Is Morocco good for art lovers?

Art lovers get two countries in one here: the deep well of traditional Islamic and Berber craft, and a genuinely exciting contemporary scene. On the heritage side, the decorative arts are everywhere — geometric zellige tilework, carved cedar ceilings, sculpted plaster (gebs), illuminated calligraphy and the symbolic motifs woven into Berber rugs. I treat a medina walk as a gallery visit, because the madrasas and palaces are essentially masterworks of applied art you can stand inside.

Marrakech anchors the modern scene. The Yves Saint Laurent Museum sits beside the Majorelle Garden — the cobalt-blue villa and garden the designer rescued and adored — and MACAAL (the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden) shows ambitious work from across the continent. The Dar El Bacha and Maison de la Photographie give you photography and decorative-arts collections in beautiful restored riads, so the buildings are half the pleasure.

Beyond the headline museums I point art lovers toward the working galleries and ateliers. The Marrakech medina and the seaside town of Essaouira both have clusters of contemporary galleries; Essaouira in particular has a long association with painters and the naïve "Essaouira school". Asilah on the north coast hosts a celebrated mural festival that repaints the medina each summer, and Tangier carries the ghosts of Matisse, Delacroix and the Beat writers who all worked there.

My practical steer: decide whether you lean classical or contemporary, because the routes differ. For traditional craft, Fes and the southern kasbahs are unbeatable and I can arrange studio visits with master artisans. For modern and design-led art, base in Marrakech with a coastal detour to Essaouira. Either way, buying directly from a workshop — a rug, a piece of ceramic, a painting — sends you home with art that has a story, and I am happy to vet quality and arrange shipping.