Morocco Food Holidays and Morocco Hotels To Visit

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Fez

For medina life

Fez's old medina is the heart of social life for locals, where they meet friends for tea or coffee and to buy spices, fresh fruit and veg, incense and traditional dresses for Eid. Explore the winding, shaded streets then nab an outdoor table at Café Al Oud to watch the world go by over the signature lamb tagine. Afterwards, climb the steep, narrow stone steps Abdullah Thé & Café where 81-year-old Ba Abdullah has been serving his signature mint tea since 1969. If you want a guide, join a Fez Cooking School class. Meet your chef and guide over tea at Palais Amani before venturing into the heart of the medina to shop for veg, olives and spices, snack on traditional treats and chat to local merchants. Learn how to make a three-course Moroccan meal back on the rooftop, then enjoy it in the peaceful courtyard with new friends. Come evening, relax on the higgledy-piggledy rooftop of Cafe Clock, offering mountain and medina views as well as cheese briouats, hearty rfissa and mint lemonade with the backdrop of live Arab and oud music.

Where to stay: Step in from the hustle and bustle of Fez’s old medina to peaceful riad, Palais Amani, centred around a courtyard abundant with orange trees, shaded tables and chairs, and trickling fountains. Look out for Ba Mohammed perched on his cushion ready to serve traditional mint tea. The rooftop is a haven of cushioned relaxation areas set among terracotta pots of peach bougainvillea, olive trees and rose bushes. On-site restaurant Eden serves traditional Moroccan cuisine such as slow-cooked aubergine zaalouk, pastilla stuffed with cinnamon-spiced chicken and nuts, lamb tagine and vegetable couscous. Breakfast platters of colourful bowls filled with jams, olives, herbed cottage cheese and olive oil accompany silver pots of tea and a daily rotating Moroccan soup served with warm, fennel-flecked flatbreads. Stained-glass windows adorn the bedrooms along with intricate bedheads, handwoven rugs and dark wood cabinets. Hotel luxuries are all sourced in Morocco, from Sultan herbal teas to essential oil bath products. Extend the pampering experience and pad down to the hammam for a sensory experience of hot water, steam, scrubbing and massaging, leaving you feeling as clean as you will ever be.

Doubles from £172, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Stores in the medina streets of Fez, Morocco.

Marrakech

For bustling markets

Explore the bustling markets and food stalls of energetic Marrakech. Visit in winter for eclectic Christmas gift-buying from souks and usual daytime temperatures of 16-20C.

There are plenty of intriguing food stalls to be found among Marrakech’s crowded streets and, after sunset in the main square, Jemaa el-Fna, where pop-up restaurants serve Marrakechi delicacies (sheep’s eyes, anyone?). Fight for a spot on a surrounding roof terrace and watch the stalls set up while you sip a mint tea. At Le Tobsil restaurant in the medina, guests sit on two levels around a courtyard, taking in live gnawa music (blues/Arabic fusion). Book and come hungry for the set menu of aperitifs, endless meze dishes, pastilla, tagine, couscous, fruit, mint tea or coffee, and pastries to finish. In the city’s bakeries, look out for the local special-occasion cake, m’hancha, a coiled ‘snake pastry’ made with almond paste, orange flower water and cinnamon. Take home saffron and spices from the souks, eating street-sellers’ roasted nuts as you go.

For something more refined, head to Le Jardin, a courtyard restaurant filled with verdant plants and wildlife – you’ll often find tortoises slowly meandering between tables. Sweet, flakey pigeon pastilla, Moroccan cous cous and whole grilled sardines are must-try dishes. Be sure to book in advance as these tables are highly covetable.

Where to stay: Riad Farnatchi is a luxurious, all-suites hotel – and a welcome oasis from the commotion of Marrakech. Five houses were remodelled (and joined together) to create Riad Farnatichi’s ten luxurious suites. All are gathered around two central courtyards, one of which is home to a small swimming pool, one abundant with orange trees, and each with plenty of private nooks to relax in with a mint tea. The 10 suites vary in size but each one blends Moroccan and European styles, with neutral white and stone-coloured walls and eye-catching black and white tiling. Book suite 10 and you’ll also have a walk-in shower, a marble-topped bath and your own roof terrace.

There is no minibar, nor tea and coffee-making facilities, but obliging staff are on call to deliver whatever you fancy, often accompanied by traditional sweets or biscuits. Breakfast can be taken anywhere throughout the hotel and includes a menu of eggs alongside fresh fruit and traditional homemade breads. The hotel restaurant Le Trou au Mur offers international dishes alongside refined versions of dishes that would be found in traditional Moroccan homes. Many restaurants in Marrakech are understandably dry, but Le Trou Au Mur is not one of them. Morocco also has a burgeoning wine scene – something the team there has embraced. The menu offers a range of local wines by the glass or bottle, with staff on hand to talk you through the selection.

Suites from £298 per night, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

The hotel swimming pool Photo b Riad Farnatchi

Essaouira

For a coastal break

Essaouira, on Morocco’s often-blustery west coast, pulls in kite surfers from across the world, along with free-thinking expats on the trail of Jimi Hendrix and tourists looking for a bargain in the souks of the town’s bustling medina. Meander through narrow streets, past hole-in-the-wall boutiques and carts flogging fresh bread, and barter for souvenirs in the souks before ducking in to one of Essaouira’s restaurants for tagines and hearty salads.

Don’t miss Patisserie Driss, a small bakery founded in 1928. Queue up with locals to grab a pain au chocolat from the counter, behind which hundreds of framed photographs of the bakery’s visitors line wood-panelled walls; or duck through an arch to the adjoining tiled café for a nous nous (half espresso, half steamed milk) and a sticky bun.

For a quick lunch, head to the port and the gargottes stalls that sell flash-fried sardine sandwiches fresh from blue wooden fishing boats, or hop on a camel to plod along the beach to Ocean Vagabond, a cool daytime hangout where you can sip on a freshly squeezed orange juice or a zingy cocktail and watch colourful kites dart through the skies while camels soak up the sun on the dunes.

Morocco may be a largely Muslim country but it has a long history of winemaking. Essaouira boasts some top-notch wines and even an award-winning vineyard to visit, Val d’Argan.

Where to stay: Set in the hills above the city, Jardin des Douars is an oasis of palms, plants and monkey puzzle trees. The French-owned hotel is a calm retreat of 25 rooms, spaced out between a main ksar building and various terracotta villas in Jardin des Douars’ tropical garden.

There’s a laid-back, mellow feel at this tranquil hideaway, with an air of French chicness weaving through traditional Moroccan features – secret courtyards hide fountains decorated with classic zellige tiles, palms brush against walls lined with African art, and Berber rugs warm up earthy tiled floors. Behind heavy wooden doors are luxurious rooms that stick to a traditional Moroccan style – squishy beds are covered with colourful throws, French doors with intricate carvings open out onto private patios and antique furniture fills up atmospheric alcoves.

Make sure you do a safari of the restaurant spaces during your stay, as each provides a unique experience. Book a couple of plush armchairs in La Table des Douars’ intimate little room, off the main courtyard, for a hushed candlelit dinner reflected in the 30-or-so gilt-framed mirrors down one wall. For a more relaxed affair, sprawl out in the sunken, cushioned area of the hotel’s main restaurant Le Ksar, a palatial room decked out in burnt orange and red hues, boasting spectacular views of the gardens and the argan tree-filled valley below.

Doubles from £152, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Adult pool at Jardin Des Douars Hotel Essaouira

Atlas Mountains

For rural exploring

Half an hour outside Marrakech, you can find yourself in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Hotels in the area offer a range of excursions, from half-day hikes to more strenuous whole-day treks with a local guide and the opportunity to visit the weekly souk at Tahnaout. Berbers from the mountains haggle over straggly sheep and goats, while tethered donkeys wait patiently. Wander through the maze of makeshift stalls, past piles of vegetables on mats on the ground, mounds of salt and sacks of spices, crates of apples from the Atlas Mountains and lentils from the Kik Plateau. Locals buy their meat from the butcher stalls, and vegetables, spices and a ladle of olive oil from a seller sitting crosslegged amid bottles of murky golden liquid, and bring the ingredients here to be cooked.

Pass along the river valley to Douar Azrou, a Berber village. A jumble of stone houses, bedded into the red rocks, it was once on an important caravan trade route and is now protected by UNESCO.

Where to stay: Kasbah Angour is a tranquil hilltop retreat built in Moroccan style by English expat Paul Foulsham and run by a team of local Berbers. The property is surrounded by 10 acres of meticulously manicured grounds with a backdrop of snow-covered peaks. There are just 25 rooms, stone floors scattered with brightly coloured rugs, a dreamy pool and a generous peppering of cushion-strewn sun traps and shaded seating areas. It’s a world away from the mayhem of Marrakech. Excursions into the mountains, villages and markets can all be arranged.

Doubles from £187, check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk