Riad Dar Yakout
Our ‘share taxi’ turned out to be a day tour which a lot of people were using as a means to get to Chefchaouen. We were joined by two Australian couples, a Japanese couple and an Italian couple. It was nice to chat with them all; the young Australians were travellers while the Japanese couple were in Morocco for a couple of weeks. The Italian couple were professional volleyball players; apparently volleyball is the second most popular sport after football (soccer) in Italy.
As this was a tour we had a couple of touristy stops to check out views and stretch our legs. With spare seats in the bus, we could stretch out a bit, so the ride was comfortable, even for a gnome bus. As we travelled up the mountains towards Chefchaouen, we did the ‘ah’ stop – the blue city really does look blue from a distance. Can’t wait to get into the streets and see just how pretty this town really is, and just how many of the streets are really blue.
We were dropped off in the new town area and started the search for a taxi to get as close to our walking point to get to Dar Yakout, our Riad for the next four nights. Temperatures were already pushing the low 40s, and it took a bit of walking before we were able to hail an empty taxi. The Riad wasn’t far, but in the midday heat and with all of the hills, we were not going to risk heat exhaustion and walk the two kilometres with our luggage. We were dropped as close as the taxis were allowed to get to the old town, and tried to let the Riad know where we were. We walked a short distance and were relieved when the Riad said they had sent someone to meet us. As usual, we had no idea where to go and navigate the medina.
Our guide arrived and took my bag. While it was only a short walk, we were hot and flustered by the time we arrived. The street and the Riad Dar Yakout are postcard beautiful from the outside, and the inside is just gorgeous. Probably the prettiest Riad we have stayed in. Our room has the blue theme and although it is smaller than others, we have a couch and an extra single bed, so plenty of room to put our stuff.
Chefchaouen is a city to absorb and immerse yourself in the vibe. The streets are gorgeous and most use the different shades of blue to enhance the reputation. The whites and blues are mainly fresh, so the citizens clearly take the time to keep the town’s colours vibrant. Some streets are really busy, while others are quiet, so it’s easy to wander and get away from the stalls, juice stands and restaurants.
The medina is not very big and as it is built on the hillside, navigating is made easier – if you go down, you have to go up to get back to where you started. We made our way to the new town easily and decided that the hillside area was the place to be to really enjoy the beauty this city displays.
The Kasbah and the small museum inside are worth the 60 dirhams entry fee. A walk up the Portugese fort gives some great views over the city. While we were in the Kasbah a large group of school children also came in. They were on an excursion from Fes; we spoke with some of the girls who were maybe 13 and we were impressed with their English. The kids were excitable, but well-behaved and I envied their energy in the heat. Interestingly, the girls were dressed similarly to the boys in polos and shorts, and the girls seemed to have better English than the boys.
Another popular thing to do is walk up to the Spanish church to watch the sunset. Sadly, the evenings were rather hazy so we didn’t do the walk in the evening, but we did do it in the morning. More fabulous views and the added bonus of no crowds. We met a lovely Chinese couple on the walk and had a chat after taking their photo for them. The world is just full of wonderful people.
After the walk down from the Spanish church, we stopped for a juice at one of the riverside café/restaurants. The temperature drop sitting under the trees and umbrellas near the icy waters of the shallow river was just what we needed. It’s super busy all the time with families eating and children playing in the water and the food looked good. Definitely going to be a dinner destination before we leave.
Some of the streets in Chefchaouen are ‘instragrammable’ which just means crowds of people lining up to pay to have their photo in some of the prettier streets. I personally found the tourist photo hotspots rather tacky with their frames and dressed up decorations so we didn’t waste our dirhams. There are plenty of other amazing photo opportunities around the city. Our Riad was one of them. The owners have done an outstanding job of putting the Riad together, inside and out.
We tried a couple of fancier restaurants in Chefchaouen. We had the most devine tagine at Lalla Messaouda. The restaurant is gorgeous, with these chairs carved out of whole tree trunks – some of the more comfortable restaurant chairs we’ve had. The service and food was wonderful, and not too hard on the budget.
We also tried the restaurant Triana. We were trying to have dinner down by the river, but ended up stumbling on the restaurant which Hanzo, one of the loveliest staff at the Riad recommended to us. Prices here got really expensive if you opted for a steak, but I stuck with the beef tagine which was just superb. Colin stuck with his hamburger, which ended up being one of the best hamburgers we’d seen in Morocco.
Our last day in Chefchaouen was very quiet. Our bus wasn’t leaving until 6.45 that evening, so we asked if we could chill in the Riad after checking out. We were made to feel very welcome to do so, and we spent the day lounging in the sitting areas that are on each floor. It was much cooler in the Riad than walking out and about the streets, so we were so grateful for the kindness of the staff. Really, really recommend Dar Yarkout.
We headed down to the river for lunch at about 2pm thinking it might be quiet enough to find a place to sit and order some food. We did eventually find a table perched above the river and had a fantastic meal of Moroccan salad, pizza and finally, Colin got his Schwarma.
It was a lovely way to kill some time, but with the tables in high demand, we paid and headed back to the Riad until it was time to go to the bus station.
After saying goodbye to Hanzo we walked our luggage to the road and found a taxi to take us to the bus station. After a quick stop for the driver to get is antibiotics from home, we arrived at the bus terminal with plenty of time. About half an hour later, we were told our bus had broken down and was going to be an hour late. Manageable. A 7.45 pm departure would get us into Tangier a little late, but not too bad for our host.
The 7.30 bus arrived and we tried to get aboard but were told there were no seats. In the end, about five people were put on this service, but we were ok with missing out when the driver couldn’t even get out of the bus terminal without taking out one of the parked buses. Not only did we get entertained with his efforts to disentangle the two buses, this ‘tragedy’ also brought those of us stranded together.
7.45 pm rolled around. Another 20 minutes they said…
We finally boarded our bus at 10.45 pm.