Ouzoud Travel Guide

From the bottom of the falls climb up a couple of runs of stairs and you come to a cafe/stall with tables on a terrace overlooking the falls.
A variety of food and drink on the menu.

I choose a simple omlette, but it came with fresh bread & morrocan salad garnish, home made chips, followed by oranges, coffee and biscuits. together with several drinks all for the silly price of less than £3.
The quality & freshness of the food was amazing considering how far down the mountain this cafe is - no van deliverys here !!!

Favorite Dish: Try the chips. these are homemade & the best I've had in years.

My prime recommendation is to travel Morocco to maximise your time and sights with your own wheels - enhance your photo taking and getting off the beathen/public transport limited track to see more and more of the beauty spots there is to see.

I used to complain that rental cars were so expensive in Morocco whereas really they are no more expensive than elsewhere around Europe or the USA. (I can still get cars for £20-25 a day - the right contacts and perhaps a bit of haggling!).

Cascades d'ouzoud is a dead end road with the nearest town being Azilal - which is serviced by public transport with buses and grande taxis from Marrakech to Azilal and Beni Mellal - and there are grande taxis that come from there to Cascade d'ouzoud.

But with sights around the area such as the blue waters of the nearby Bin el-Oiudane hydro lake on the way to Beni Mellal and the detour you can take to Demnate to see its natural bridge and dinosaur footprints its well worth having your own wheels to drive around here. Also just over the other side of these mountains going via Azilal is the amazing trip to Ait Bougoumez....another area great for peace and quiet, nice walks and drives and orchids in June.

Hire a car in Marrakech to see the sights from there - and include a visit 160km past rolling pastoral countryside and up into the lower Atlas mountains to Cascades d'ouzoud.

In all of Morocco, I must warn young women to be careful walking by yourself. It gets very exhausting because unless you are walking with another man, the men here can be very aggressive about trying to talk to you and will not leave you alone.

There seems to be a lack of signposts to direct you from the carpark to the falls. local guides are quick to direct you to a place where you can view the cascades from the top. this is stunning and not to be missed. BUT unless you want to take a long hike up and down the valley and paying the guide (you need to be fit to do this) go back to the car park. the guides will let you wander around hoping you will get lost and then need them, they will not point you back to the quick way down !!!

Go back to the car park park, find the tourist kiosks/stalls and follow the path and steps from there down to the bottom.

Unique Suggestions: If you do take a guide and do the trek negotiate a price first. They will also try to take you to a friends restaurant near the end. Eat here if you wish, but there are a few restaurants right at the foot of the falls with a much better view..

Fun Alternatives: Take the stairs down and spend the saved time and energy at one of the good cafes with amazing views.

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Don't hesitate to walk inside the valley of Ouzoud and you will be able to discover that monkeys in liberty ! It was a great surprise for me to see monkeys in liberty !

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Favorite thing: Ouzoud is a quiet and peaceful village, 1100 m above sea level, the perfect starting point for hikes, mule-rides and mountain bike rides for our sportier guests.

There are many one to two hour strolls along the river, in the gorges or across the crests of the hills and mountains nearby; they all offer the chance to see the way of life of the mountain-dwellers in unspoilt little villages hidden away among the hills

Each season has something to offer: the limpid intensity of the blue of the sky in winter contrasting with the glittering white of the snowy peaks of the Atlas Mountains tracing a jagged line across the distance; Spring, when the olives and the espaliered almond trees blossom against the fresh greenery of a carpet of wheat and barley shoots; Summer, when the falls become a cool refuge from the heat of the sun and a paradise for swimmers and canoe-fanatics alike; Autumn, hay-making time, a time of change yet all the walking and hiking paths in the Aït Bougmez valley are still open, including walks through this breadbasket region and climbs up into the Atlas Mountains, Mont M'Goun at more than 4000 m above sea level for example.

Trips in 4WD vehicles around the region make it possible to visit the Dadès Gorge, reaching the desert through the Draâ Valley.