Four enchanted places you should visit right now

1) Chefchaouen

Believe me when I say that I love Morocco, but I must recognize that in big cities like Fez or Marrakesh you can easily feel overwhelmed. The strong smells and the chaos of the medina, the touts, or simply the amount of people walking down the street can make you feel like you've already had enough of this country. In that case a good idea is to spend a few days in Chefchaouen, a small quiet town nestled in the hills of northern Morocco.

A quiet street in the medina

There I just walked around, taking ridiculously gorgeous pictures, and shopping for Moroccan slippers or scarfs without feeling the pressure of the vendors in bigger towns. The walls of the medina are painted a deep blue and even the doors, the stone stairs and the furniture are often blue. 

Men wear the traditional djellaba and look like mysterious wizards, as if they were the last of a disappearing population of magical beings. In Chefchaouen I found people to be extremely welcoming and I appreciated the fact that children could play happily on the quiet streets and small squares. 

Add that to the fact that there are great hiking possibilities all around and you have your perfect Moroccan getaway from the bustling city life of Moroccan cities.

Read more about Chefchaouen in this post from April 2015.


2) Bled

Did you ever wonder what the place where Snow White and Prince Charming come from might look like? I think it must look like Bled.

Lake Bled

If you've never heard of this lake, maybe it's because it is found in a tiny and relatively unknown European country called Slovenia. Other than being the birthplace of Melania Trump, this Alpine country is little known. In a novel by Paulo Coelho a librarian from the capital Ljubljiana decides to commit suicide after reading an article in a magazine about her country, making people believe that she did it because people don't even know where Slovenia is.

Lake Bled seen from the castle

I have a plan to visit Bled in every season: in winter with snow, in autumn with yellow leaves and in spring with flowers in bloom. I have already been in the summer and it is gorgeous: I cannot think of a better country than Slovenia to breathe some fresh air and rest your eyes with a palette of colours unlike that of any other country.

Read more about Bled and Slovenia in this post, which is actually the first one I wrote on this blog.

3) Sintra

In "Journey to Portugal" Saramago described this small town a few kilometers from Lisbon: as an "English folly, paid for by the cloth trade ...  a monument to an age that had every taste imaginable, but never really defined any of them ....  eclectic to the point of eccentricity .... As empires dominated the world economically, they amused themselves with alien cultures". 

Palacio da Pena

Sintra resembles the dream of a king that went slightly mad  at the end of his life.  Several royal palaces dot the hilly landscape, each one slightly crazier than the other. Some elements are Gothic, others call back to traditional Muslim architecture, or to the Portuguese Manueline style. As if this wasn't enough, mysterious gargoyles look at you from weird angles.



Palacio da Pena

The most charming palace according to me is Quinta da Regaleira, especially the Gothic-style gardens. I spent a couple of hours exploring the grottoes, the statues and the ponds, wondering what the upside-down staircase might mean and feeling that every pinnacle and gargoyle has a secret to reveal.

The gardens of Quinta da Regaleira

If palaces are not your thing in the small town the charming yellow-trimmed houses are a pleasure for the eyes, and the streets bear the names of the writers and artists who tread and wrote about this place, including Lord Byron. 

Read more about my trip to Sintra in December 2015 here.


4) Ait-Benhaddou

I know, I'm listing Morocco twice in this list, but it's merely because that country of djinns is literally bewitching. Moreover Ait-Benhaddou is one of the most incredible places I have been to.

Ait Benhaddou

You may have seen it as the location for countless movies and TV shows, including as Yunkai in Game of Thrones. It is usually portrayed as a city made of sand that appears like a mirage in the middle of the desert. And that is actually what it is: a particularly good-looking ksar that is not completely abandoned and that is at the edge of the desert. The Touareg guides in blue turbans lead the way into a magic world, where you may find anything from Ali Baba's lamp to an ancient amulet.

A berber guide in Ait Benhaddou

This was one of the highlights of my trip to Morocco. It is a perfect stop on the way to the Sahara desert and it is a good opportunity to learn about the ancient trade routes that pass through this part of the world.

Souvenirs in Ait Benhaddou

Read about my trip to the Sahara desert here.

Chefchaouen - dreaming in blue

There is a place in the foothills of the Rif mountains of northern Morocco that has enchanted independent travellers for decades. It is Chefchaouen, locally called simply Chaouen, a small town with houses painted blue and the verdant hills all around it.

I arrived in Chefchaouen on a Tuesday afternoon after a four-and-a-half bus journey from Fez (it costs 75 dirhams, which is around 7€): it was the end of March, and the weather was miserable. With three nights booked at Riad Baraka, I hoped that it would get better, so that I could enjoy my stay properly, and perhaps do a little hiking in the mountains as well. Since it was raining hard, I spent the first night in the hostel, warming up against the electric stove and chatting with the other guests, as if we were on a ski holiday. It was a nice evening: we were all travelling alone in Morocco, we came from many different countries and had previous experiences of independent travel.

A cat in the streets of Chefchaouen

It was during that first evening of rain that I learned about the history of the town. Chefchaouen was founded by Berbers of the Ghomara tribe, and it was later resettled by the Moriscos and Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. The entrance to the city was forbidden to all foreigners, and especially to Christians, until 1920. The few travellers who managed to enter back then found Jews still speaking 15th-century Andalucian Spanish. The houses were painted blue in the 1930s by the Jewish inhabitants of the town, who have since left for Israel or other parts of the world.

 



A street in the medina



In Chefchaouen the men all wear the djellaba with the hood on, as if they were Moroccan wizards, and some of the women wear a traditional costume that includes a straw hat.





A man with a djellaba



 





A wall in the medina of Chefchaouen

 

Luckily, the following morning the rain had stopped, even though it was still chilly and cloudy. In spite of relying mostly on tourism, I found Chefchaouen to be authentic and charming. The choice of food to try seemed to be more varied here than in other parts of Morocco, including Fez and Marrakesh. I tried anchovy tagine, home-made yogurt, squid, sardines, and of course the harira soup that you're offered at the beginning of most Moroccan meals. A dinner at Bab Ssour - a very friendly, cheap and traditional restaurant we found hidden in a corner of the medina - only cost me 65 dirhams (6€).

Selling fruit in the medina of Marrakesh

 

In the main square of the town, Place Uta el-Hammam, there is a Kasbah that you can visit for a few dirhams, with great views of the hills from the top of the tower and a good exhibition on history, traditions and customs in the area. I also hiked to the Spanish Mosque, which is worth not so much for the building itself, but for the views.

View of Chefchaouen while hiking to the Spanish mosque

On the way to the mosque you pass by Ras-el Maa, a small waterfall where women do the laundry and locals come to take a walk. The hills, when they are surrounded by clouds, give a rather mysterious aura to the place. At times, I thought I was in a Central American small town.

 

A view of Chefchaoen and its hills

Once we arrived to the top of the hill,  where the Spanish mosque stands, we found a relaxed atmosphere, and sat there for a while, observing the women who were looking after sheep and goats.

Grazing sheep in Chefchaouen

 

 

People come to Chefchaouen to relax, to learn about Moroccan culture, or to hike. Most likely, you will not find annoying tourists who shout or behave in inappropriate ways. Even though Chefchaouen is in the middle of an area which is famous for the production of kief and for the easy access to marijuana, I found that the kind of people that make their way to Chafchaouen do not care too much about it. I didn't meet anybody who wanted to get stoned all the time, or that was really interested in touring the illegal plantations.  

 

 

The rooftop of Riad Baraka

The medina of Chefchaouen is small, clean and not at all smelly. What a change from the aggressiveness of the medina in Fez with its smells and its touts! Nobody will bother you here, except the occasional man who unconvincingly tries to sell you hashish or lead you to your riad. It is a relaxing experience if compared to a walk in the medina in Fez or Marrakesh. A few days in this town will introduce you to the culture of northern Morocco, with its mish-mash of Andalusian and Berber influences.

 



A door in the medina

 

A corner of the medina

Selling dry fruits in the medina

When strolling around town, among blue doors and colourful pots with plants of all kinds, prepare for an array of pleasant surprises. During my wandering through the narrow streets I found  a local art gallery, a hole in the wall selling samosa-like pastries for 5 dirhams (0,40 €) and an improvised market stall (in the picture below).

 

An improvised market stall in Chefchaouen

 

An art gallery in the medina of Chefchaouen



I did take a hike on Thursday. Together with other 5 guests from the riad, we made our way to Parc National de Talassemtane, about half an hour away with a grand taxi. The return trip cost us 400€ (€37,50), the six of us squeezed in an old Mercedes. There are several possibilities here: either you make your way to God's Bridge, or to Oued El Kelaa waterfall. We chose the latter, two hours and a half away. The hike was overall I bit more difficult than we expected: it had rained a lot, and because you have to cross the river several times by jumping on some rocks, it was impossible not to get wet.

 



The canyon in Parc National de Talassemtane

The landscape, with canyons, clear bodies of water, and wooden huts with refreshments, reminded me of my hike in the Samaria Gorge in Crete. On the way to the waterfall we encountered very few people, most of them Moroccans. At the end of the hike, we finally found the waterfall. It is a beautiful sight, in peaceful surroundings, and we were the only one exploring the area.



Oued El Kelaa waterfall

We were told that there was going to be food, but probably because it was not high season, we found the bar unprepared. We managed to order a few fried eggs, served without cutlery, a pot of tea and some biscuits.

We quickly made our way back to the entrance of the park and we found a local restaurant, where we ate a delicious kefta tagine and a plate full of grilled sardines. This was one of the best meals I had in Morocco, and not only because I was hungry.

My three days in Chefchaouen ended with warmer weather and finally some real sun.

View from the Kasbah