What is Morocco like in winter, and what is there to do?

People arrive in winter braced for a 'tropical' Morocco and are always surprised. This is North Africa, not the equator, and from December through February you get a country of contrasts in a single day. In Marrakech and the Atlantic coast you'll have bright, dry afternoons in the high teens or low twenties Celsius — café-on-a-terrace weather — and then the temperature falls off a cliff after sunset. Riads with thick walls and no central heating get cold; the smart ones lay out hot water bottles and pile on blankets, and I always warn my travellers to bring proper warm layers rather than assume Africa equals heat.

What I love about winter is how much of the country opens up precisely because the crowds vanish. The medinas of Fes and Marrakech, shoulder-to-shoulder in spring, become walkable and calm. You can linger in Jemaa el-Fnaa without being swallowed. Photographers get crisp, clear light and snow-dusted mountains as a backdrop. And the desert — Merzouga, Zagora — is at its most comfortable for daytime activity, though the Saharan nights are properly freezing, so desert camps run roaring fires and stack the beds with heavy blankets.

The single most striking thing you can do is ski. Oukaïmeden, about an hour and a half from Marrakech, is a genuine ski resort in the High Atlas with lifts and runs. I've sent travellers up to ski in the morning and had them eating lunch among palm trees in the warm valleys the same afternoon — there is almost nowhere else on earth you can do that. Beyond skiing, winter is ideal for city exploration, hammams (never better than when it's cold out), cooking classes, and slow road trips south.

My honest caveat: high mountain passes like Tizi n'Tichka can close briefly after heavy snow, so a good driver and a flexible plan matter, and some remote trekking is off the table. But if you want Morocco at its most atmospheric — woodsmoke in the air, oranges ripe on the trees, snow on the peaks, and the tourist hordes elsewhere — winter rewards you enormously.