Marrakech in 3 days: palaces, souks and the Majorelle garden

Two days inside the walls and one outside them is the split that fits Marrakech. Day one takes the southern medina, where the Bahia Palace, the Badi Palace and the Saadian Tombs stand within a short walk of each other. Day two takes the northern half: the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the souks and a garden. Day three leaves the old city for the Jardin Majorelle and the new town, or for the mountains. The Marrakech travel guide covers the city's background and the Morocco guide the routes beyond it.

Opening hours and heat set the shape of each day. The monuments open at 9:00 and the Majorelle garden at 8:00, and the regional tourism council warns that summer afternoons can reach 45°C and more. Each day therefore has the same shape: ticketed sights before lunch, the hot hours in a courtyard or by a pool, and the streets again from late afternoon.

Both medina days are on foot from a riad inside the walls, and day three needs a taxi. Where to stay in Marrakech compares the medina with Gueliz and the Palmeraie and explains the airport transfer.

Be at the Bahia Palace when it opens. The palace was built in the second half of the 19th century for a grand vizier and his son, and the Ministry of Culture describes it as a sequence of courtyards, gardens and salons spread over 8 hectares. What you look at is surface: zellij tile, painted cedar ceilings, carved stucco and marble, in four main courtyards that each differ from the last. Allow an hour to an hour and a half.

Place des Ferblantiers, the square between the two palaces, is the natural pause before the Badi. The Badi is a ruin, listed by UNESCO among the monuments that justify the medina's World Heritage status, and its scale is the reason to go: a vast open courtyard inside high walls. From there Rue de la Kasbah leads to the Saadian Tombs, the burial ground of the dynasty that built the Badi. The ministry dates its core to 1557 and its rediscovery to 1917. The chamber to see is the hall of twelve columns.

Each monument has its own page on the ministry's platform: the Bahia Palace, the Badi Palace and the Saadian Tombs. All three cost 300 dirhams per adult. If that is more than you want to spend on one morning, keep the Bahia for its decoration and the tombs for their history, and look at the Badi's walls from the square.

Eat lunch nearby and go back to your riad for the hot hours. Late in the afternoon walk to the Koutoubia Mosque, whose 77-meter minaret is the landmark the whole city steers by, and reach Jemaa el-Fna as the light goes. Food stalls set up on the square from late afternoon, and Morocco's tourist board lists the cast that gathers around them: storytellers, singers, fortune tellers and gnawa musicians. UK travel advice for Morocco is to ask permission before you photograph anyone, and on this square that means before you raise the phone.

Walk north through the souks early and start at the Ben Youssef Madrasa, at their northern end. The college was built in 1564 and 1565 under the Saadian sultan Abdallah al-Ghalib, and its own site counts 134 rooms that once housed students around a central court of carved cedar, plaster and tile.

Hours and prices are on the madrasa's official page. Beside it stands the Almoravid Koubba, a domed ablutions pavilion built in 1117 and one of the few buildings left from the city's founding dynasty. The ministry sells it at 100 dirhams for a foreign adult, twice the madrasa's price for a far smaller monument, so it is a stop for travelers with an interest in early Islamic architecture.

The souks fill the lanes between the madrasa and Jemaa el-Fna, and Souk Semmarine is the covered street that runs through them toward the square. Agree a price before a purchase is wrapped, and decline offers to be led anywhere. The UK travel advice for Morocco says people posing as official guides commonly approach tourists, and that a genuine guide in a medina carries an official badge.

Break the middle of the day at Le Jardin Secret in the Mouassine quarter, a restored riad garden with two cafés that are included in the entry ticket. It opens every day, tickets are sold at the entrance or online and need no time slot, and children under 12 enter free. Details are on the garden's own site. The rest of the afternoon belongs to your riad, and the evening to a slow dinner.

Take a taxi to the Jardin Majorelle for the first entry of the day. The garden is the one sight in this plan that must be bought ahead: tickets are sold only on its own ticket site, for a date and a time, and the garden states that tickets from any other website will not open the gate. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent is on the same street and is sold on the same site. It closes on Wednesdays.

Opening hours are on the Jardin Majorelle site and prices in its ticket office. From the garden it is a short ride to Place du 16 Novembre, the center of Gueliz, for lunch at a sidewalk café and the shops of the new town.

Late in the afternoon, ride out to the Menara, an olive grove with a large water basin and a pavilion at its edge. UNESCO names the basin and pavilion among the monuments of the listed city. The pavilion itself is ticketed by the Ministry of Culture at 60 dirhams for a foreign adult; the view people come for is from the basin's edge, toward the pavilion with the Atlas behind it on a clear day. Finish with a last evening on Jemaa el-Fna.

For each ride, UK government advice is to agree the fare in advance or check the meter is on, and to be wary of cars booked through ride-sharing apps, which may be unlicensed.

Three days is also enough to leave the city once, and day three is the one to trade. The Agafay Desert is the stony plateau closest to Marrakech, sold as a sunset with dinner at a camp. The mountain valleys around Imlil and the Ourika Valley are day trips into the High Atlas. Essaouira, on the Atlantic, is the long option: the regional tourism council names Supratours and CTM as the coach companies on that route.

A tour is the practical choice for the Atlas and the Agafay, since both need a driver. UK travel advice for Morocco says to book excursions through a reputable agent or your hotel, to hire a professional guide for hiking in the Atlas, and to wear a helmet on any quad bike; it also notes that some insurance policies exclude these activities. If you trade day three, move the Jardin Majorelle to 8:00 on day two and visit the madrasa after it, since the madrasa stays open until 19:00.

The big dunes are a different trip. Marrakech to Merzouga explains why the Sahara is a three-day trip of its own, and how to climb Toubkal covers the summit above Imlil for those adding days.

The Jardin Majorelle is the ticket to buy first: it is sold only online, for a set time, and the morning slots are the ones to take. The three ministry monuments are sold on the ministry's platform, one ticket per monument. The Ben Youssef Madrasa sells at the door while its online system is down, and Le Jardin Secret's ticket is valid for a year from purchase with no time attached.

The fixed costs are modest. An adult who sees everything on days one and two pays 350 dirhams: 300 for the three southern monuments and 50 for the madrasa. Day three adds 170 for the Majorelle garden, and Le Jardin Secret and the Yves Saint Laurent museum list their own prices. Children aged 7 to 13 pay half at the ministry sites, and under-12s pay 10 dirhams at the madrasa. Carry cash for the madrasa's door ticket and for taxis; how much cash to carry in Morocco and the tipping guide cover the rest.

From June to September, follow the opening hours exactly. Be at the gate at 9:00, or 8:00 at the Majorelle, be indoors by 1pm, and go out again after 5pm. The regional tourism council recommends the covered souks and the narrow streets of the medina for shade, which makes day two the easiest of the three in a heat wave and day three, with its open gardens, the hardest. The madrasa's 19:00 closing allows a visit in the last, cooler hour.

Winter reverses the problem. The council gives 20 to 25°C at noon with a sharp drop late in the afternoon, so the middle of the day is the comfortable part and a rooftop dinner needs a sweater. The council counts 340 days of sunshine a year, so rain matters most in the mountains: UK travel advice warns of flash flooding in winter in the mountains and near rivers, so move an Atlas or Ourika day if heavy rain is forecast and spend it in the palaces.

During Ramadan, which next begins in February 2027 according to UK travel advice, the Ben Youssef Madrasa closes at 16:30 and restaurant hours shift, so do both medina mornings as written and ask your riad about dinner. On a Wednesday, the Yves Saint Laurent museum is closed; the garden beside it is open.

With two days, keep days one and two and take the 8:00 Majorelle slot on the second morning before the madrasa. Families can drop the Badi and the Koubba without losing the thread and spend the saved hours at a pool. Travelers who came for the mountains should do the opposite of this plan: one full medina day, then two nights in Imlil.

Before you fly, compare travel insurance that covers medical care and any quad or trekking day, and check the best time to visit Morocco against your dates.