Ifrane

Ifrane is Morocco's most surprising city. Built by the French in 1929 as a hill station retreat, this tidy Alpine-style town sits at 1,665 meters in the Middle Atlas Mountains and looks more like a Swiss village than a North African city. Red-roofed chalets, manicured gardens, and clean streets earn it the nickname "Little Switzerland" — a stark contrast to the dusty medinas that define most Moroccan cities. The town is home to Al Akhawayn University, Morocco's only English-language university modeled on the American liberal arts tradition. The campus brings an international student population that gives Ifrane a cosmopolitan edge despite its small size. The town's famous stone lion sculpture, carved by a German prisoner during World War II, has become an unlikely national landmark. The real draw of Ifrane is its natural surroundings. The cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, particularly around nearby Azrou (17 km south), are home to troops of endangered Barbary macaques — the only wild primates in Africa north of the Sahara. The monkeys are accustomed to visitors and provide memorable wildlife encounters. The Ifrane National Park protects vast stands of Atlas cedar, some trees over 800 years old, alongside holm oak forests and seasonal lakes. In winter, the Michlifen and Jebel Hebri ski stations offer Morocco's best skiing and snowboarding. Ifrane holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded in Africa: -23.9 degrees Celsius in 1935. Spring brings wildflower meadows and the seasonal Dayet Aoua lake fills with water and migratory birds.