Africa's headline ski resort sits 70 km south of Marrakech, where Berber villages cling to slopes and the Sahara shimmers far below. Lifts climb past 3,200 m with Mount Toubkal filling the horizon. Snow comes when it comes, but the experience is genuinely surreal.
Oukaïmeden is a ski resort in Morocco, in the Moroccan Atlas. The village sits at 2620 m and the lifts top out at 3268 m, with 20 km of pistes and 7 lifts. Its BestSnowHotels snow score is 48/100, and the season usually runs Dec 21 → Mar 31.
How we score and classify resortsRun counts and piste kilometres are indicative. Green runs only exist in France, Spain, Andorra, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, the United States, Morocco, Algeria, Lesotho, South Africa, Egypt, Canada, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Chile; Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany start at blue. Indicative average snow depth near the top of the resort, in cm.
A handful of well-rated hotels in and around the resort. Pick one, then compare live prices across Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Excellent · 108 reviews
Strong value for Oukaïmeden, with a high guest rating that punches above its nightly price.
Guests rate this hotel as excellent (5.0/5 from 108 reviews). A budget-friendly option for Oukaïmeden, with live nightly rates shown for your exact dates so you always see the best price.
Excellent · 46 reviews
Strong value for Oukaïmeden, with a high guest rating that punches above its nightly price.
Excellent · 33 reviews
Strong value for Oukaïmeden, with a high guest rating that punches above its nightly price.
Good · 10 reviews
A dependable, well-reviewed choice for a stay in Oukaïmeden.
Ratings from Google, prices indicative per night. Live availability and rates via our booking partners.
True ski-in/ski-out is rare here. A handful of village lodges sit a short walk from the first lift, but expect a stroll across snow and stone, not a slopeside drop-in. Locals often shuttle gear by donkey.
Oukaïmeden offers around 20 km of pistes between 2,620 m and 3,268 m, served by seven lifts including a venerable chairlift that still does the heavy lifting. The terrain is open, sun-drenched, and surprisingly varied: easy blues near the village, a few proper reds, and one steep black off the summit ridge with Toubkal (4,167 m) directly in view. The season runs roughly late December to March, but snow is the wild card. Some winters deliver a metre, others almost nothing. The village base is unmistakably Berber, with stone houses, mint tea, donkeys ferrying skis to the lower lift, and a handful of simple hotels and refuges. Most visitors come for the day from Marrakech, a 90-minute drive over a serpentine road through the High Atlas. Stay overnight to catch sunrise on the summit and the strange beauty of snowfields above date palms.
Hotels and apartments around the lifts. Compare prices on Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Everything on our site connected to Oukaïmeden: its area, the lists it makes, head-to-heads and trip guides.
Oukaïmeden offers 20 km of pistes across 7 lifts, from 2620 m to 3268 m. Whether it suits beginners depends on the dedicated learner zones at the base of the slopes, so check the local ski-school options for green and blue run access.
The season runs from Dec 21 to Mar 31, with a snow score of 48/100. Snow is usually most reliable in the heart of that window, deep in winter, while the closing weeks bring longer days and softer afternoon snow.
True ski-in/ski-out is rare here. A handful of village lodges sit a short walk from the first lift, but expect a stroll across snow and stone, not a slopeside drop-in. Locals often shuttle gear by donkey.
Oukaïmeden has 20 km of marked pistes served by 7 lifts, between 2620 m and 3268 m of altitude.
Oukaïmeden counts about 9 marked runs in total. The colour breakdown above shows how they split by difficulty, a good guide to whether the resort fits your level.
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