Chefchaouen: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Chefchaouen, Chaouen for short, was founded in 1471 as a mountain fortress against the Portuguese, and filled with Muslims and Jews driven out of Spain after 1492. For four centuries it was closed to Christians; when Spanish troops arrived in 1920 they are said to have found Jews still speaking a Spanish of the fifteenth century. Ninety minutes; the lanes are steep.
A short history of Chefchaouen
Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 by Moulay Ali ben Rachid as a fortress in the Rif Mountains, against the Portuguese who held the coast. After 1492 Muslims and Jews expelled from Spain arrived, and they gave the alleys and houses their Andalusian character. For centuries the town was almost completely closed to outsiders. In 1920 the Spanish army entered it, and it was part of the Spanish protectorate until 1956. The blue walls for which it is known today are a custom that spread through the town in the 20th century.
The ten best sights in Chefchaouen
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1Outa el Hammam
The main square under the kasbah
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2The Kasbah
The red fort with a garden and a small museum
3Great MosqueAn eight-sided minaret, rare in Morocco
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4Bab el Mellah
The gate of the old Jewish quarter
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5Bab el Ain
The main gate into the blue medina
6OnsarThe highest and bluest lanes
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7Ras el Ma
The spring where women still wash clothes
8Spanish MosqueA half-hour climb for the sunset view
9AkchourWaterfalls in a river gorge
10God’s BridgeA natural rock arch over the river
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Chefchaouen →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Chefchaouen:
Free walking tours in Chefchaouen
The blue town
Chefchaouen, Chaouen for short, was founded in 1471 as a mountain fortress against the Portuguese, and filled with Muslims and Jews driven out of Spain after 1492. For four centuries it was closed to Christians; when Spanish troops arrived in 1920 they are said to have found Jews still speaking a Spanish of the fifteenth century. Ninety minutes; the lanes are steep.
- Bab el Ain · The main gate into the medina, where the blue begins. One popular explanation is that the Jews of the town painted their houses blue in the 1930s, the colour of the sky and of the tekhelet thread; others say it keeps away mosquitoes or simply keeps the tourists coming. The town repaints every year.
- Bab el Mellah · The gate of the old Jewish quarter. In 1883 the French explorer Charles de Foucauld entered the forbidden town disguised as a rabbi, among the first Europeans to see it; the Jews of Chaouen spoke Haketia, a Judeo-Spanish dialect mixed with Arabic, and almost all left for Israel after 1948.
- Outa el Hammam · The cobbled main square, shaded by trees and ringed with cafés, under the walls of the kasbah and the minaret of the Great Mosque. In the evening the whole town seems to pass through it.
- The Kasbah · The red-walled fort of the town’s founder, Moulay Ali ibn Rashid, with an Andalusian garden inside. His daughter, Sayyida al-Hurra, later ruled Tetouan and ran a fleet of corsairs against the Spanish and Portuguese — one of the few women to rule in the Islamic west. From its tower the blue town spreads below.
- Great Mosque · A mosque of the fifteenth century beside the square, whose minaret is eight-sided — unusual in Morocco, where minarets are almost always square, and probably a sign of builders from Andalusia.
- Onsar · The highest quarter of the medina, where the lanes are bluest and narrowest, with stairs, potted plants and doorways painted in every shade of blue — the most photographed corner of the town.
The spring and the hill
Above the town a spring gushes out of the mountain, and across the valley a hill gives the view of the whole blue town at sunset. Two hours, ending at sunset.
- The Souk · Chaouen is known for its goat cheese, sold fresh in little rounds wrapped in palm leaves by women from the mountain villages, who wear striped red-and-white cloths and wide straw hats hung with woollen tassels.
- Ras el Ma · The spring that made the town possible, rushing out of the mountain below the walls. Women still come to wash clothes and carpets in its stone basins, and the water turns old mills on its way down.
- Spanish Mosque · A mosque built by the Spanish in the 1920s on the hill opposite, as a gesture to the town, and never used for prayer. A path climbs to it in about half an hour, and at sunset the whole blue town turns gold below.
- Onsar · Coming back down through the upper medina, the lanes empty of day visitors, and families sit on their steps in the evening cool of the mountain.
- Outa el Hammam · Dinner on a terrace over the square: tagine, bissara and the local goat cheese, with the kasbah lit up across the way.
- CTM bus station · Below the medina, the new town of the Spanish period. Chaouen was part of the Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco from 1920 to 1956, and Spanish is still widely spoken here alongside Arabic.
The Rif mountains and the sea
Chaouen sits in the Rif mountains, among fir forests and river gorges, an hour from the Mediterranean. A full day by car or taxi; good shoes for the gorge.
- Akchour · A gorge where the river falls through a series of turquoise pools and waterfalls. A path follows it upstream for a few hours, past little cafés where tables stand in the water.
- God’s Bridge · A natural arch of rock high over the river, carved by the water over thousands of years, reached by a separate path from the same valley.
- Talassemtane · A national park of limestone peaks and the Moroccan fir, a tree that grows nowhere else in the world. Barbary macaques, the only monkeys native to Africa north of the Sahara, live in its forests.
- Oued Laou · Where the river reaches the Mediterranean, a quiet fishing village with a long beach, down a winding road through the gorges of the Rif.
- Tetouan · A white medina rebuilt by refugees from Granada after 1492, a world heritage site, once ruled by Sayyida al-Hurra. Its Jewish community was among the oldest Sephardi communities of Morocco, and many of its families came to Israel.
- Ras el Ma · Back in Chaouen, the spring at the top of the town is the place to sit with a glass of mint tea as the mountain air cools in the evening.
Getting to Chefchaouen and getting around
- CTM bus station · Buses to Fes, Tangier and Tetouan; uphill to the medina
Cheap eats in Chefchaouen
Chaouen eats mountain food: fresh goat cheese from the Rif villages, bissara soup, tagines of goat and lamb, and bread baked in the quarter’s oven. Mint tea is poured on every terrace. The cafés on the square cost more than the small eateries a few lanes away.
- The Souk · Goat cheese from the women of the hills
- Outa el Hammam · Terraces over the square
- Akchour · Tagine at a café in the river
- Ras el Ma · Mint tea by the spring
Museums in Chefchaouen
The town itself is the museum; the kasbah keeps a small one of Rif crafts and old photographs.
- The Kasbah · The kasbah museum
- Tetouan · The Andalusian medina
Nature and day trips near Chefchaouen
The Rif mountains around Chaouen hold gorges, waterfalls, fir forests found nowhere else and Barbary apes.
- Akchour · The waterfalls
- God’s Bridge · The rock arch
- Talassemtane · Firs and Barbary apes
- Spanish Mosque · The sunset hill
Things to do in Chefchaouen with kids
With children: blue lanes to explore, cats on every step, a spring to splash in and a waterfall walk.
- Onsar · The blue lanes
- Ras el Ma · Splashing at the spring
- Akchour · The river pools
Holy places in Chefchaouen
A town of Andalusian refugees, Muslim and Jewish, with a rare eight-sided minaret and a mosque that was never prayed in.
- Great Mosque · The eight-sided minaret
- Bab el Mellah · The Jewish quarter
- Spanish Mosque · Never used for prayer
Nightlife in Chefchaouen
Chaouen is quiet and alcohol-free in the old town: the night is the square, the terraces and the blue lanes under lamplight.
- Outa el Hammam · The square at night
- Spanish Mosque · Sunset and the lights coming on
- Onsar · The lanes under lamplight
Frequently asked questions about Chefchaouen
What is there to see in Chefchaouen?
The top sights in Chefchaouen are Outa el Hammam, The Kasbah and Great Mosque. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Chefchaouen?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Chefchaouen without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Chefchaouen?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Chefchaouen, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The blue town.
How do you get to Chefchaouen and get around?
The main ways are CTM bus station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Chefchaouen, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Chefchaouen that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Chefchaouen for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.