Morocco, Unhurried: Riads, Trains and the Right Way to Do the Sahara
By Huzi
File #516 · 3 min read
Morocco received a record 14 million visitors, and Marrakech now out-ranks Cairo and Cape Town as Africa's most-visited city. The country rewards travelers who slow down and punishes the checklist crowd. Here is the short version of doing it right.
The quick answer: Base yourself in a medina riad at $50-200 a night, move between cities by train, and book the Sahara camp in Merzouga village rather than from a Marrakech tout. Travel October to April, when the desert heat stays bearable.
The riad decision
A riad — a traditional house around a courtyard, with a fountain and a rooftop terrace — is the correct Marrakech base at $50-200 a night. The trade-off: the medina's alleys admit no cars, so your riad manager meets you at the nearest drivable point and walks you in. It is a feature, not a bug.
The walk-in is part of the romance: alleys too narrow for a scooter, a door you would never find alone, and tea while the paperwork of arrival sorts itself out.
Gueliz, the new town, runs the sterile hotel route if you want parking more than atmosphere.
Trains first, buses second
| Way | What it costs | The note |
|---|---|---|
| Al Boraq train | $30, Tangier to Casablanca in 2 hours 10 minutes | Africa's only true bullet train |
| Classic rail legs | $10-30 a leg | Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, Meknes, Marrakech |
| CTM buses | — | Fill the gaps in the rail map |
| Rental car | — | Only worth it for the Atlas Mountain crossing |
| Desert camp | $50-150 basic, $200-400 en-suite | Book in Merzouga, October to April |
Book first class on any rail leg over two hours — clean, on time, air-conditioned. Trains and mountain crossings are itinerary work, which is desk work: HTG Travels builds Morocco runs the way we build our own mountain runs, with the riad chosen before the flight is.
The Sahara, honestly
The dunes everyone photographs are Erg Chebbi near Merzouga — nine hours from Marrakech through the Atlas, past Ait Benhaddou's UNESCO kasbah.
The standard package: two to three days, a camel trek at sunset, a night in a desert camp with the en-suite tents and the fancy lanterns at the top end. The 5 AM dune climb is the moment that outlives everything else — orange sand, absolute silence, the sun coming up over Algeria.
Pro tip: Book the camp in Merzouga village itself, not from touts in Marrakech — that is the difference between the 5 AM climb being the best hour of your year and being a hot march.
The medina rules
"Official guides" in Fes and Marrakech are unofficial — they lead you to their cousin's shop and collect commission. A polite no plus your phone's map ends it.
Eat where Moroccan men eat: the small counters serving tagine at $5-8, not rooftop restaurants with menus in five languages. Jemaa el-Fnaa at night — the UNESCO-listed square of storytellers and food stalls feeding 50,000 people — is the single best free show in North Africa.
Mint tea is poured three times here and in Palestine alike — a Maghreb-to-Mashrek arc of hospitality that politics keeps failing to divide.
Morocco's e-visa ($20-50, 24-72 hours) plus the Casablanca connections out of the Gulf make it surprisingly reachable from Pakistan — and the HTG Travels desk in Sialkot handles the file, the riad booking, and the Merzouga camp that will actually answer in December. Message +92 317 5054959 and start with the e-visa.
