Marrakech Layover Near the Train Station
Part of the full Marrakech Layover: Medina Palaces From RAK
Marrakech’s railway station in the Gueliz new town faces the domed Théâtre Royal across Avenue Hassan II, and a free walk from there takes in the 1928 Église des Saints-Martyrs and the Cyber Park, an 18th-century royal garden on Avenue Mohammed V.
A steam hammam and massage after the train from Casablanca
Trains from Casablanca’s Casa-Voyageurs station take about two hours and forty minutes to reach Marrakech, and the run from Tangier is longer still, so most people stepping off here have been sitting a long time. The Moroccan answer to that is the hammam: a spell in a steam room hot enough to open the skin, a coat of savon beldi, the thick black soap made from olive oil and olive paste, and then an attendant with a kessa, a coarse exfoliating glove, scrubbing it all off harder than first-timers expect. Mint tea in the cooler room comes after. A steam hammam with a Berber massage can be booked before you board, which saves hunting for one with a timetable in your head; allow about two hours for the whole thing.
The Théâtre Royal’s dome faces the station across Avenue Hassan II
Marrakech’s station opened on 10 August 2008, a hundred metres from the 1923 building it replaced, and its forecourt of white fabric canopies looks straight across Avenue Hassan II at the Théâtre Royal. The Tunisian architect Charles Boccara won the commission, planning began in the 1970s, and budget and design problems stretched the work out so long that only the exterior, the reception rooms and the 1,200-seat open-air amphitheatre were ready when King Mohammed VI inaugurated it on 19 September 2001. The front is a colonnade under a big ribbed dome, and an 800-seat opera auditorium sits behind it.
The paved plaza in front is open and costs nothing to cross. A train from Casablanca or Tangier usually means arriving with everything packed for the trip, not a cabin bag, on a forecourt a little under three kilometres from the medina gates, so what happens to that bag decides how much of Gueliz you actually walk.
Église des Saints-Martyrs and the mosque facing it on Rue el Imam Ali
The Église des Saints-Martyrs stands on Rue el Imam Ali in the middle of Gueliz, the new town the French laid out beside the medina during the protectorate. It went up in 1928, was consecrated the following year, and is dedicated to five Franciscan friars martyred in Marrakech in 1220. It was the first church built in the city, and it still holds mass, for a congregation that is almost entirely foreign residents.
What makes the street worth the detour is what stands across it: a mosque whose minaret faces the church’s bell tower almost symmetrically, a pairing people in Marrakech often point to as a picture of the two faiths getting along. It is roughly fifteen minutes on foot from the station.
Cyber Park, an 18th-century royal orchard on Avenue Mohammed V
The Cyber Park Arsat Moulay Abdeslam fills about eight hectares along Avenue Mohammed V, at the end of the avenue nearest the Koutoubia minaret. A prince of the ruling family, Moulay Abdeslam, had it planted in the 18th century as a productive orchard, and the olive trees and palms still shade most of it; the “cyber” part is newer, a set of internet terminals and a small telecommunications museum added when it was restored as a public garden.
Entry is free, the gates open from about 7:30 to 18:30, and the paths are flat gravel with benches all the way through. Walking the length of Avenue Mohammed V from Gueliz to reach it takes about half an hour, and the medina walls begin just past its far end, which is where the full Marrakech medina walk picks up: the Koutoubia, Jemaa el-Fnaa, the souks and the palaces.
The airport bus calls at the station forecourt
Bus 19, the airport line run by ALSA, stops at the station on its loop between the medina and Marrakesh Menara Airport (RAK), roughly every half hour between about 06:00 and 21:00. A single is 30 dirhams, paid in cash to the driver. A petit taxi from the rank on the forecourt covers the same ground in 10 to 20 minutes, depending on traffic, and costs more but runs on no timetable. International departures from RAK go best with about three hours in hand at the terminal, most of it spent in the door scan, check-in and passport queues rather than on the road.
Between a long train ride and a late flight, a few hours in Gueliz with a steam room in the middle is a different day from the medina’s palaces and souks, and an easier one to walk with nothing on your shoulder.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Marrakech Railway Station in Marrakech?
Start with the Théâtre Royal, the domed theatre directly across Avenue Hassan II from the station, then walk into Gueliz to the Église des Saints-Martyrs, a 1928 church facing a mosque on Rue el Imam Ali, and finish in the Cyber Park, an 18th-century royal garden on Avenue Mohammed V. All three are free to see and three to four hours covers them on foot. A steam hammam and massage is the one thing worth booking ahead, and the piece to drop if time is short.
How far is Marrakech Railway Station from Jemaa el-Fnaa?
A little under three kilometres. Avenue Mohammed V runs from the heart of Gueliz down to the Koutoubia minaret on the edge of the square, so the walk is straightforward and takes about forty minutes; a petit taxi does it in ten to fifteen. Once you are there, the Marrakech medina walk takes over, with the Bahia Palace, the Ben Youssef Madrasa and the souks between them.
When is the Église des Saints-Martyrs open?
The church is still a working parish, served by Franciscans for Marrakech's foreign Catholic community, so the doors are reliably open around services: mass is at 18:30 on weekdays, and at 10:30 and 18:30 on Sunday. Outside those times the gate may be shut, but the bell tower and the mosque facing it across Rue el Imam Ali are the view most people come for, and both are visible from the street at any hour.
How long is the train from Casablanca to Marrakech?
About two hours and forty minutes on the quicker services from Casablanca's Casa-Voyageurs station, and up to around three hours twenty on those with more stops. Departures run roughly every one to two hours from early morning to late evening, and a second-class seat is in the region of 85 to 100 dirhams. Check the actual arrival time before you count on the Gueliz walk: the difference between the fast and slow trains is most of a hammam.