Marrakech?

I'm hoping you'll receive some responses as my family and I will be in Marrakech in December for the first time. We are arriving from Fes after a two-day trip in the Sahara Desert. The one thing we've planned in Marrakech so far is a half-day cooking class with our family, ages 9-79. I'll be following your post.

OP, when you say as a "stand-alone visit" just how "stand-alone" do you mean? Do you mean you are going to Marrakech only, and not going anywhere else in Morocco? If you are going to Marrakech and some other places, where?

Most of us generally have to make trade-offs when planning trips: on a trip to the UK, X days in London, Y days as day-trips out and back, then Z days in Edinburgh, etc.

Not knowing how long your trip is, and where else you are going, makes it hard to recommend how many of your days to spend in Marrakech (and whether or not you are counting day-trips from your base there).

Lacking that context, I'd say that for me, a couple full days in Marrakech itself seemed about right, but that was part of a longer trip to multiple other places across Morocco (although I'd certainly recommend some time in Marrakech, there's plenty of other good places to see and do in the country).

We were there about a year ago and stayed three days, but that was as part of a 10 day trip all around Morocco. Three days was nice: one day to see some sights around our riad, and relax in the riad pool; one day to see the rest of the medina, Djemaa el Fnaa, and do a food tour of the medina; and one day for la Nouvelle Ville. If it was a standalone trip, I would probably add two or three days: one for a day trip to the sea at Essaouira (or Agadir); one for a day trip up into the High Atlas / Toubkal or Tizi n'Tchika Pass; and one extra day to relax in Marrakech. So 5 or 6 days, I would say.

We usually stay in one place, e.g., Vienna, and take day trips by car to a few other places. Occasionally we'd do a longer trip and combine Vienna with three days in Prague or Budapest. (Our next trip to Vienna will be our seventh.) We'd be open to a few more days with a second homebase.

So, what else in Morocco would be fun?

Thanks.