After nearly 50 years of visiting Morocco I now have four favourite places I like to stay, each of them quite different, each suitable for a variety of moods. I'm not a great city lover, I much prefer smaller towns and the outstanding beauty of the Moroccan countryside, mountains and desert.

TAFRAOUTE: In no particular order, the first of these spots is Tafraoute in the Anti Atlas mountains. The town is renowned for its babouche (slippers) manufacture and it's a hub for almond, argan oil and amlou (almond and argan mix) production. The local speciality is beef tagine with prunes and almonds.



The town is surrounded by pink quartzite peaks, with marvellous walks, scrambles and gorges. Coupled with more than 80 fascinating medieval granaries to explore, perched in the most inaccessible spots.


The stone steps to reach the upper levels of this granary reminded me of the Lake District

SIDI IFNI: At about the same lattitude is my second spot, Sidi Ifni, a Spanish art deco-styled town on the Atlantic coast. I once planned to stop two nights here and ended up staying eleven which says something for the chilled atmosphere. Many happy memories of nursing a Flag Special lager at the beach bar watching the sun sink into the ocean, whilst snacking on my 1 dh bag of popcorn. One outstanding meal there started with sea urchin soup.


The view south from Sidi Ifni's Bellvue Hotel

ESSAOUIRA: Further north, my third favourite is Essaouira , again on the Atlantic coast. A definite bohemian feel to the place with lots to see and explore both in the medina and new town. Fish, fish and more fish means the town is filled with happy contented cats, and fish is on the menus of the many restaurants with great fish or sea food soup.


Fishing boats in Essaouira harbour

AZROU: But the one I fell in love with first is Azrou. On motorbike trips a couple of decades back I found I was going through Azrou twice on each trip as it's set at a crossroads. One road (N13) leads from Meknes via Azrou to the desert around Merzouga, the other road (N8) leads from Fez via Azrou to Marrakech.


Azrou photographed through the seasons

Azrou is a one day ride from the ports of Tanger and Ceuta and many years ago I seriously considered buying the land in the photos above and building a motorbiking base there. I spent six weeks investigating and negotiating before deciding I didn't want to be in charge of a building project, so ended up buying a cave in Spain instead.


After snow and minus 10ºC temperatures the roads were ploughed and gritted, so now riding one-handed taking photos!

What is it about Azrou that makes it one of my top four? It’s a friendly vibrant market town (Tuesday market) surrounded by beautiful mountains with cedar and holm oak forests, wild flowers, stream and lakes, wild monkeys and fascinating geology.



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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)