In town

Afourar has one proper hotel

For a working town of thirteen thousand people on a mountain road, that is more than you would expect — and worth knowing before you default to the lake.

Most of Afourar is exactly what it looks like: cafés, grills, grocers, banks, fuel, and a few basic hôtels of the kind that serve travelling salesmen and market traders. There is no hotel district and no tourist restaurant scene. But there is one substantial place to stay, which is more than most towns this size on this road can claim.

Hôtel Chems Le Tazarkount

A four-star hotel of 135 rooms in the quieter, greener quarter of town, with an outdoor pool, a spa and hammam, a gym, tennis, gardens and a terrace. There is a restaurant, a bar and a café, breakfast is included, the front desk is staffed around the clock, and reception works in Arabic, French and English; an airport transfer can be arranged for a surcharge.

Address: BP 54, Afourer, 22050, Azilal Province.
We have not published a telephone number or website: the hotel has no official site we could confirm, and the domains that look like one are third-party booking aggregators. Book through whichever channel you normally use.

Beyond that, the accommodation is 45 minutes above the town at the lake, or 35 minutes below it in Beni Mellal. Both are close enough that basing yourself in either and passing through Afourar daily remains a perfectly normal way to do this.

Know somewhere else in Afourar? If you run — or can vouch for — a guesthouse, café or restaurant in the town, get in touch through the Facebook page and we will add it. This page lists places we can verify, and nothing else.

At the lake

Bin El Ouidane — 32 km, 45 minutes

This is where the region’s proper hotels are: a short line of properties strung along the shore above the water, ranging from a full resort to family-run guesthouses.

The best known are the Widiane Resort & Spa, a five-star property with an infinity pool above the lake; the Hôtel Bin El Ouidane, open since 2006, with suites, a garden and a pool; Chems du Lac, at the water’s edge with a spa and tennis court; Le Figuier du Lac; and Les Jardins Yasmina, which leans towards water sports and day use. Several smaller guesthouses and apartment rentals operate around the village.

Rates, opening and standards move around a lot between seasons, and the lake’s water level moves with them — a room sold on its view is worth checking recent photographs for. Book ahead for weekends in spring and for the whole of summer, when Moroccan families fill the lake.

Our full guide to the lake

On the plain

Beni Mellal — 29 km, 35 minutes

Beni Mellal is a city of a couple of hundred thousand people and has the widest ordinary choice in the region: mid-range business hotels near the centre, budget rooms around the bus station, apartments on the booking sites, and the region’s best restaurants and shops. It is not scenic — it is convenient, and it is 35 minutes from Afourar.

If you are arriving late, driving on from Casablanca, or travelling without a car, Beni Mellal is the sensible base. If you want to wake up looking at water, go up to the lake instead.

Further afield

Ouzoud (77 km) has a cluster of small hotels and guesthouses right by the falls — pleasant, and busy at weekends.
Azilal (56 km) has simple town hotels, useful as a staging post before the mountains.
Aït Bougmez (half a day) is guesthouse and gîte d’étape country, often booked as part of a trek.

Eating

What to actually eat here

Roadside Morocco, done well. The food in and around Afourar is not a cuisine scene; it is a handful of things cooked constantly and therefore cooked properly.

Grilled meat. The default. Lamb or beef brochettes, kefta, sometimes liver wrapped in caul fat, cooked over charcoal at the front of the shop, served with bread, cumin, salt and a chopped tomato-and-onion salad. Choose the grill with the most people at it.
Tagine. Slow-cooked in the morning and sold through the day — chicken with preserved lemon and olives, or beef with prunes. Ask what is ready rather than what is on the menu.
Harira and bean soups, especially in winter and at the souk before dawn.
Bread, msemen and beghrir from the bakery, with butter and honey — mountain honey is a serious local product.
Olive oil. The dir is olive country; oil bought from a small press between November and January is a different substance from the supermarket version.
Mandarins, in season, from January — including the variety that carries the town’s name.
Mint tea, constantly, and sweeter than you expect.

Practicalities

Cash only in most small places.
Alcohol is not served in ordinary town cafés and restaurants. The lake hotels are licensed.
Vegetarians manage fine with vegetable tagine, bean dishes, salads, bread and eggs, but should say so explicitly — stock and a little meat are often assumed to be neutral.
During Ramadan, daytime food service largely stops and everything moves to the evening.

The single best meal in Afourar is at the weekly souk, standing up, before nine in the morning.