Marrakesh III: leisure and partying 2/2

Following on from my previous post, Marrakech III: ocio y fiesta 1/2, where I told you about places for leisure in Marrakesh, I will now tell you about where to go for a good night out in various clubs in the city :)

• Nightclubs

• L'envers:

This place is a kind of nightclub-restaurant hybrid where they play electronic music and techno live

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Before, the venue was just a garage with a high ceiling, but thanks to a great interior designer, the place has been fully taken advantage of.

Because of the high ceilings, they have been able to make two floors, using up much more of the space. And that's not all, not only was the DJ booth on the second floor, it was on top of the entrance, and to get up there you had to use a stepladder that was outside!

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Given that many people have fallen down trying to get up there, they've banned everyone but the DJ from climbing it.

The drink prices are the same as the rest of the world, between 5 and 10 euros, and an average 25cl beer costs 35 dirhams, around 3 euros if I recall correctly, and tastes more or less okay.

This place, depending on the DJ and the music playing that night, can be entertaining and can be a great place to spend the whole night, or it can be a shithole not worth the bother of going to. Because it's such a small place, if there isn't a good vibe then people will end up leaving, and that's what happened when I went last year.

The girls and I went there around 10 p. m. because the boy who I met in the Armani who invited us into the pool (read Marrakech:ocio y fiesta 1/2) was playing there, and it had been a year since I saw him, so it seemed like a good opportunity to go and see him, even though I knew that I wouldn't like his music.

He played at the pool one time at Plage Rouge when I went last year and it sent me to sleep, so that time I went with low expectations.

And I wasn't wrong, because the joint was virtually deserted after he started playing his music.

That night there weren't many people, but the few that came in ended up leaving because the atmosphere was so dull. And to tell you the truth, it's because the music wasn't very good, and it was a shame because the club was pretty cool.

We also ended up leaving after about an hour because it was my last night and we wanted to spend it well, so we decided on a change of scene and we left and went to Faktory'z.

• Faktory'z

This place is insane!. To get in you either have to make a reservation or be really well dressed. Girls, just dress slutty and you'll make the cut but boys, you won't have it so easy. It'll be quite difficult if you go without a reservation, but try and look handsome and maybe they'll turn a blind eye.

We didn't have either. We weren't almost naked nor did we have a reservation, but we relied on contacts so that we could get in.

One of my friends had been there a few weeks ago with her friends from work and they had spent a fortune on dinner, drinks and tips.

The bouncer recognised her, and after giving him one of our best smiles he let us go in, but not before asking my other friend for ID for being short, as he believed she was underaged.

Once inside I was speechless.

Everything is very well decorated, from the lighting to the details of the tables, chairs and even the ashtrays.

The venue is made up of three very large floors.

On the main floor there is an enormous bar and a little stage where a Colombian band was performing live, and a dancefloor where you can dance to the beat of the music as well as a few tables near the bar where only those who had a reservation could sit at.

On the bottom floor there were great big armchairs to relax in and several tables and chairs. This floor, however, didn't have a dancefloor to dance on or anything, it was much more suited for casual eating or drinking.

On the top floor there was another bar, though much smaller than the one on the main floor, and a little more room to dance and some tables and chairs. This floor was much better for standing than sitting.

We went straight to the top floor because the other floors were packed.

In the centre of the top floor, there was a square opening from which you could see the bar on the main floor which was also a square and part of the stage.

And this peculiar gap is because at a certain time of the night, the club dancers slide down stripper poles from the top floor and start dancing on the bar on the main floor.

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At that moment, everyone either went up to the top floor or stayed on the main floor, hypnotised, recording the girls dancing on top of the bar (that is quite wide, so there was no danger).

I had never seen anything like it!

Apart from those dancers who occasionally break into dance, we were the only ones dancing.

We were in one of the little corridors that formed the mezzanine at the top, a small distance from everyone else, where practically almost everyone could see us. We didn't choose that spot on purpose. It was the only place in the club that was empty, since, being a corridor, no one was standing there.

The rest of the girls in the club barely moved an inch. They were so restricted by their tiny dresses I doubt very much that they could even breathe. The boys were the same, they were either leering at the girls' legs or desperately trying to pull.

We girls, on the other hand, were dancing and going crazy to every song that they played, because that was why we went in the first place, to dance and enjoy ourselves.

I sincerely recommend this place because if you want to have fun, you will easily manage to do so; also the music was pretty good and the bartenders were really nice!

I remember before the dancers jumped onto the bar, one of the barmen from downstairs whistled us and asked if we wanted to go down and dance on the bar.

I was mortified and got down when I realised that everyone was looking us up and down.

But overall, despite one uncomfortable moment where some really drunk guy came over to bother us, I had a really great time.

The funniest part of all is that while we were in Faktory'z we saw that a group of people that had gone to L'envers before we left, had left that club and had come to the one we were at.

I'm pretty sure that our friend the DJ was left alone at L'envers playing to crickets.

• 555 Famous Club:

As the name suggests, this is one of the most famous clubs in the city.

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From the outside, it looks a little foreboding and seems like it would be expensive, but that is totally not the case.

The drinks cost more or less the same as in the rest of the clubs and entry (for girls) is free most of the time.

Sorry boys but for you to enter I'm (almost) certain that you have to pay, though I believe it costs the same as in a club in any other country, about 15 euros or so.

However, there isn't much more I can tell you about this place because I have never been inside, but my friends have and they said that it's one of the best clubs in all of Marrakesh.

The lights inside are pretty good, even better than the ones in Faktory'z, and the guest DJs are even better. Also, they get really famous artists to perform like Pitbull, Inna, DJ Snake or even David Guetta.

As well as this, the place is huge and there is so much space to dance.

• Pacha Marrakesh:

Of course, the renowned nightclub Pacha is also in Marrakesh, it would be lacking without it.

It's the biggest nightclub in Marrakesh, and it's even said that it's the biggest nightclub on the African continent, although not the most visited unless a famous singer or DJ goes there.

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I wasn't able to go to this club either, but I believe that to get in you have to pay for entry which is the same for both boys and girls.

It doesn't have a very good reputation because people say that they don't serve drinks very well and that everything is super expensive, and the only good thing about it is its name, but listen, I wouldn't be so quick to judge because I've never been and if I'm going to have a bad opinion on something I would prefer to get to know it first.

• Theatro Marrakech:

Like 555 Famous Club, Theatro Marrakech is another one of the most well-known places in the city to go out and dance, but like Pacha, it has a reputation for not being very good. Although, I have also read comments on the Internet about this place and they deem it one of the best places to party in Morocco so I don't know.

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Yes, for this place you have to pay to get in and you have to book in advance if a famous artist is going to perform. Not only that, as well as paying for entry and reservation you have to follow a dress code. We wouldn't have been allowed inside if it weren't for the many friends we had who were already inside.

I had never been to this place either, but I didn't really want to, because before talk of going to Le Factory I asked my friends and they told me exactly what I had just told them, that neither was really worth what you paid to get in.

Lastly, I should tell you that smoking is allowed in all establishments in Morocco, so if you go to the club and you don't smoke, bear in mind that you will come out stinking of tobacco.

That was one thing that really quite surprised me since that in all European countries, smoking is forbidden inside establishments, therefore perhaps seeing people smoking in cafes surprises tourists when they go to Morocco.

I don't know why I thought it would also be prohibited in Morocco, but anyway, it isn't something that bothers me.

By the way, regarding reservations to enter a club, you will always be able to reserve a bottle so that the price of entry is reduced.

Normally, a 2-3 litre bottle of vodka costs 1600 dirhams, around 160 euros and comes with a bottle of water, two bottles of pop (one lemon, one orange), ice and straws. The complete set.

For those going in a group, this will be the best option for drinking alcohol and not spending a fortune on drinks.

Another piece of advice, when you make a booking don't ask for a specific brand of bottle because they will rip you off, only say the drink you want and nothing more, they will normally give you a decent bottle.

For those of you that are smoker, I have "good" news, in Morocco, tobacco is very cheap.

A twenty pack of menthol Marlboro lights costs 33 dirhams, just over three euros.

If I'm not mistaken, in Spain that pack costs more than five euros, and in France it's over eight, so when I found out the price it made me want to buy hundreds of packets to then sell them in Spain and ensure a profit. But I didn't do that because I'm a very law-abiding citizen haha.

For smokers that don't want to buy a whole packet, they also sell individual cigarettes. Depending on the brand, some cost more than others.

The cheapest costs one dirham, less than 0.10€, but don't even think about buying that junk because it's the worst shit that you can smoke. They are the remains of the remains of the remains of industrial tobacco mixed with a load of tar (I can't believe that they sell that rubbish).

And then there are the Marlboro or Camel cigarettes that cost 2-3 dirhams, around 0.20€-0.30€.

In Spain, I believe that they sell cigarettes per unit for around 0.30€ in the Chinese shops, but not in the tobacconists.

So overall, for party-goers travelling to Marrakesh wanting to go out I would say that you'll find a place where they serve nice drinks and play good music anywhere.

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