While researching Morocco I stumbled across photos of a “Blue City” and I just knew that Elise and I had to see this in person. So I did what I always do, and I sent a few photos over to Elise. That was enough to convince her that we had to find a way to include this in our itinerary, but the challenge was, how? We were flying in and out of Casablanca, we wanted to do the camel camping in the Sahara Desert, explore Marrakech, and now we wanted to add in the Chefchaouen which was way up north in Morocco. Luckily, we both really wanted to go here and were set on finding a way to make it fit into our one week stay in Morocco. Had we not done this, we would have missed out on what easily became our favorite city in Morocco!
By the time we reached Chefchaoeun we had already spent time in Casablanca, Marrakech, the Sahara desert, and in Fes. We found the best way to get to the Blue City would be to take the first bus out of Fes, the bus ride was around 3 hours and through some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. Immediately upon arrival in Chefchaoeun, this city just felt different than any of the others that we had been to so far. There was less hustle and bustle and while walking past shops to our Airbnb no one tried to haggle with us or pull us into their shops…wait, what?! It’s true, there is a city in Morocco where you can freely shop without feeling like you have to walk out with at least one item. In fact, when we did want to purchase something we actually had to poke our heads out to find the shop owners. This made us excited to get out and see what else was in this town. We figured it would be perfect to explore with a local so we booked a tour of the city that day with our Airbnb host Mohamed.
Mohamed was a great guide, he was born and raised in Chefchaouen and had perfect little anecdotes about all the places we passed. He led us through the streets to all of the prettiest blue areas and he explained the history of the city. We even had a nice break for mint tea and cookies before heading up to watch sunset at the Spanish temple. Sunset was absolutely gorgeous from above the city and a wonderful way to round out the day before dinner!
We spent the next morning enjoying breakfast and then wandering around the city and shopping. It felt really good to be able to shop without feeling like we had to buy anything. We did, however, end up with leather purses, magnets, paintings, and postcards. When it was time to leave, we found ourselves wishing that we had more time here, but we were delighted that we decided to add Chefchaouen onto our itinerary! To get back to Casablanca we read through all the options and opted to take the 5 hour private taxi that Mohamed helped set up for us.
If you’re interested in Morocco you check out our Marrakech to Fes Tour or Camel Camping in the Sahara Desert.
