What is Chefchaouen like in March?

March is the month Chefchaouen shakes off winter, and I find it one of the more rewarding times to be here for travellers who do not need guaranteed sun. Early March can still feel cold and damp, with daytime highs in the mid-teens Celsius and chilly evenings that call for a jacket, but as the month goes on you feel the warmth building — by late March you are often into pleasant low-20s°C afternoons. The defining quality is freshness: everything is green, the air smells of wet earth and herbs and woodsmoke, and the town feels like it is stretching awake.

The hills are the star in March. After the winter rains the Rif slopes are vivid green, terraced with olives and dotted with the first wildflowers and blossom, and the blue-washed medina sits against that backdrop like a painting. The river hike to the Akchour waterfalls runs full and clear with snowmelt and rain, the canyon lush and dripping, and the climb up to the Spanish Mosque viewpoint for sunset is a genuine pleasure in the milder air. It is the start of the photographer's season — soft light, saturated blues, green setting — without the summer haze.

I am honest that March is changeable. The Rif still catches plenty of rain this month, so a grey, showery day or two is likely, and I always tell people to pack a light waterproof and a warm layer alongside their lighter clothes — mountain spring weather swings from t-shirt sun to cold drizzle within an afternoon. Higher trails in the Talassemtane park may still be wet or patchy with late snow, so I plan the more ambitious walking for April and keep March to the medina, the Akchour valley and the lower viewpoints.

Crowds remain gentle through most of March, which is part of the appeal — you get spring greenery and warming weather without the day-tripper crush that arrives later, and riad prices are still reasonable. The one thing I watch is the timing of Easter, which sometimes falls in late March and briefly fills the lanes with Moroccan and Spanish visitors. My steer: come in March for the green-hills-and-fresh-air version of the blue city, dress for changeable mountain weather, and you get spring's beauty arriving with the crowds still mostly absent.