The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Why this is the best year to explore Morocco
New flights, deals, hotels and activities mean now is the time to book – and Paula Hardy has 30 great holiday ideas
Morocco started 2024 strong. International collectors flocked to the 1-54 contemporary African art expo in Marrakech – laid out beneath the painted cedar wood ceilings of La Mamounia hotel – among them VIPs from the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou and Smithsonian, as well as serious collectors who bought works at record prices.
There were more galleries than ever before, and two new art spaces. In short, it was a spectacular success – and final, incontrovertible proof to the world that, after a difficult few months, Morocco had finally returned to form.
It was a terrifying 6.8 magnitude earthquake – which shook southern Morocco on September 8 2023 and sent devastating images around the world – that brought to a screeching halt what had, until then, been a phenomenal year for the country, with a history-making semi-final at the 2022 World Cup among its highlights.
The aftermath was brutal (and reconstruction continues), but the whole country rallied in an extraordinary aid effort that got things back on track just in time to host the IMF conference and La Mamounia’s 100th birthday last October. Despite the setbacks, 2023 remained a record year for tourism, with 14.5 million inbound visitors – the highest ever in Morocco’s history.
Frankly, it is time that Morocco finally made the leap to a mainstream travel destination. After all, it is within touching distance of Europe (Tangier is just nine miles across the straits from Spain, and Marrakech is just three and a half hours from the UK by air) and yet it is so thrillingly different. Like Italy, its long north-south profile and varied topography offer an incredible diversity of landscapes, rich regional variations and a clutch of historic cities, each with a distinct cultural character.
Venture beyond the well-known confines of Marrakech and you will find climates as chilled as those of any Tibetan kingdom in the 620-milelong High Atlas chain, the forest-clad Arcadian plateaus of the Middle Atlas, and the lush oases-filled valleys – the Dades, Drâa and Ziz – that peter out into the largest desert on earth.
Travel operators are certainly taking note of this smorgasbord of delights. Ryanair is investing $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) and has added 35 new routes, British Airways has a new flight to Agadir, and Jet2 (the UK’s largest tour operator) is launching flights from Birmingham. Then there are new hotels from Nobu, Four Seasons, Park Hyatt and eco-brand Our Habitas. The kingdom also has an on-going $12 billion upgrading programme and a $34 billion investment plan for new roads, high-speed rail services and sustainable energy and tourism projects. The resulting mood in the country is upbeat and travellers are catching the bug in a big way. Why not join them? Spring is just around the corner, when the roses bloom in their thousands in the M’Goun valley; music festivals fill historic centres; and the weather is a perfect 24 degrees. Here are 30 wonderful ways to get in on the action.