Best Morocco Ait BenHaddou Film Locations 2023

Greetings Internet Stranger and welcome to Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations tour. “Stella Jane,” you might be thinking to yourself at this point, “You are cheating!” First you say we are going to spend 24 hours in Fes and we spend half the day in Meknes. Then you say we will spend 24 hours in the Sahara, but we spend half the day in Todra Gorge.

Now you say we will spend 24 hours with Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations, but we are going to spend the entire morning exploring the High Atlas Mountains. What madness is this?”

Well, you are half right, Internet Stranger. I don’t necessarily spend my entire 24 hours in the confines of one city. But I choose my title based on the place you should use as your base for the day’s activities. So for this itinerary, you should choose a hotel in Ait Benhaddou.

It’s the perfect place from which to explore the surrounding mountainous area. We’re going to spend 24 hours with the Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations admiring the roses and learning all about the Moroccan film industry. Sound exciting? Good! It is exciting! Now come with me

Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

Where to Stay?

On most of my itineraries, I suggest hotels and the like, so you can book your trip yourself. But, especially if you are a solo female traveler like I am, for this tour of the Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations, I don’t recommend doing that. Instead, just book this multi-day tour with G Adventures, and they’ll take care of arranging accommodations for you!

That way you’ll have everything taken care of for you! You’ll be able to enjoy the film locations and not have to worry about any of the logistics. Win/win!

However, if you are booking your own hotel for the Sahara Desert tour, I suggest La Rose du Sable, which means the rose of the desert in French. This is where our group spent the night, and we had a wonderful time. The staff will also help you enjoy a Moroccan cooking class while you are here. (More about that later in this post.)

If you want a great deal on this hotel, click here. And if you want to explore great deals on other hotels in the area, just click here. This search engine will help you find the perfect place to stay during your plans for your day exploring Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations. With plenty of options to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something for your schedule and budget.

Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

Morning: Explore the High Atlas Mountains

Here we come to one of the most beautiful areas of Morocco! I was very happy to be able to see these beauties with a tour group and a professional driver because there’s no way I would have been able to explore them on my own.

If you are not traveling with a group tour, and you’d like to visit the area on your own, you can book a tour that will take you through the Atlas Mountains to Ait Benhaddou. I recommend this excellent tour, which you can book by going here.

The High Atlas Mountains are a major mountain range that cut through Central Morocco. These glorious marvels of nature home to everything from snow-capped peaks to Berber villages to dinosaur remains. If you want to get to know the Morocco outside of the major cities, this is an excellent place to start.

Even though I only had one morning in this area, I was still able to learn…

Three fun facts about the high atlas mountains

1) valley of a thousand kasbahs

The road between our Todra Gorge hotel and the city of Ourzazate is colloquially known as the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs. (More officially, parts of the area are known as the Dades Valley.) They’re very lovely, so keep your camera ready so you can take tons of pictures.

Before I went to Morocco, the only thing I knew about kasbahs was the song “Rock the Kasbah”. And I didn’t even know what that meant because it’s very hard to understand what The Clash are saying. But it turns out that kasbah in Morocco is just a keep or a fortress. You can see hundreds of them all dotting the landscape here in the Dades Valley.

I have to wonder what was going on in this area that they needed so many fortresses. There is simply never a pleasant reason for building a fortress. No one has ever said, “Ho hum. My life is so boring, and my relations with my neighbors are so peaceful. Time to build a fortress!” You’d think living in such a gorgeous area would make people feel less inclined to go to war.

2) Everything’s coming up roses

Aside from kasbahs, the Dades Valley area is famous for roses. It never occurred to me that you could grow roses in the mountains. In fact, I didn’t realize that they grow roses in Morocco at all. Plus, it was so cold when we were there in December!

But of course the roses are in bloom in May, so we missed them. However, we did not miss this giant statue of a bowl of roses in the middle of town. Way to remind people of their main cash crop in the dead of winter!

Fortunately, even if you miss the rose season, you can still stop and smell the roses themselves. There are many stores in the Dades Valley area that specialize in selling rose products, and I suggest visiting a few while you are in town.

Basically anything that can be made with roses is made with roses in the Dades Valley. You can buy rose water, rose cream, rose perfume, rose candy, rose candles, rose tea, rose coffee, and even rugs made out rose petals. (Some of those items are real and some are just made up. I leave it up to you to guess which is which.)

3) The Hollywood of Morocco

The final kasbah we came across this morning as we made our way to Ait Benhaddou was the kasbah of Ouarzazate. Ouarzazate is often considered the Hollywood of Morocco, which I suppose means it’s famous for plastic surgery and sexual harassment.

Also Ouarzazate is the home of the Atlas Film Studios. Approximately one grillion movies and TV shows are shot in Morocco, from Lawrence of Arabia to Game of Thrones. So it makes sense that Morocco has a thriving film industry.

I’m impressed that Lawrence of Arabia was shot here, but Game of Thrones is so complicated and was on the air so long before its controversial finale that I kind of feel like the show has been shot in every city in the world. Like I think it’s possible that a couple of scenes from Game of Thrones were shot in my apartment. You know, scenes taking place in some broke-down inn by the side of the road.

24 Hour Tip

This day was a pretty long one, and we didn’t have the chance to stop anywhere special for lunch. Be prepared with some snacks in case you get munchy on the road. Fortunately Moroccan snacks are cheap and delicious! Be sure to buy some any time the tour bus stops while you are on the road.

Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

Afternoon: Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

Now that we’re done driving around, we’re ready for the main attraction:  our 24 hours with Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations and our tour of the film locations. Ait Benhaddou is a fortified village, which is known as a ksar in Arabic. There are other ksars in Morocco, but this is considered the best of its kind. That is why it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since the 1980s.

Our guide Omar led us around the ksar and explained a little bit about its history to us. It’s well worth spending an afternoon here, peeking your way around every little nook and cranny. I’m sure you’ll find much more than…

Three fun facts: Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations

1) Are You Not Entertained?

Because of its striking appearance and its proximity to the film studio in Ouarzazate, Ait Benhaddou has been used in many films. Probably the most famous movie to use this location was the Russell Crowe starring Gladiator. This was back when everyone still loved Russell Crowe and didn’t know he liked to throw phones at people.

Ait Benhaddou was used in the scenes in Gladiator where Russell Crowe does his gladiator training. It must be nice to be a movie star and get to go to gorgeous locations like this where you can dress up in fun costumes and pretend to be basically a superhero.

If I were a movie star, I would pick my scripts based entirely on where they were shot. Paris? Absolutely? Shooting in Secaucus? No thanks!

My mother was a high school English teacher and one of her favorite things to do was yell “Are you not entertained?” at her students if it seemed like they were falling asleep.

She passed away ten years ago, so I felt compelled to yell, “Are you not entertained?” myself once I reached the top of Ait Benhaddou in her honor. I feel certain she would approve.

2) what about the shopping??!!??

The ksar of Ait Ben haddou is no longer inhabited, so we can’t really say that there are official shops here. But as with any place that attracts tourists in Morocco, you can find lots of people trying to hawk you their wares. My favorite local item were these watercolor paintings.

The brown color is made with tea! That’s such a clever idea! I took this home and put it up in my apartment to remind me of my friend Camille the Camel. No 24 hours in Morocco Ait Ben haddou is complete without a souvenir!

My fellow tour companion insisted on haggling for the cheapest possible price for his picture, but I did not. My rule of thumb in Morocco was that if something cost under 5 dollars, I didn’t haggle on the price. (That’s not an official rule, just a suggestion.)

3) what is a ksar? don’t you mean tsar?

Since we were looking at a thousand kasbahs all morning around Ouarzazate, you might be asking yourself what the difference between a ksar and a kasbah is. Well a kasbah is just one fortress. A ksar is an entire fortified village. Do you see all the different little buildings down there? They would have been kasbahs, a mosque, homes for merchants, and any other building a village would have needed.

To me, the most impressive thing about the ksar is that these buildings are all made with red clay. That seems like such a flimsy material! And yet the buildings are still going strong today. My apartment building is supposed to be made of “modern materials” and “up to safety codes”, but I can see it crumbling every day before my eyes. I’d rather live in Ait Benhaddou any day.

Morocco Ait Ben Haddou Film Locations

Evening: Tagine Cooking Class

As with the Todra Gorge area, there’s not a lot to do at night during our 24 hours in Morocco Ait Ben haddou. That’s why many hotels in the area offer cooking classes in the evening. (We spent our 24 hours in Ait Ben haddou at La Rose du Sable.) You’ll have the opportunity to prepare your very own Moroccan tagine. Bonus! You get to eat it for dinner too!

I followed the instructions extremely carefully. Knowing that if you mess up you don’t get dinner is a serious motivator! You have to start with the chicken, onion, spices, and oil. This makes sense because it’s most important to cook the chicken thoroughly. You’re not going to get salmonella from an uncooked carrot. Also, vegetarians shouldn’t fear the tagine cooking class because you can just skip the chicken and move straight to vegetables.

Next you add the veggies. The ones that take longer to cook, like carrots and potatoes, go on the bottom. The lighter ingredients like tomatoes and the preserved lemon go on top. (Yes, I know that tomatoes and lemons are fruit. If you comment to tell me that, I will under no circumstances publish it. No one likes an internet pedant!)

Here is what the tagine looks like before you put its cute little pointy hat on and cook it.

And here it is all ready to it! This isn’t meant as a brag at all, but it felt like one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten because I cooked it all myself. Mostly the only thing I ever cook for myself is the turkey burger and salad combo I eat literally every single day when I’m at home and working my day job.

So this experience definitely made me motivated to take more cooking classes abroad. It was a perfect end to our day of Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations.

Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

What to Pack?

• A cell charger so you can keep your cell phone charged for a full day exploring the Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations
• The best travel adapter so you will be able to use American/Australian/British devices in Moroccan electrical outlets during your day exploring Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations
• My favorite travel guide to Morocco.
• The most reliable travel umbrella that is small enough to fit in my purse, but strong enough to stand up to powerful winds.
• These great TSA approved clear toiletries bags, so I can always keep spare toothpaste and travel sized toiletries in any carry-on.
• My book Get Lost, that I wrote myself with all my best travel tips. This book will show you how travel can take you on a journey of self-discovery.

Morocco Ait Benhaddou Film Locations

How to Get There

Now, I wish I knew where you lived, Internet Stranger, because I could send you all the sand your heart could desire. But sadly, I do not, and so I can’t tell you exactly how to get from your home to finding exactly what to do when exploring the Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations.

But I can tell you that you can use a lovely airplane to get from most major cities to Casablanca, where you will meet this tour to take you to your destinations and I recommend Expedia for the best way to find the cheapest flight to Casablanca at the best time of day. I couldn’t find a direct flight from NYC to Casablanca, but it is easy to get a flight that only has one stop in a city like Lisbon, Frankfurt, or London.

You can even use Expedia to rent a car so you’ll be all set when you arrive at your destination. (I can’t drive, but if you can, this must be helpful.)

Just click here to start looking for the best possible deals on your flight, so you can head out to your Morocco Ait Benhaddou film locations tour ASAP.

That’s the best Ait Benhaddou film Locations

What would you do with 24 hours in Ait Benhaddou? Are you ready to start booking your hotel in Ait Ben Haddou? How do you think Ouarzazate should be pronounced? And am I the greatest tagine maker in the world, yes or yes? Please email me at stellajane@aroundtheworldin24hours.com and let me know!

Note: If you want to know how I put my travel itineraries together, just click here. Just because this itinerary is for 24 hours in the Ait Ben Haddou area, it doesn’t mean you should only spend 24 hours with the Ait Benhaddou film locations. If you’d like to add 24 hours in Fez, try this itinerary. And if you’re looking for 24 hours in the Sahara Desert area, I’ve got you covered here.