5 articles
4 June 2026
moroccoEssaouira Travel Guide: The Atlantic Coast Alternative to Marrakech
Essaouira is a walled Atlantic port 175km southwest of Marrakech, enclosed by 18th-century fortifications designed by a French military architect (Théodore Cornut, under the Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah). The medina is UNESCO World Heritage. The consistent trade…
Henrik Vinter
28 May 2026
moroccoChefchaouen Travel Guide: The Blue City of the Rif Mountains
Chefchaouen is a city of 45,000 people in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, 112km from Tangier and 200km from Fès. The medina is painted in shades of blue — cobalt, turquoise, powder blue, and indigo — that extend o
Henrik Vinter
12 April 2026
moroccoFez Travel Guide: Navigating the World's Largest Car-Free Urban Area
Fez el-Bali is a 1,200-year-old medina with 9,000 streets and no motor vehicles. It's the largest car-free urban area in the world. Getting lost is not a metaphor—it happens to everyone.
Henrik Vinter
22 January 2026
moroccoMorocco Beyond Marrakech: Fez, Chefchaouen, and the Sahara
Marrakech absorbs four million tourists annually while Fez — home to the largest intact medieval medina in the world, with 9,400 pedestrian streets largely unchanged since the 14th century — receives a fraction of that traffic. The imbalance has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with flight routes and Instagram algorithms. If you have more than four days in Morocco, Fez outperforms Marrakech for the kind of immersive urban disorientation most travellers actually seek. Adding Chefchaouen and the Sahara transforms a Morocco itinerary beyond Marrakech from pleasant to substantial.
Henrik Vinter
11 January 2026
moroccoFirst Time in Marrakech: What to Expect (and What to Ignore)
Marrakech is a functioning city of 1.2 million people built around a 1,000-year-old medina, not a heritage site that happens to contain residents. Most first-timers expect it to feel like a larger version of European old towns—manageable, predictable, visually coherent. It isn't. The medina disorients intentionally in places. But the intensity is structural, not dangerous: it requires different navigation confidence than Paris or Bangkok, not a higher security threshold. You navigate it by learning three anchor points and understanding that every negotiation, persistent tout offer, and unmarked doorway follows rules you'll recognize once explained.
Henrik Vinter