Garden only, or with museums?

The short answer

Garden only is the simpler choice and suits most first visits. The booking page for that ticket describes entry to the Majorelle Garden alone and states that it does not include the Yves Saint Laurent Museum or the Pierre Bergé Museum of Berber Arts. The combined listing is for visitors who also want those collections. They are separate institutions with their own tickets, so the question is how much of your morning you want to spend indoors. The rest of this guide sets the two tickets side by side on what they cover, how long they take and who they suit.

What the garden-only ticket covers

The garden-only ticket is for the garden's grounds: the blue villa, the cactus beds, the pools and fountains, and the alleys between them. The booking page gives one hour, with starting times shown for each date, and lists wheelchair access. It describes a self-guided visit with no meeting point. The Berber Museum sits in what the garden's website calls Majorelle's former painting studio, within the same property, but this ticket does not open it. The review summary praises the garden's colours and calm, while some reviewers call the visit expensive for an unguided one and wish for more information on site.

What the combined listing adds

The combined listing is titled Marrakech: Majorelle Garden, YSL, and Berber Museum Entry. A combined listing exists because the garden and the two museums sell separate tickets, as the garden's own ticket site shows. Its booking page shows about two hours, against one hour for the garden-only listing, and the two hours are for all three places together. Read its page for the starting times and inclusions on your date, since this guide cannot promise what a listing will show later, and compare its terms with those of the garden-only listing before you decide.

The Berber Museum

The garden's website says the Berber Museum was inaugurated in 2011 under the High Patronage of King Mohammed VI and is housed in Majorelle's former painting studio. It presents the creativity of the Berbers, or Imazighen, with objects collected from the Rif Mountains to the Sahara by Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. The collection is displayed in four spaces, each devoted to a theme, and before the rooms there is an overview of the history of the Imazighen of Morocco and a map of the major Berber tribes. Audiovisual elements explain the culture, and the museum's page lists wheelchair access.

The Yves Saint Laurent Museum

The museum's own website says it stands a stone's throw from the garden, in a new building of 4,000 square metres. It includes a permanent exhibition space of 400 square metres devoted to Yves Saint Laurent's work, a hall for temporary exhibitions, a research library, an auditorium, a bookshop and a terrace café. Wikipedia says it opened to the public in October 2017. The website describes the two museums that bear his name, in Paris and in Marrakesh, as showing that he was a great artist of his generation, and says the foundation's collection holds more than 5,000 haute couture garments.

Read next: The Yves Saint Laurent Museum

How the garden's own ticket site splits the choice

On the garden's own ticket site you choose which sites to visit. The options are the garden, the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, the garden with the Berber Museum, and a combined ticket. You then pick a nationality, the number of tickets, a date and a time of visit, and an individual reservation is capped at 15 people. The page also carries notices of museum closures for exhibition changes and for the rotation of objects, so look there for the dates you want. The garden and the Berber Museum are paired in its options, while the Yves Saint Laurent Museum stands on its own.

Time and pace

The booking pages are the best guide to timing: one hour for the garden-only listing and about two hours for the combined listing. Allow for the entrance slot shifting by up to 30 minutes, which the garden-only page states, and for longer waits in peak seasons, which that page also warns about and which one reviewer describes even with a reserved slot. If you plan a morning with both museums, each museum has its own opening days on its own website, so check them before you pick a date.

Choose the garden alone if

Choose the garden alone if you have about an hour, if the plants and the colour are what you came for, or if you are travelling with children who will tire of museum rooms. It is also the right pick if you are fitting the visit around a medina walk or a day trip, since the booking page shows a single hour. A single hour still leaves room for a drink at the Café Majorelle, which opens the same hours as the garden. A flexible visitor can add a museum later, because the museums sell their own tickets.

• You have about an hour
• The cacti, pools and colour are the draw
• You are travelling with young children
• You plan a busy day elsewhere in Marrakesh

Choose the combined listing if

Choose the combined listing if Yves Saint Laurent's work interests you, or if you want to see the Berber collection in the garden's former studio. It suits a visitor who is happy to give a morning to the whole site. Its booking page shows about two hours, so it is the better fit when your schedule is relaxed. Read the page for the starting times, because the combined listing is a separate product with its own slots. If you want the Berber Museum but not a fashion exhibition, the garden's own ticket site pairs the garden with the Berber Museum on its own.

• You want the Berber collection or the fashion museum
• You have a relaxed morning to give the site
• You are happy to read a second booking page for its times

Who this isn't for

Neither listing is a guided tour. Both booking pages describe entry and not a guide, so a visitor who wants the history and the plants explained should look at a guided option or read the history guide on this site first. The combined listing is a poor fit for anyone with only an hour or less. And a visitor who would rather buy straight from the source should look at the garden's own ticket site, which sells the garden, the museums and a combined ticket directly.

How to decide and book

Decide how much time you have, then which collections you care about. If it is an hour and the garden, book the garden-only ticket. If it is a morning and you want the museums, open the combined listing. Both booking pages show live dates, times and prices in your own currency, and this guide quotes no fare because it moves. A full refund is available on the garden-only ticket up to five days before; check the terms on the combined listing for yourself, and keep your passport or ID card with you on the day.

Read next: Majorelle Garden: book ahead?