22 Photos of Morocco We Can't Stop Staring At

When Carly and I were still in the planning phases of Sapphire & Elm Travel, we thought it would be fun for us to each compile a list of our top ten travel bucket list destinations as a way for our readers to get to know us individually through our travel aspirations.

After completing our lists, we had two that overlapped; Cuba and Morocco made both of our top ten travel destinations!

Cuba made sense because it was right at the time that for the first time in 50 years, Americans could visit this land frozen in time. But of all the other countries we both wanted to experience in our lifetimes (there’s 197 of them, by the way), Morocco made its way into both of our top ten list. It was even more unusual because Carly and I are very different types of travelers.

I think that speaks volumes of the magnetism of Morocco.

So during my European Summer I was absolutely emphatic about visiting Morocco, in fact out of the 11 countries I visited in those 4.5 months, Norway, Greece, Croatia, and Morocco were the only places I really felt a strong desire to visit (all for different reasons). The rest of my itinerary I was just following my intuition in the moment.

But there it was, Morocco. I had to visit. It was a deep, inexplicable desire and I was going to fulfill it.

If you’ve read any of our previous posts on Morocco, you probably noticed a trend: I was shocked and delighted with the variety that Morocco offered, and the things I was experiencing far surpassed my wildest dreams.

For example: I knew the blue city of Chefchaouen was going to be, well, blue, but it was far better than what I’d seen on Instagram, not sure how that’s possible. It’s so lovely, that when I compiled images to share with you, I couldn’t cut down to anything less than 42… FORTY-TWO! Might seem a tad overboard, but we think the town is pretty spectacular, and worth sharing every single one of those forty-two photos.

Then canyoneering in Akchour knocked my socks off. It was one of the biggest and best surprises, not just of Morocco, but that I’ve had in recent travels anywhere! I had no idea it was possible to hike and swim in a lush river canyon in Morocco!

Then city life was just as exhilarating as I’d imagined. In both the medinas in Fez and Marrakech were this massive, intricate, mesh of lively streets and souks (shops) full of beautiful hand-crafts or alarming things. I did see a few camel heads being sold!

And then hiking in the oasis of Todra Gorge…wow. Just wow. This canyon provided a leisurely stroll next to the river through fields and opportunities to talk to the many friendly locals. Again, another beautiful surprising day in Morocco.

And still, all of these experiences barely scratch the surface of the wonder and diversity that Morocco has to offer. It was a pretty good start, but I am looking forward to my next trip

So here are 22 images of Morocco that will inspire some major wanderlust for you... and hopefully a trip to this amazing country!