Marrakech Medina Self-Guided Audio Walk: Souks, Palaces and Secret Gardens
3 hours
About this experience
Sixteen stops through the Marrakech medina, from the Koutoubia to the palaces, Jemaa el-Fnaa and the souks. Learn to read what the red walls hide: carved plaster, cut tile, painted cedar and secret gardens. 16 stops in route order: The Koutoubia, Parc Lalla Hasna, Koutoubia Gardens, Bab Agnaou, The Kasbah Mosque, The Saadian Tombs, El Badi Palace, Tinsmiths' Square, Bahia Palace, Dar Zniber, Jemaa el-Fnaa, Rahba Kedima, Ben Youssef, Le Jardin Secret, Dar el Bacha, Cyber Parc. It is fully self-guided: no group, no guide to keep up with, and no need to arrive at a set time. 16 stops, about 6.2 km on foot, 3 hours at an easy pace, narrated in English, in your phone browser, with a live GPS map of the route. Pause as long as you like and pick the story up where you left it.
- Experience type
- Day tour or activity
- Duration
- 3 hours
- Audio guide
- English
- Guide
- English
- Categories
- Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours
What's included
Self-guided audio tour in English: 16 stops, 6.2 km, 3 hours Stops at The Koutoubia, Bahia Palace, Cyber Parc GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it
What's not included
A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee
Please note
To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: Start early, around eight or nine, before the heat and the palace queues: the Saadian Tombs, the Badi and the Bahia open at nine. The walk takes about three hours at an easy pace and most of a day if you go inside several ticketed places, so pick two or three. Walk it in daylight: the Cyber Parc at the end closes in the evening. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable months, and the bitter oranges are in blossom from March; in summer the afternoon heat is severe. Many souks close on Friday lunchtimes for prayers. Hours checked 26 September 2026. Short on time? After stop 3 (Koutoubia Gardens), cut straight across to Jemaa el-Fnaa (stop 11) and tap play when you arrive: you still get the square, the souks, Ben Youssef and Le Jardin Secret. Four Ministry of Culture monuments share one tariff, 100 DH for foreign adults, 9:00 to 17:00: the Saadian Tombs (stop 6), the Badi (stop 7), the Bahia (stop 9) and the Almoravid Koubba by Ben Youssef (stop 13). Checked 26 September 2026. The Ben Youssef Madrasa (stop 13) is 50 DH and open 9:00 to 19:00 (9:00 to 16:30 in Ramadan), so it can wait until the afternoon. Checked 26 September 2026. Le Jardin Secret (stop 14) is 100 DH, 80 DH under 24, free under 12, with the tower 40 DH extra; open 9:30 to 18:30 from February to October, last entry 30 minutes before closing. Checked 26 September 2026. Dar el Bacha (stop 15) is 60 DH and closed on Mondays (Fondation Nationale des Musees). Checked 26 September 2026. Each ticketed stop's details card has the price, the hours and a link to the official site, plus a Google Maps and Street View link to check the entrance before you go. Non-Muslims cannot enter the working mosques on this walk (the Koutoubia, the Kasbah Mosque, Ben Youssef's mosque), but the Ben Youssef Madrasa is a monument and open to all. No map keeps up with the medina: doors close, passages get walled off, works come and go. If the street and the map disagree, trust the street and the signs and pick the route up at the next stop. Motorbikes and scooters use the medina lanes. Keep to the side, step in when you hear an engine, and keep your bag closed and your phone secured: the UK Foreign Office reports drive-by motorbike theft of visible jewellery and bags. People posing as guides approach walkers, especially in the souks. Official guides carry a badge. Someone who walks you somewhere will usually want paying, and if a stranger says the road ahead is closed, treat it as a common trick: step into a shop and ask. Two stretches follow streets with car traffic: from the Koutoubia Gardens to Bab Agnaou, and from Dar el Bacha to the Cyber Parc. Keep to the pavement and cross at the lights. Ask before photographing people; performers in Jemaa el-Fnaa often expect a tip. The route is about six kilometres with little shade in places. Carry water, and wear a hat in the warmer months. Several monuments were damaged in the September 2023 earthquake and have reopened, but scaffolding or closed rooms may still appear. Public transportation nearby
Itinerary
- 1Day 0
The Koutoubia: A Tower With Four Different Faces
Boulevard Mohammed V شارع محمد الخامس, Marrakesh
The landmark tower you learn to read first. Carved arches that differ on every face, a net of diamonds in stone, a band of green-and-white tile, and no figures anywhere.
- 2Day 0
Parc Lalla Hasna: A Garden Laid Out for the View
Avenue Houman El Fetouaki, Marrakesh
A modern public garden facing the Koutoubia: rose-lined paths, palms, fountains and flowering shrubs, and a place to see the whole tower at once.
- 3Day 0
Koutoubia Gardens: Near Morocco's Earliest Four-Part Garden
Avenue Houman El Fetouaki, Marrakesh
A garden of orange trees, palms and roses beside the mosque. A few steps from where Morocco's earliest known four-part garden was laid out, and the water that made a garden city possible.
- 4Day 0
Bab Agnaou: Carved Shells and Leafy Script
Rue Oqba Ben Nafaa, Marrakesh
The carved stone gate of the old royal quarter: frames of pattern, a shell in each corner, script whose letters end in leaves, and beside it the red earth walls that give the city its colour.
- 5Day 0
The Kasbah Mosque: A Net of Brick and Green Tile
47 Place My Yazid, Marrakesh
A minaret built in brick on a stone base, carved into a net of diamonds and filled with green glazed tile, including the oldest surviving tile of its kind on any building here.
- 6Day 0
The Saadian Tombs: Twelve Marble Columns Behind a Blank Wall
Rue de la Kasbah, Marrakesh
A royal burial ground behind a blank wall. Ticketed: a hall of twelve marble columns, a carved cedar ceiling, and gardens of tiled graves.
- 7Day 0
El Badi Palace: Earth Walls That Once Wore Marble
Derb Touareg Berrima, Marrakesh
Bare earth walls of the Incomparable palace. Ticketed: a vast court of sunken gardens and pools, stripped of its marble around 1700, now home to storks.
- 8Day 0
Tinsmiths' Square: Pierced Metal and Light
24 Place des Ferblantiers, Marrakesh
Where the old city meets the royal quarter: a paved square with a few metal workshops, pierced lanterns that throw star patterns, and the Jewish quarter beginning just beyond.
- 9Day 0
Bahia Palace: Tile, Plaster and Cedar, Bottom to Top
Rue Riad Zitoun El Jedid, Marrakesh
A palace that teaches Moroccan decoration. Ticketed: marble and tile underfoot, carved plaster on the walls, painted cedar overhead, brought from across Morocco.
- 10Day 0
Dar Zniber: Inside a Courtyard House
Rue Riad Zitoun El Jedid, Marrakesh
A courtyard house turned museum of Moroccan cooking. Ticketed, and the place to learn how a Marrakech house works: blank front, hidden courtyard, fountain and olive trees.
- 11Day 0
Jemaa el-Fnaa: The Great Open Square
Jamaâ el-Fna ساحة جامع الفنا, Marrakesh
The old city's great open square, which rebuilds itself every day: juice stalls, storytellers and musicians, then food stalls at nightfall. Then into the souks.
- 12Day 0
Rahba Kedima: How to Read a Souk
190 Rahba Kedima Square, Marrakesh
The old spice square in the heart of the souks: baskets, hats and remedies, how the market lanes are organised, how bargaining works, and how to stay out of trouble.
- 13Day 0
Ben Youssef: The College and the Honeycomb Door
Passage Ecole Ben Youssef, Marrakesh
The great religious college of the medina. Ticketed: a honeycomb vault, a bronze-plated door and a carved cedar lintel at the entrance, and inside, tile, plaster and cedar at their finest.
- 14Day 0
Le Jardin Secret: The Four-Part Garden, Rebuilt
184 Derb Mouassine, Marrakesh
A restored garden palace behind high blank walls. Ticketed: the four-part garden, restored and walkable, beside an exotic garden, with the old water channels and a tower.
- 15Day 0
Dar el Bacha: The House That Dressed Its Front
3 TRK Rue Dar El Bacha, Marrakesh
A pasha's palace that broke the rule, built in 1910. Ticketed: decoration on show to the street, and a four-part courtyard garden with fountains and orange trees inside.
- 16Day 0
Cyber Parc: How to Read an Orchard
Boulevard Mohammed V شارع محمد الخامس, Marrakesh
An old prince's orchard along the city walls, and the finish. Read its paths, tell a date palm from a fan palm, find the bitter orange, and see what became of the water.
Meeting point
The Koutoubia, Marrakech Boulevard Mohammed V شارع محمد الخامس, Marrakech ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵯⵛ مراكش, Marrakech-Safi ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ-ⴰⵙⴼⵉ مراكش-أسفي, MA
Pick up
Pickup is not provided.
Cancellation policy · Marrakech Medina Self-Guided Audio Walk: Souks, Palaces and Secret Gardens
Standard Viator policy
- Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
- Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.
Good to know
Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.