Marrakech, the name in and by itself stirred up images of dreamy nights with exotic foods and drape-y, colorful surroundings, and the soulful sound of a mystical Moroccan singer. Yes, I am Egyptian and none of this is truly exotic to me, but Morocco always held a special place in my heart and a top place in the travel destinations list. The best bit is? It was not disappointing in the tiniest bit, despite the fact that I have set up a rather high bar for it to meet.

However, and that’s a big however right there, there are many, many things I did that I would have done a little differently had I known better. So this article is dedicated to just that: The beauties and wonders of Marrakech and the lessons learned so you be lucky and avoid them if you ever decide to take off to that dreamy land, and you should.

Getting to Marrakech:

We booked a rather cheap flight, compared to other airfares on the Tunisian airlines, which cost us a little over LE3,500 while the other airlines cost over LE5,000.

Mistake #1: Do not book a flight on Tunisian airlines.

The departure and arrival flights were both cancelled and so the airlines called to inform us, rather casually, that the dates of our flights have been both shifted two days. No, not an hour or two, two full days. I won’t begin to describe how this messed our whole itinerary up. But I will tell you this, the airlines refused to reimburse us for the nights we had to pay and not use when they booked us for a flight to Cairo two nights earlier than our planned one and, you guessed it, refused to reimburse us for the extra nights we had to book when they booked us on an earlier flight to Marrakech.

Did I mention they also put us through a nine hours transit at Tunis airport?

Mistake #2: The price will seem tempting, do not transit for nine hours at Tunis airport, especially not at night.

The airport was all closed off, so you couldn’t so much buy a bottle of water.

No worries, we did, eventually, get to Casablanca where we were supposed to take a three and a half train ride to Marrakech. It was feast time (Eid Al Adha) and everyone seemed to be traveling from the bustling Casablanca to their home towns. We didn’t catch the noon train and the 2pm train didn’t have any first class seats available so we decided to go for the second class seats (90 Moroccan Dirham, or about LE 75).

Mistake #3: Do not decide to go for the second class seats on the train.

We went there nice and early and waited on the platform for the train. When it did, we hoped on the first car we found, which was insanely crowded you couldn’t even step in, so we instantly got off and headed for the end of the train. At this point the train was starting to move and we had to run and jump in any car we could spot. Have you ever seen footage of Egypt’s Atr El Said (Upper Egypt train)? It’s a very similar setting. Little did we know, there are only two classes on the trains, and the second class cars during busy seasons are unimaginable. Crowded, a little bit worn out and not-seated we were literally standing for three full hours. The train had pots, pans, luggage, screaming babies, open doors throughout the journey, dust coming in from the open doors and all the works of a miserable ride. Half an hour before getting to Marrakech we managed to squeeze our way through to the rest of our party who managed to find seats and had air-conditioning and all the works. So some parts of the train are far better than others, but during busy seasons it’s almost impossible to get to the humane bits.

Our Tip: Book your train ticket nice and early and make sure you book a first class ticket (140 Dirhams, or LE118) which will guarantee a nice seat in an air-conditioned, six-seaters car. The second class might be suitable in off seasons when the train is really empty and you’re guaranteed a seat, but otherwise, do opt for the first class.

We reached Marrakech train station which seemed modern and clean. We found our hotel’s car waiting for us and they took us to Jamea Al Ifna in the Old Medina (the old town) where all the markets and bazaars are. We were dropped off and a guy with a little cart took our luggage and led us through the pedestrians area to where out hotels were.

He guided us through very thin alleyways and the bustle of the market started to subside, giving way for stray cats, garbage bins and old ladies peeking behind closed doors. At this point I was 90% certain we were getting kidnapped.

Other articles in our Essential Guide to Marrakech:

Where to stay

Where to eat

What to do