Chefchaouen Travel Guide: Why Morocco's Blue City Is Worth the Trip North

Chefchaouen is a small mountain town in northern Morocco where nearly every wall, door and staircase in the old medina is painted some shade of blue — a tradition most commonly linked to Jewish refugees who settled here in the 1930s, though the exact origin is debated, with some blue-washing practiced even earlier for its reputed cooling and insect-repelling properties.

Getting a Feel for the Town

Chefchaouen sits in the Rif Mountains, and its elevation and setting between two peaks (Ech-Chaoua, "the Horns," the source of its name) give it a noticeably cooler, calmer feel than Morocco's larger cities. The medina is small enough to wander without a guide and get genuinely, pleasantly lost for an afternoon — steep, narrow, blue-on-blue streets that reward slow walking over a checklist of sights.

What to Actually See

Plaza Uta el-Hammam is the medina's main square, anchored by the Kasbah Museum (a small fortress with garden courtyards and a modest exhibit on the town's history) and the Grand Mosque's octagonal minaret. Beyond that, the real draw is simply the streets themselves — the further from the main square, the fewer other visitors you'll encounter.

Shopping in Chefchaouen

The town is known for wool goods, woven blankets and locally made goat cheese, and the souk here has a noticeably more relaxed, lower-pressure atmosphere than Marrakech or Fes — worth budgeting some time and a little luggage space.

How Long to Stay

A single overnight with a dedicated afternoon is enough to see the highlights and get good photos without the harsh midday light, which is exactly how we build it into our itineraries — an afternoon and evening on arrival, as on the 11 day tour, which routes north from Rabat before heading to Volubilis, Meknes and Fes.