15 Fabulous Things to Do in Morocco with Teens
If you’re looking for the best things to do in Morocco with teens, keep reading. This colorful, exotic country in North Africa can be a ton of fun for young people. There are endless adventure activities and cultural experiences to be had on your family vacation.
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You might be surprised to learn that, thanks to the country’s family values, Morocco can be a very safe place to visit with kids of all ages. There is something for everyone, from younger children to teens in high school. Whether you’re exploring the souks in Marrakech or going for camel rides in the Sahara, there’s so much to do!
Morocco is a good place to expose young adults to a different culture and learn to expand their travel skills, but even the most experienced travelers can find this country overwhelming to navigate.
I recommend using private transfers instead of public transportation for travel, especially if it’s your first time in the country. You’ll find that a lot of the things to do in Morocco with teens on this list involve tours, which is one of my favorite ways to experience a new place.
Best Things to Do in Morocco with Teens
1. Visit Marrakech
Probably the most visited city in this North African country is Marrakech. It is home to the main airport in the region, but it’s also a cultural hub.
Nicknamed The Red City because of its beaten clay buildings, Marrakech is one of the best places in Morocco to enjoy a casual tourist experience.
Visiting Souks
You can walk around the medina, the old town, and discover landmarks like Le Jardin Secret, a 19th-century palace with pools and gardens. Some must-visits in Marrakech are the souks like Souk Semmarine and Jemaa el-Fna.
Souks are a great place to witness daily life in Marrakech, but they can be overwhelming. Book a guided tour of a souk so local guides can teach you about the history and how to bargain at the best shops.
Jemaa el-Fna is the main square of Marrakech and the most popular souk. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its history as a place for storytelling, games, snake charmers, and performances.
Souks are also marketplaces filled with a hodge podge of small shops, spice and food stalls, and local artisans. It’s the perfect place to pick up some traditional souvenirs like lamps, carpets, leather slippers, ceramics, and teapots.
Traditional Marrakech experiences
Speaking of tea, you cannot leave Marrakech without trying at least one glass of Moroccan mint tea. Café Arabe is a great place to find the best cup, but you’ll find it on menus everywhere.
Also try as much orange juice as you can, as it’s known as some of the best in the world. This is another reason why Morocco with teens is perfect – none of the top activities in this Arab country revolve around alcohol!
Another key Moroccan adventure is to book a spa experience at a Hamman, a traditional Arab bathhouse. While young teens might not be interested in having their dead skin roughly scrubbed off, it’s a perfect itinerary addition for older teens’ trips! Choose a family hamman like Isis Spa.
If you want to know more about the best things to do in Marrakech, you can read this guest post by a native Moroccan!
2. Hot Air Balloon Ride over Marrakech
Why not get an overview of the Atlas Mountains running through the Sahara Desert and the medina’s labyrinthine streets from above? Marrakech is the best place to book a hot air balloon ride for the whole family. The views are unparalleled!
Many of the best hot air balloon rides outside of Marrakech include a traditional Berber breakfast (to make up for the early start!). They often also include a camel or quad bike ride to the launch spot. At around $200 per person, all this as well as a one-hour flight in the clouds is a bargain.
3. Off-Roading Through the Dunes
As well as the culture and views, another great thing about visiting Morocco with teens is the endless list of adrenaline-inducing activities. Going quad biking in a 4WD 4×4 all-terrain vehicle on Morocco’s cinematic dunes is guaranteed to be a thrill.
One of the best places to go off-roading on the dunes from Marrakech is Erg Chebbi near Merzouga. These dunes sprawl for miles and are approximately 492 feet high. You and your family will have a great time riding around the desert for hours on end.
However, it’s important to note that the ideal dunes for off-roading are at least a 10-hour drive from Marrakech. This isn’t a day trip nor somewhere you can reach via public transport! Look into multi-day tours so you can pair sand duning with other incredible experiences in the remote desert.
Check out Sahara Tours 4×4 for private, bespoke dune trips. They can arrange any itinerary. There are classic trips that include camel riding and staying in riads or even visiting specific places like Fez or the Blue City of Chefchaouen. This will certainly satiate your teens’ need for adventure as well as offer a unique, cultural experience.
4. Tour Aït Benhaddou
Located along the historic caravan route where local communities would travel between the Sahara Desert to Marrakech, the fortified village of Aït Benhaddou is a must-visit in Morocco for teens.
Its extraordinary earthen clay buildings make it one of the best examples of Berber villages from the 17th century. This UNESCO Heritage Site is surrounded by palm trees and the architecture is unlike anything you have ever seen before.
One reason why your teens will love to tour Aït Benhaddou is that it’s a prolific filming location for many famous movies and TV shows. Aït Benhaddou appears in season three of Game of Thrones as Yunkai, one of the cities in Slaver’s Bay where Daenerys Targaryen lays siege. It also appeared in Gladiator (2000), The Mummy (1999), and a ton of other epic desert films.
At around three hours and 20 minutes from Marrakech, the city is a great idea for a day trip. Joining a small group tour to Aït Benhaddou means your transportation is organized, plus you have extras. A local guide will tell you the village’s history in detail, facilitate any tickets, and provide extras like lunch.
5. Stay in a Riad
Riads (you might also see them spelled ryad or riyad) are traditional Moroccan houses that usually have an enclosed but open-roofed garden and courtyard in their center. Some even have a small swimming pool in the middle of the courtyard!
You can find them all over Morocco, especially in ancient cities like Marrakech and Fez, in the medinas. Riads date as far back as the 12th century and they belonged to royal, powerful, and wealthy families.
Due to their size and grandeur, many riads have been transformed into guesthouses and hotels while retaining their old-world charm. They aren’t necessarily a ‘luxury’ accommodation option (although many are!) so there are riads in Morocco available at affordable prices. Some include breakfast, spa facilities, and much more.
One of the best riads in Marrakech for families traveling in Morocco with teens is Riad Kaiss. This four-star boutique hotel has traditional terracotta clay walls, green Andalucian tile, a hotel pool, and large suites perfect for families. It’s well-equipped with an incredible roof terrace and, and quite reasonable. Families will love its super central location near the Bahia Palace.
Staying in a riad is a bucket list item for many travelers. Your teens will no doubt enjoy posting many selfies of these gorgeous places on Instagram!
6. Tour the Bahia Palace and Badi Palace
Bahia Palace is a 19th-century Moroccan and Islamic-style building in the heart of Marrakesh. Its name means ‘brilliance’ in Arabic and, covered in mosaics, paintings, and ornate carvings, it truly is one of the most brilliant palaces of its time.
The property has been used as a royal residence since 1965 when Morocco gained independence from France. Later, King Hassan II gave it to the Moroccan Ministry of Culture so that it could be an example of the vibrant culture in Morocco for tourists.
Just across the road is the Badi Palace. This 16th-century, red clay palace is less impressive than the Bahia Palace but no less special. You can still explore the gardens surrounding the ruins and walk around the old orange orchard.
Both palaces are fascinating and there is so much more to see and discover about their history! Booking a guided tour of Bahia and Badi Palace, with skip-the-line tickets, is a good idea so your teens don’t get bored (or burned) waiting in the hot sun. Most tours also include an optional visit to the Saadian Tombs so you can kill three birds with one stone!
7. Get Henna Tattoos
You might associate henna tattoos with South Asian culture, but henna’s history and significance stretches across the Asian continent to Arab countries like Morocco too. It’s customary for Moroccans to receive temporary henna tattoos on their hands and wrists (using dye from the henna plant) on special occasions that last up to three weeks.
Take your teens to the Marrakech Henna Art Café so you can receive a henna tattoo with a traditional design from one of the trained artists. You can also enjoy a glass of mint tea or orange juice while you’re there. Win-win!
8. Take a Cooking Class
Couscous, hearty tagine, spicy falafel… Moroccan food is a beautiful blend of Arabic and Mediterranean dishes. Tagine, named after the pot it is traditionally cooked in, is a hearty lamb and chickpea stew. There are many different variations, but it’s almost always spicy and delicious!
If you want to learn to cook tagine, there are cooking classes in Marrakech you can book. This tagine cooking class is a great option. It will take you to the souks to choose ingredients (warn your teens that some of the ingredients might be fairly “fresh”!) before going to a kitchen to make tagine and Moroccan salad.
This is a great way for your teens to pick up new essential skills while covering lunch for the day.
9. Beach Day Trip to Agadir or Essaouira
Morocco boasts over 2,000 miles of coastline so it’s the perfect destination for a trip to the beach! There are two great day options from Marrakech. Agadir is 3 hours to the south or Essaouira which is two hours and 45 minutes to the west.
Due to the warm Moroccan weather and the roaring Atlantic coast, it’s the perfect place to take surf lessons. Whether your teens are beginners or have surfed before, they can take a two-hour surf lesson (with lunch and transport!) in a small town outside of Agadir. You can also find surf lessons in Essaouira which also include wetsuit rental and pick-up for complete beginners.
If you’re visiting Morocco with teens not interested in water sports, there are some beautiful beaches in both cities where you can relax. Check out the six-mile Plage d’Agadir in Agadir or Plage Tagharte in Essaouira.
10. Tour a Movie Studio
Aït Benhaddou is a great place to visit for movie fans, but if your kids are real movie buffs then you can go one better. Atlas Film Studio in Ouarzazate is just a 30-minute drive from Aït Benhaddou. It’s a working movie studio with incredible sets from Roman, Moroccan, and Egyptian epic movies.
It’s super easy to combine a day trip to Aït Benhaddou and Atlas Studios on this private tour which includes entrance fees.
11. Stay in a Luxury Tent in the Sahara
Already looking at multi-day tours to the Erg Chebbi region to go off-roading through the dunes? Combine this side trip with a stay in a luxury tent, deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert.
You’ll be able to get a taste of the nomadic lifestyle of local Moroccan people in centuries gone by, except with a lot of creature comforts! There are many luxury desert camps in Erg Chebbi.
Many boast private bathrooms, beautiful soft furnishings, and room for four people. Some camps even boast a tented swimming pool and restaurant out in the desert!
12. Go on a Sunset Camel Ride in the Desert
The best time to try camel riding for the first time is either on your desert trip or as a day trip from Marrakech.
Palmeraie is just a 20-minute drive outside of the city so it’s the perfect place to go for a sunset camel ride. It’s extra special at this time of the day and you’ll all feel like an explorer or Lawrence of Arabia!
Most tours, like the one recommended, will pick you up at your hotel or riad and include a trip to a local Berber family home. You can either have a shared or private camel ride and there is instruction if it’s your first time on a camel.
Riding a camel is much closer to horse riding than any other type of animal riding in that, as long as the animals are treated well, their hardy bodies are made for it. They’re also known to form connections with humans!
13. Sahara Sandboarding
One of the best alternatives (or additions) to off-roading in the Sahara Desert is sand boarding. Your feet are strapped into a board (like a snowboard, but slightly shorter) which allows you to board down the dunes to the bottom.
Make sure this activity is included in your travel insurance because you can, and probably will, tumble a few times before you get the hang of it! Your teens will love this unique experience!
Sandboarding is often included as an activity in multi-day desert tours in places like Agadir or Merzouga.
14. Fossil Hunting in the Desert
Do your teens have a head for science? If so, the best trip for them would be this cool fossil-hunting tour in the Sahara Desert. This multi-day tour is private so you can start in any city (Marrakech, Tangier, Casablanca, or Rabat) that is convenient for you. You will travel through the region of Erfoud which is rife with fossils from the Precambrian, Devonian, and Ordovician periods.
As it’s a private tour, you can change and adapt the itinerary to cover all of the things you want to do in Morocco with teens! Stay in luxury camps in the desert so you will all feel like 19th-century explorers.
15. Go Hiking
With such beautiful scenery, it would be such a shame to visit Morocco and not go hiking in the Atlas Mountains.
Despite being a coastal country, most of Morocco lies 2,600 ft/800 meters above sea level. It’s incredibly mountainous and even gets snow! A good time to hike in the Atlas Mountains is between May to November to avoid the cold, winter months.
When hiking in Morocco with teens, head to Todra Gorge. These dramatic cliffs are around six hours from Marrakech so you will either need to rent a car or book one of the many multi-day desert tours that include a stop here. Hiking here is doable for younger teens big the views offer big payoffs.
Try and hike early in the morning to avoid the worst of the day’s heat, and bring plenty of water. You may find nomadic communities offering tea en route, and don’t forget to tip them even if they don’t ask!
Have an Adventure in Morocco with Teens
Visiting Morocco with teens is the perfect way to give them a unique experience to learn about a new culture beyond their wildest dreams. They will be able to try new foods, witness new architectural styles, and meet local people who have a different perspective and experience life in a completely different way.
You can DIY your trip to Morocco using these tips, or you can book a 9-day Morocco family holiday with G Adventures and National Geographic.
With tours of small groups of less than 20 people, you can visit the highlights of Morocco including Marrakech, Aït Benhaddou, Dades Gorge, and more.
Enjoy dinners with local families who can tell you more about their home country, light hikes in the Atlas Mountains, camel riding in the Sahara Desert, and tons of free time to spend as a family. These tailor-made holidays are the perfect balance of a grand adventure, low stress, and creature comforts.
Find out more about our first-hand experience on the Morocco group tour with kids here!