AIBU to think Marrakesh was far worse than I expected?

[LondonLass37]

I'm 40. I went to Marrakesh for a week with a female friend of the same age. Both white, both blonde. Just looking for some warmth, culture, and a proper break.

What I experienced was genuinely awful.

We were harassed constantly , not just persistent sellers, but followed, hissed at, and touched. A man spat at my feet because I wouldn't give him money for directions I never asked for. Later, a drunk local chased us through the medina. We had to hide in a shop for nearly half an hour.

The medina is filthy. In the markets, animal carcasses hang next to food. Live donkeys are visibly mistreated and beaten. I'm still upset about what I saw.

The food was bland and lukewarm. My friend got food poisoning.

I wanted mint tea and beautiful tiles. Instead I felt unsafe and miserable.

So – AIBU? Or is Marrakesh genuinely as terrible as I found it?

I was surprised in the opposite way, I wasn't hassled at all - but was with DH and dressed appropriately.

I absolutely loved it, stayed in a beautiful French owned Riad and there is so much to see, Bahia Palace, Saadian tombs, Jardin Majorelle, Jemaa el fnaa square, the souks, the madrassa. Absolutely stunning.

My advice - if you don't like Morocco definitely don't go to Egypt!

I went with dh and dd 14 last year. We did stay in a lovely resort about 10 minutes out from the city but took a trip in one day. Like you we got harassed and led up a dark alley (our naivety showed). We paid a guy £10 to leave us alone and got a taxi pronto.

I've spent 30 years traipsing about the world alone and with partners. Marrakesh was the only place that DP went everywhere with me - including shopping his least favourite activity ever. It was an experience but I wouldn't go back.

I had similar when I went with now DH as soon as he wasn't by my side I got groped twice and we were only there 4 days, the couple who ran the riad we stayed in were lovely though. The food was hit and miss. We do tend to wander around ourselves and not go on organised tours or stay in big out of town hotels. I was young then about 26 I do wonder if I'd get as harassed as a middle aged woman.

Essaouira was much better, you could enjoy the culture without being on high alert. The seafood was also amazing

Must say that when we visited Luxor with dh, my DM, and dds then early 20s, if we went out with dh we were fine - but if without him we were constantly pestered. And this despite us having lived in Oman for many years, so very careful to dress conservatively, etc.

OTOH dds visited Marrakesh on their own some years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it - but again, no tight jeans or trousers, no bare shoulders or low cut tops, etc. In this sort of environment IMO at least thigh length tops with trousers are advisable - certainly nothing very fitted around the crotch area!

It shouldn’t be necessary, but it is.

Yes, had the same in Egypt, and India to some extent, also blonde white female. I lived in Istanbul for some years and often experienced similar, being kerb-crawled while on my way to work as a teacher, groped in the street, followed etc. I quickly learned what to say in Turkish - very loudly so that all around could hear - and for bus journeys carried a long hatpin in the lining of my bag, which I used to discreetly stab bus gropers. It's horrible but sadly the norm in many Muslim countries in particular, and I think you need to shout or scream when it happens so that the disgusting pervert will at least scuttle away. You're less likely to get knifed or hit than you might in the UK at least, so shout away. What a sad lot of men there are in the world.

I MUCH preferred Essaouira.

I came on a surprise period whilst staying in the city centre and had to ask a few stall holders where I could find tampons. And then they didn’t know what I was talking about so I had to pull up pictures of tampons on my phone, as more of them gathered around looking baffled. Anyway, I found pads from one of them in the end.

You were unlucky - I absolutely loved Marrakesh and have been 3 times now. I wouldn’t stay in the medina its a worth a day visit but there is so much more to see and experience.

Casablanca was lovely and very relaxed compared to Marrakech when i went years ago.

And I do agree, the whole country is an animal lover’s hell 😢

Went to Marrakech 20 years ago. Amazing experience but I doubt I'll ever go back. It's ok to be horrified at things that are horrifying.

Had a similar experience in my one and only visit to Turkey.
I have no idea why it is such a popular holiday destination, when all we saw and felt was like your examples of Marrakesh!

Yeah, this is what's disturbing me about the "I wasn't treated like that so it was fine, you had a bad experience" posts - why just ignore the bit about the animal mistreatment like it doesn't matter?

I was completely covered head to toe - long sleeves, full length trousers, a light shawl which I could use to cover my head. My friend insisted on wearing "holiday clothes" despite my telling her what the result would be. It was a nightmare. I never travelled with her again.

every woman I know has warned against going and has generally said they didn't have a nice time.

I have a personal enmity with morocco after being stranded in the hellscape that is casablanca. so no I dont blame you.

It’s Catholic. I’m v surprised you experienced this. I saw a lot of tourists being told to cover up in churches but that’s it.

I went with my husband and was still constantly harassed

I’m ignoring it personally, not because I think animal welfare isn’t important in general, but because I get rather impatient with wibbling about the cute little mistreated donkeys on holiday when the same people are generally more than happy to consume cheap meat and battery eggs when at home, because the animals aren’t cute and their suffering is out of sight.

As a female who travels as a solo parent with my DD, Morocco is one of those countries I’ve ruled out unless I can get on a family group tour. I don’t think it’s right, but agree with other comments that it is a place that you need to travel with a man

I didn't mind Türkiye but we often had people coming up to us trying to rub us for luck. which was weird. the food was good at least.

That's true and a very good point, but even so (and hypocritically), having to actually see the mistreatment would still put me off going somewhere or recommending it to others, and I'm still surprised that people can just gloss over it and/or put it out of their minds when evaluating the holiday.

Hated it. I dressed appropriately with arms and legs covered, still got harassed and followed. Didn't enjoy seeing poverty and animal abuse either. Never again.

I wasn’t groped as I was with my DH but I found 3 days staying in the medina exhausting. Constantly harassed by shopkeepers if you even slowed your pace and in danger of being run over constantly by the mopeds everywhere. Riad and food were both lovely but I ended up drinking mint tea, reading my book and watching the storks fly by on the roof of the riad on day 4 because it was all too much for me. Conversely I love Tunisia and find it much less stressful. I think the culture shock is so big for a lot of British people in these places and it’s a more robust person than me that can handle it. I thought I was a savvy traveler, but Marrakesh was too much.

I went 30 years ago to Agadir and never since. Had to go ever where with my husband. Couldn’t even go on public streets alone to a supermarket. The men haunched in the bushes and hissing is horrendous. Young boys came up to us, I thought looking for money, they were offering themselves to my husband. Turkey is pretty similar, and Egypt. My young daughters have never been to these places, I’ve told them nothing about my experiences and they already know not to go.