Is Morocco good for New Year's Eve?

New Year's Eve is when Marrakech really shows off, and I've planned a lot of them. The city has a glamorous, slightly hedonistic streak that surfaces at the turn of the year — the grand hotels and stylish riads put on black-tie gala dinners, the rooftop bars fill, and there's a genuine party scene if that's what you want. La Mamounia and the boutique riads in the palmeraie compete to out-do each other, and a NYE dinner under the lanterns followed by fireworks over the Koutoubia is about as romantic and atmospheric as it gets.

For travellers who'd rather mark the year quietly and meaningfully, I steer them to the desert instead. Seeing in the new year around a fire in a Sahara camp, with no city glow and the Milky Way blazing overhead, is something else entirely — quieter, deeper, unforgettable. Some camps do a special dinner and a little ceremony at midnight. It's cold, so you bundle up, but the stillness of the desert at the year's turn stays with people.

The weather cooperates, broadly: late December and early January give you those crisp, sunny days and cold nights I've described, which means a rooftop celebration is plausible with a wrap and a heater, and the daytime around it is perfect for sightseeing. Coastal Essaouira and Agadir do gentler, more relaxed versions of the celebration if Marrakech's intensity isn't your thing.

The honest reality is cost and planning. New Year's Eve is the single most expensive night of the year in Morocco's best places, and most riads and hotels make their gala dinner compulsory and pricey for anyone staying that night. The good venues book out months in advance — by autumn the prime tables are gone. So if a Moroccan New Year appeals, decide early, lock in the riad and the dinner together, and you'll have a brilliant one. Leave it late and you'll struggle.