Day Road Trip from Marrakech into the Atlas Mountains 🇲🇦

Imlil is a village situated in the Atlas Mountains, no more than a 90 minute drive from Menara Airport, the route is a straight forward enough one, GPS and data can come at a premium cost, so our recommendation would be to use an off line map service, we can highly recommend maps.me once you have downloaded your map you can navigate without the need for data. Perfect for of transport options we would obviously recommend renting a car, we picked up a little Kia Picanto for 24 hours for only 315.00 MAD per day!

From Menara Airport to Imlil and Everything in Between

From the Airport the route is directly passing through the small towns of Tahnaout and Asni, the latter been situated in the foothills of the range, both places are worth a brief stop for a stretch of the legs. After passing through these 2 places, you will start to climb up the winding mountain roads, ascending all the time, you may see the odd runner on the way out, which you have to take your hat off to.

Once we have climbed for about 10 minutes the landscape starts to flatten out a little giving the opportunity for many roadside cafes and eateries, which some would describe as elaborate shacks. Rudimentary bridges will take you safely over the fast-flowing stream where you can enjoy a nice tangine of your choice and a sweet mind tea. If afterwards you fancy a camel ride, you will be spoiled for choice. After this little break a 15-minute drive will take you into the village or Imlil which sits 1.8 Km’s above sea level. In Imlil you will find everything you would expect and needs as a visitor, whilst fusing the traits of traditional village life with the river running through the centre serving as a focal point. You can choice to enjoy your tangine sitting beside the river or sitting high on one of the terraces enjoying the vistas.

What Is There to Do in Imlil?

We prebooked our accommodation in a traditional Riad that was tucked away down a mountain path, next to the crystal waters, with spectacular views of the now capped Jebel Toubkal. It will be pleasing to those travellers on a tight budget that the average cost for a night’s bed and breakfast in one of the many Riads is £25 (30 EURO).

Whether you stay a night, 2, 3 or longer, there is plenty on offer to keep you occupied. One of the most popular is, of course, hiking to Mount Toubkels peak, which not only stands as the highest peak of the Atlas Mountain but takes the title of the highest in all Northern Africa. The peak is situated 15 KMs from the village of Imlil and for these hardened trekkers will take around 6 to reach the summit, remember to plan well depending on the time of the year, you would not want to get caught out after dark. For those looking for a less strenuous route up there are plenty of mules for hire in the village. Just be sure you wear adequate padding on your backside.

3 miles from Imlil you will find a small group of waterfalls, watching the freshwater cascade down from the higher ground is a site to behold, depending on the temperature it is the perfect place for a dip, completely revitalizing.

Like Moroccan people in general you will find the people of Imlil to be warm and friendly. Tourism accounts for a large part of the local economy, which enhances that warm welcome. Guided tours from locals are readily available from the village at a very reasonable price, for assurance we would recommend prebooking through a reputable travel portal, we used TripAdvisor to book ours.

We hope these ideas inspire and as we have only briefly touched on a few ideas, we invite you to delve deeper.

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