MOROCCO: THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS // Visiting the mountain village of Imlil (photos)

ryanne (43)in #travel • 7 years ago (edited)

Time to share some photos I took in Imlil, a small Berber village in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

When I plan a trip to a new destination, I always try to include three categories; a big city (see my first post of Marrakech here(more coming as well)), the coastline, and a place more inland like a national park, or a village, or the mountains in this case. I decided to go to Imlil because it was fairly close to Marrakech, which was my place of departure.
Imlil is the preferred place to stay for tourists wanting to visit the Toubkal Mountain.
If you watched Seven Years in Tibet, you might have seen Imlil without realizing it, since part of the movie was filmed in this village.

Going to Imlil is easy to do. It's only a one and a half hour drive from Marrakesh. I planned on taking a taxi for going there since taking a cab is pretty cheap there, and I didn't want to drive myself in a city like Marrakesh. I did rent a car when I was driving to the beautiful beach of Legzira, I'm going to be posting about that later. So don't forget to click the Follow button, if you want to be updated with new posts.
I was fortunate to meet a fellow traveler with whom I spend a couple of days in Morocco. He had a rental car so we drove to Imlil together. It's a great drive on the winding roads through the hills.
While driving to Imlil, you get to see such magnificent views. Morocco has a very dry landscape and offers some fantastic views of mountains closeby as well as at a far distance.

Now and then you'll see a small river, or even just a stream of water, carving through the hills. Even though Morocco is very dry, because of the small rivers, small bushes are still scattered around the hills.

Imlil is located near the Toubkal Mountain, the highest mountain peak in Northern Africa. Because of this, Imlil's main income comes from tourism. I didn't dare to do the Toubkal hike myself, but I've seen hikers arrive at the hostel completely exhausted! Not even all of them made it up to the top.

When nearing the valley where Imlil is located, you'll start to notice the small Berber houses grouped together on the mountain hills. It's unbelievable to think these people live in this environment.

If you're not the fittest person, which I am not, there are still doable hikes that give you amazing views of the valley. It's a great place to just walk around and see how far you can get. It's a small village so getting lost shouldn't be a problem.

All these photos were taken in walking distance from the hostel we were staying at, Dar Tighoula. I would definitely recommend staying at this hostel; good food, friendly owners, clean rooms and great views. I wish I stayed longer, but my trip was already planned out from the beginning.

At nightfall, it's just magical. The lanterns of peoples houses start to lit up while the sky becomes darker and darker. These are the only available lights since there are no street lanterns.

TIPS FOR VISITING IMLIL
Imlil is a very small village, we never succeeded in finding a decent store. So make sure you have all the stuff you need for the time you're staying because you're not going to find it there.
We found one restaurant, so I recommend staying at a hostel which provides breakfast and dinner.
I regretted not bringing a bottle of wine! There is no alcohol to be found anywhere. Not that I'm a big drinker, but when we were enjoying a beautiful view of the mountains during sunset, I did wish for a glass to celebrate the moment.