Our visit tips: Iminifri Natural Bridge, Morocco’s Gem

How to get to Iminifri Natural Bridge

Iminifri Natural Bridge is a 2-hour drive east of Marrakesh (about 110 km), and 1.5 hours from Ouzoud Waterfalls (70 km). The road is of good quality, the same as in most of Morocco, and it’s only a 30-minute detour off the Marrakesh to Ouzoud road.

Getting to Iminifri Natural Bridge from Marrakesh is best if you rent a car and drive there, or take a guided tour that visits the bridge and Demnate, where a large local market takes place on Wednesdays and Sundays. 

There is no public transportation option to comfortably get to the Iminifri Natural Bridge, so a car/driver or a tour is the only real option.

Is Iminifri Natural Bridge worth a detour?

We really enjoyed our visit, and can say it’s absolutely worth a visit, especially if you’re already planning to visit Ouzoud Waterfalls.

Iminifri Natural Bridge was the perfect stopover on the way from Ouzoud Waterfalls to Ait Benhaddou, as part of our big Morocco road trip. And after the bridge, we also stopped in Demnate for some snacks for the road, since we didn’t visit a shop in Ouzoud on the way out.

What the trail under the bridge looks like

Before coming to Iminifri Natural Bridge, we read Google reviews saying it’s complicated to find your way from one end to the other, but in reality, it’s super simple.

We’d say almost anyone can do the walk under the bridge, even though there is a tiny bit of scrambling over rocks at one part. What you see on the photo below is just the one time we had to lower ourselves down a bigger rock – otherwise, it’s a normal rocky trail as any other.

To begin the hike, we recommend descending the zigzag staircase on the northern side (photo below), as it’s the best way to start.

The trail at the Iminifri bridge starts with stairs that descend to the water level, followed by a short walk over some rocks and sometimes shallow water, before you get directly under the bridge, and then hike up the stairs to a higher point, before reaching the end of the trail on the other side of the bridge.

We did the trail in our hiking shoes, but feel sad we didn’t take our sports sandals, which are perfect for trails like this (rocky and with water at points). Although we made sure not to get our feet wet (it’s possible).

As we got under the bridge, we started to see its immense size.

Our favorite was seeing the shape of Africa outlined by the rocks, about halfway under the bridge, if you look north.

Seeing the shape of Africa was a cool little addition to an already stunning natural attraction!

Shortly after seeing the shape of Africa, it’s a short ascend up some more rocky stairs, where you get to see the river and maybe a waterfall or two on the side.

This area was so pretty with the light shining on it. We actually wanted to visit earlier in the morning, but honestly, coming mid-day when there was a lot of light made it so much better.

How much time do you need for the complete visit?

Without rushing, it takes 1 hour to walk the trail under and through the large opening of the Iminifri Natural Bridge. We took a lot of photos and videos, and still finished in about 1 hour.

After finishing the trail, we also stopped at Caffe Tifenni for the toilet and some coffee before continuing our drive. The place has 2.9/5 stars on Google, and the toilet is a bit stinky and doesn’t really lock, but it did its job. Plus, the cafe creme was really good, and the view from the rooftop/terrace was nice.

Is there a ticket for Iminifri Natural Bridge?

There is no ticket required to visit Iminifri Natural Bridge, and you are free to explore the whole area. There are local kids/guides you can sometimes find at the bridge that can help take you around if you’ve got limited mobility.

Where to park your car

We didn’t want to overpay for parking, as is often the case in Morocco, so we followed the road to the free parking lot. We recommend the same, and not parking right at the bridge.

There was someone who wanted to help us park our car, but since the parking is free and we never really needed help with parking in Morocco, we didn’t give him anything.

We were among the first cars in this parking lot, and when we came back from the bridge, this is how it looked. 😂

Important tips for leaving Iminifri towards Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou

Our next destination after the Iminifri bridge was Ait Benhaddou, and choosing the correct road proved to be a very important decision.

There is a road that continues south of Iminifri, N23, ending up near Ouarzazate, that supposedly gets you to Ait Benhaddou in 3 hours and 45 minutes (175 km).

However, we met an Austrian couple at the cafe who said they just arrived from the N23 road and they don’t recommend it, as there’s a lot of construction and parts of the road are missing, so you go much slower than the navigation assumes.

That’s why we decided to stick with our original plan: drive back through Demnate, take a part of the road towards Marrakesh, then turn onto the main road over the Tizi N Tichka mountain pass, and then the P1506 road through the Ounila Valley to Ait Benhaddou.

We still drove through one more rural road between Sidi Rahhal and Touama that was narrower, but it passed through a very interesting area in the beautiful countryside. Right in front of us were two big motorhomes, which had no issue passing the road as well.