Going to a Moroccan hammam is something that many travelers recognize as a must to get to know their culture. In addition, it is a ritual that will relax you after your busy day of sightseeing in Morocco.
If you dare to include one of them in your route, it will do you good, and of course, it will benefit your skin. Especially if you have been touring the city with our tour of Morocco’s imperial cities.
Therefore, we are going to explain what a hammam is, what types exist in Morocco and which ones you can find in the different cities you visit.
What is a hammam?
The hammams come from the Roman baths, which were transmitted from culture to culture. First, they began to spread to Greece and the Ottoman Empire, which is why some of us know them as “Turkish baths”. Finally, they reached Morocco.
In Morocco, hammams are places for bathing, with rooms of different temperatures. Traditional public hammams are visited weekly by locals for purification and socializing. Public hammams do not usually have swimming pools.
What are public hammams like?
If you want the authentic experience and to interact with the locals, go to a public hammam.
However, keep in mind that if you travel with someone of the other sex, you will enter different rooms and will not be able to share the experience.
First, you will enter a hot room with benches and buckets of water in which you will have to rinse yourself with one of them, then you will enter another even hotter room to open the pores of your skin.
You will return to the previous one to lather up with the soap you bring, which is recommended to be the typical Moroccan black soap. You should also bring your sponge. At this point, someone will most likely offer to soap your back and expect you to soap their back as well. Finally, you enter a cold room with showers.
You have the option of a final massage, which is done with an exfoliating glove if you pay extra. However, it is a massage where they exert quite a bit of pressure on the body. It is not the typical relaxing massage offered at Western spas.
What are the private hamams like?
In these you can enter with people of the other sex. Depending on the hammam, it will include some services or others and may or may not have a swimming pool. Find out beforehand what is included in the price and what the hammam you are going to visit is like.
In many of these hammams they will bathe you with a sponge. If you are very modest, simply do not hire this service.
They also usually include massages and green tea, and you will be alone with your companions as it is a private hammam.
The best hammams in Morocco
- In Marrakech, the private hammam with the most services and romantic bath option is les bains d’Azahara. On the other hand, if you are looking for a public bath, we recommend you the Hammam Essalama.
- In Fez you can visit the Royal Medina Spa. Although small, it is very nice and well priced. It is a private spa.
- In Chaouen you can visit the hammam Meslouhi if you want to be bathed and massaged in a typical Moroccan public bath.
