritual quests, creative inspiration, and the suspiciously fragrant clouds of smoke that once filled the city’s back alleys, joined the fray.
Dynasties, rock stars and their habits come and go, but inspiration remains in Marrakech. In the souks and Ensemble Artisanal, artisans are already fashioning next year’s interior design must-haves. Contemporary galleries have taken root in Guéliz, Marrakech’s Festival of Popular Arts in July (see Special Events) draws dancers and musicians from Morocco and beyond, and the red carpet at the Marrakech International Film Festival (see Special Events) greets the glitterati from Hollywood to Bollywood each December.
Despite recent censorship and crackdowns on dissidents, Morocco remains one of the more liberal Muslim countries. King Mohammed VI is actively promoting education for women and respect for Berber culture, the core cultural force in Marrakech. The centuries-old fascination between travellers and Marrakech is stronger than ever - and in a city where escapism meets opportunity, fairy-tale endings aren’t out of the question.
Marrakech Shopping
Shopping
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Leading off from the northern edge of Jemaa el Fna are the winding alleyways of the souks, the vast, crowded, chaotic central market of Marrakech. Browsers can pick up anything from jewellery, textiles or carpets, to herbs, love potions and donkeys. Visitors will find these souks are well worth exploring, regardless of whether they intend to buy anything. The area the souks cover may at first seem like a labyrinth but it is, in fact, deceptively compact. Each area specialises in certain products; many are still workshops, with ironworkers, carpenters, dyers and tailors plying their trade from tiny shop fronts. Loosely divided into sections according to the trade they conduct, they are best approached from Rue Souk Smarine. This busy thoroughfare, covered to provide protection from the sun, runs for half the length of the souks before forking into Souk el Attarine and Souk el Kebir. Leading off the Souk el Attarine are spice, pottery, textiles and metalwork souks. Wander around the Souk el Kebir area to find leather bags and poufs, carpets, lamps, and traditional Moroccan clothing.
Bargaining is essential - visitors should start at around one third of what they want to pay. A good idea of quality and prices can be found at the government-run Ensemble Artisanal, Avenue Mohammed V, near the Koutoubia Mosque. This is a small shopping mall and craft training centre, offering high-quality goods at reasonable, fixed prices.
Visitors do not have to walk far before the first offers on carpets are made and those with the time and patience can easily spend hours drinking mint tea, head shaking, sighing and smiling as rugs and carpets are unrolled. For those serious about purchasing a carpet, a good place to go is Bazaar Chichoua, 5 Souk des Ksous. Other things to look out for are handmade copper and silverware, silk or cotton garments, wooden articles and jewellery, which can be found in Ministero del Gusto, 22 Derb Azouz el Moussine, in the souks, or L’Orientaliste, 15 rue de la Libertie, Guéliz. Trésorie du Sud, Rue el Mouassine, is one of many small jewellers near the Mouassine Mosque.
For leather, Place Vendome, 141 Avenue Mohammed V, is a good bet if quality matters more than price. Chic boutiques cluster in Guéliz around Rue de la Liberté, while Rue Yogouslavie is dotted with hidden galleries and English-language bookshops can be found in the streets around place Abdel Moumen ben Ali.
Shopping hours in the medina are usually from Monday to Thursday and Sunday from 0900 to 1900 plus Friday 0900 to 1200 and 1600 to 1900. In Guéliz, shops open Monday through Saturday from 0900 to 1230 and 1530 to 1900. Some close for lunch; some may close on Friday; some, including those in the souks, remain open on Sunday and public holidays. There is no provision for tourists to reclaim any sales tax or VAT on accommodation or goods that they buy. Many shop-owners actively resist giving an official receipt, as this forces them to declare (and pay) the VAT.
Marrakech Tours
Tours of the City
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Walking Tours
It used to be common to step outside a hotel and find a ’guide’ willing to give you a tour around Marrakech for a fee, but these days the tourist police have clamped down on the unlicensed escorts who inevitably guided you to a monument or two by way of a cousin’s carpet shop. If you’re short on time and exploring the souks solo holds no appeal, ask your hotel or riad to recommend a reliable, knowledgeable guide or get a list of licensed guides from the tourist office. As always, a fee should be negotiated in advance. Visitors shopping in the souks with a guide should be aware that they’ll probably get better deals coming back later alone, since most guides have commission arrangements with specific shops. For small groups, MCITours, 154 Avenue Mohamed V, Guéliz (tel: (024) 438 742; website: www.mcitours.ma), can arrange various walking tours, such as exploring the medina.
Other Tours
Grandstaxis can be hired for tours of the city and day excursions at the ranks in Guéliz by the Post Office or at Jemaa el Fna. It is also possible to hire a calèche for a tour of the town. For both modes of transport the price should be negotiated in advance.
There are scores of travel agents in the streets around place Abdel Moumen ben Ali. Mountain Voyage, 5 Avenue Mohammed V, second floor, Guéliz (tel: (024) 421 996; website: www.travellink-morocco.net), is a licensed British-owned company based in Marrakech that offers tailor-made tours inside the city and trekking excursions in the High Atlas Mountains. There is a growing market in adventurous excursions, such as desert camel journeys, Atlas trekking, and hunting, fishing and white-water rafting in the High Atlas Mountains, but not all companies offer experienced English-speaking guides. Two other reliable companies that do are Inside Morocco Travel (tel: (061) 182 090; website www.insidemoroccotravel.com) and High Country Tours, 6 Residence el Baraka, Boulevard Allal el-Fassi, Guéliz (tel: (024) 332 182).
Marrakech Holidays 2009 Videos
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