Morocco Travel Blog | The Blue Pearl - Chefchouen

Uploaded by Mariam Shibly on 2018-02-07.

Chefchouen is hands down, my favorite part about Morocco (second favorite next to the Sahara Desert I suppose, but you can actually live here). It's a small city known as the Blue Pearl, up North in the Riff Mountains painted in all shades of blue. Yes, the streets, the walls, the homes, anything they can paint will be in a variety of blue. It's beautiful and amazing also because blue is our favorite color.

Asides from the natural beauty, the people here are the second best part about this city. They are so hospitable and chill. They aren't up tourists' butt and let us do our own thing. They patiently wait to the side for you to finish up your picture in their alleys or even offer to take one for you. Chouens give a hand whenever they can and on top of it, they're always giving their best.

How do you get here? There is no direct flight to Chefchaouen. You can take a five hour bus ride from Fes like we did or a two hour bus ride from Tangier. Either way, it's a bit of drive, but absolutely worth it.

Casa Hassan Tissemlal is a "formal" restaurant nearby Casa Perlata with probably the best food in Chefchouen or better yet all of Morocco.

• When: opens for dinner around 8:30 pm so make sure you call ahead before walking over there to see if they're open for lunch/dinner

• Cost: entrees cost around 30-70 dirhams plus dessert which is around 20-50 dirhams, so basically a meal for two of us cost a little less than $30

• Who: the restaurant is a part of the Casa Hassan hotel riad, ask the locals for directions on how to get here (it's pretty simple once you find out how to get there)

• Duration: takes about less than 20 minutes for them to fire up your food so pretty average wait

• Tips: order the steak! It was so flavorful and delicious and it's hard to find steak in general without it being in tagine so definitely take advantage.

• My personal experience: Our riad staff gave us this recommendation and we took their word on it for being the best. Once again our staff was on point and that was probably the most flavorful food we've had in Morocco. The steak was our favorite. It was so tender and juicy, ugh we really wish we had more nights to eat dinner there. We'd definitely come back to this restaurant, probably eat there every other night on our next visit.

Lecheria Sadiki is the best smoothie stand you'll ever find and I can bet probably in all of Morocco as well.

• When: we found out when we were leaving in the AM that this amazing smoothie stand does not open until evening hours

• Cost: about 20-30 dirhams so $2 or $3 (amazing!)

• Who: a stand just run by young dudes

• Duration: takes about 5-10 minutes for it to be made

• Tips: get the Zaza mixed fruit drink, you'll never taste anything as good and fresh as that!

• My personal experience: we were talking to our riad host, Simo who was just gulping this smoothie down so we asked him where to get that. Turns out you can also get egg and cheese sandwiches there too where were pretty good, but the drinks are way better! I've never had avocado milk smoothie before, but this is definitely now my favorite smoothie! They put other fresh fruits in there as well with some chocolate syrup, you can't beat this. I was determined to get this drink again before we left Chechouen, but that's when we found out the hard way they're only open in the evening :( so get as much of it as you can!

Morocco Travel Blog | Casa Perlata Riad - Chefchouen

Casa Perlata is the boutique hotel, also known as a riad, that we stayed at. They're owned by two young brothers who are extremely hospitable. Actually everyone in that riad is very personable and generous. 

• When: open year round

• Cost: double room for about 55€ so about $62 a night (this price includes breakfast and taxes)

• Who: feel free to contact the awesome hosts Simo or Ismail at info@casaperleta.com

• Duration: we stayed here for 2 nights and 3 days, but you can easily stay a lot longer especially if you pack light!

• Tips: pack light for this small city, pack a pair of hiking clothes, a jacket or cardigan for the chilly nights and summer outfits for the sunny days

My personal experience: It's a really cozy and a cute riad. It's not luxurious, but it's very homely and we loved it. The rooms are tiny, but what do you expect in a small city up in the mountains? The staff are extremely personable, we actually adored the hosts Simo and Ismail who are brothers. We would come to them with our questions of where to eat, how to get anywhere, our problems of when the bus station ran out of bus tickets and we needed a driver, and especially a favor they helped with the most, a hike to the Ackour Waterfalls in the Rif Mountains. Simo and Ismail basically said either of us will come with you guys along with a driver and do the hike with you! Yes that's how sweet and hospitable they are. (Follow up with the Ackour Waterfalls post for more details). All their recommendations were on point and they left us with the best driver to take us back to Fes' train station. I just have to put a short spiel about the driver because he was absolutely the coolest. Both on the way to the Rif mountain hike and to Fes, he pointed out everything that we should know about. He even stopped on the way to grab us fresh pomegranate from the locals. He was a speedy, yet very cautious driver. We even had a bit of car trouble on the way (bless his car with our obnoxious luggage) and he had a convenient tool box to manage us to get us to the next gas station and resolved it. Bottom line, we were beyond content with our stay here and would definitely come back to this riad!

Morocco Travel Blog | Spanish Mosque - Chefchouen

Spanish Mosque is one of the most historic monuments of this city sitting on top of a ruined hill. The trail begins near the Eastern gate called Bab Al-Ansar.

• When: open all year long as long as there's no snow covering the trail

• Cost: free

• Who: the Spanish built the mosque for the local population during the Rif war when they seized this city. The people refused to use it and now is it just an abandoned building, no one has actually prayed in it

• Duration: it's a steep incline path to get to the Spanish mosque takes you about 20-30 minutes starting from the beginning of the trail. It's a great workout

• Tips: sunglasses for the bright sun, maybe even a sun hat and a water bottle

• My personal experience: I casually walked up there in a dress and leggings so it's not a real hike. The path is basically made for you, it's just some incline to battle with. We had fun walking up there and got some great pics overlooking the blue city. It is truly one spectacular view of Chefchouen.

Morocco Travel Blog | Ackour Waterfalls - Chefchouen

Uploaded by Mariam Shibly on 2018-02-07.

If you're visiting Chefchouen, you must make a trip to the Rif Mountains or else you're missing out on half the beauty. It's about a half hour drive from the blue city and very easy to find drivers especially through your hotel or riad.

• When: Spring or Summer is the best time to visit so you can take a dive into these waterfalls!

• Cost: the drive there and back will usually cost you around 400 dirhams and a guide which you will definitelly need, costs 400 dirhams as well. So about $80 total for the both of us

• Who: we went with our riad host, Ismail and his reliable driver

• Duration: usually takes about 4 hours, but our guide told us we were the first ones to make the whole trip in 2.5 hours (because we didn't take our sweet time with lunch at the top)

• Tips: learn the city's secret and wear blue to avoid insects, old gym shoes and a spandex hiking outfit - incline is high, be ready to slip left and right

• My personal experience: I was really psyched about this since we heard a lot of interesting things about Rif Mountains, how beautiful they are and how crazy the hasish plantation owners are. We definitely experienced the beauty of the Rif Mountains throughout our drive and hike into the waterfalls, but definitely no hostility from the locals - maybe because our guide knew them pretty well. This was probably one of the toughest and steepest hikes I've ever done. I've never had to river hop so often, but it was so much fun! Each river was so beautiful and exciting to cross with the vast stepping stones to choose from. I slipped a couple times so make sure you bring gym shoes with good grip! I've also never climbed sand before so that was interesting and quite hilarious. It's a great workout and every part of the way is just gorgeous and filled with surprises. You hike up a couple levels and suddenly you find yourself in a cornfield (yeah so random but this is what I mean!). We got to the waterfall pretty fast and we went early in the morning so we on the way there we had it all to ourselves and I'm glad. The waterfall is stunning! I wish it was warm enough for us to take a dip, but it was still beautiful to experience. Enjoy the hike, it's worth all that effort!