What is Morocco like in spring? Is it the best season to visit?

If a traveller asks me for the single best window and gives me no other constraints, I usually say spring, and I'll tell you exactly why I've come to that view after countless trips. From March into May the whole country is at its most generous. Marrakech and Fes sit in that golden zone — warm enough for terraces and rooftop dinners, cool enough to walk the medinas all day without wilting. The almond and then the rose blossom comes through, the Atlas foothills turn vivid green, and the usually tawny landscape briefly explodes with wildflowers.

It's also the sweet spot for the things people travel to Morocco for. The desert is ideal in spring — warm clear days, comfortable nights, no oppressive heat — so camel treks and luxury camps are at their best. The High Atlas still wears snow on its peaks, which makes for spectacular drives and photographs, yet the valleys and lower trails are open for trekking. The Rose Festival in the Dades Valley around May, when the damask roses are harvested, is a genuinely lovely thing to time a trip around.

I won't oversell it without the honest counterweight, though. Because spring is so obviously perfect, it is the busiest and most expensive time to come. The best riads sell out months ahead, popular tours fill, and the marquee sights have queues. Easter and European school holidays land in this window and concentrate the crowds further. If you want spring — and most people should — the answer is simply to book early, ideally three to six months out for the good places.

One more practical note: spring weather, while lovely, isn't perfectly stable. You can catch a cool, showery spell in March or a sudden hot push in late May, and the occasional chergui — a hot, dusty wind off the Sahara — can blow through. None of that dents my recommendation. For the balance of comfort, beauty, and full access to every region, spring is hard to beat, and I plan more trips in it than any other season.