Where can I see snow in Morocco?

People are genuinely surprised that you can ski in Africa, but you can — and the most accessible place is Oukaimeden, about a ninety-minute drive up from Marrakech. At around 2,600 metres, with the highest lift near 3,200m, it is the highest ski resort on the continent. The season is short and snow varies year to year, but in a good January or February you can ski or snowboard in the morning and be back in warm Marrakech for dinner, with the Koutoubia palms swaying. Gear rental is basic and cheap, and the views over the Atlas are spectacular.

For serious mountain snow, the High Atlas around Jebel Toubkal (North Africa’s highest peak at 4,167m) is deeply snow-capped through winter and into spring. A winter Toubkal ascent is a proper mountaineering objective requiring crampons, ice axe and a guide, but even from the village of Imlil you can see the snowy summits, and the drive over the Tizi n’Tichka pass on the road to Ouarzazate often crosses fresh snow between roughly December and March — dramatic switchbacks with white peaks all around.

The Middle Atlas is the other snow zone, and it feels almost alpine. Ifrane is a town built in the 1930s to look like a Swiss village, with pitched roofs and a famous stone lion statue, and it regularly sits under snow in winter. The little resort of Mischliffen nearby has gentle slopes, and the cedar forests around Azrou — home to those Barbary macaque troops — are beautiful dusted with snow. This region is greener and softer than the High Atlas, lovely for a snowy day trip from Fes.

My practical advice: come between mid-December and early March if snow is the goal, and treat it as a bonus rather than a guarantee — some winters are dry. Bring warm layers because Moroccan mountain accommodation is often not well heated, and remember you can pair a snowy morning in the Atlas with a Sahara or Marrakech leg in the same trip. That contrast — snow and sand in one week — is one of the things I love most about this country.