A superb trip through Morocco organized by Original Travel!
Morocco
|
Jul 23 - Aug 13, 2022
28 Aug 2022
Original Travels is a fantastic travel agency for Morocco that we highly recommend.
We travelled through Morocco for three weeks in July-August 2022, as a family of three. The entire trip was organized by Abdel of Original Travels and his team, via KimKim. Based on information we provided regarding our interests and places we wanted to visit, Abdel proposed a fantastic and comprehensive 21-day agenda for us, which we were able to fine-tune and refine until we were fully satisfied with all aspects of it. Abdel then organized all practicalities of our trip, including booking all hotels/riads, local guides, and a private car with driver. The planning of our trip prior to our departure was therefore extremely easy and smooth.
Once we arrived in Morocco, our entire journey unfolded exactly as stated in our programme, down to all the lovely details. The hotels/riads and guides that Abdel had chosen for us were all wonderful in their own unique way. Everything was ready for us when we arrived at each new destination, smoothly executed, and superbly organized.
A special highlight of our trip was our driver-guide, Karim, who quickly became a friend of our family. We travelled three weeks with Karim. He was a wonderful holiday companion! Karim is an extremely friendly person, always with a joyful smile. He is also highly flexible, very easy-going, always punctual, and absolutely professional in all ways. Karim comes from an Amazigh (Berber) family, which makes travel with him in the mountains and desert especially insightful and exciting. Karim is fluent in English, French, Arabic and Tamazight. He is an experienced driver and guide for all of Morocco and personally knows many of the local contacts and hotel/riad staff, which makes travel especially smooth and safe. Karim is also an excellent driver, who carefully and safely navigates Moroccan highways, mountain roads and the small alleys of the medinas. We would highly recommend Karim as your driver if you are planning a holiday with Original Travels. We have experienced first-hand how he can add immeasurably to the holiday experience.
In terms of hotels, we stayed in riads that Abdel of Original Travels had suggested within the medinas of Rabat, Tangier, Fes, Chefchaouen, Marrakech and Essaouira, and we highly enjoyed each one. There was something to love about each riad, whether it was the ambience, the location, the friendliness of the staff, the comfort level, or the delicious breakfasts. We have written reviews for all riads that we stayed in on both TripAdvisor and on their respective sites.
We are experienced travellers, thus chose to explore all cities that we visited on our own, except for Fes and Marrakesh, where we had local guides suggested by Abdel. All guides provided by Abdul were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about showing us around and added a lot to our experience and understanding of the respective cities and sites.
In terms of practicalities, we transferred the entire payment for our trip (for hotels, local guides, car, driver, etc.) in advance to Original Travels. Everything worked out exactly as promised and planned, and we did not experience any problems throughout our trip.
Abdul and Said from Original Travels, and our driver Karim, were also very flexible and helpful when our return flight was cancelled, and we had to stay two days longer.
In short, we highly recommend Original Travels and Abdel and Said without any reservation, with special mention of Karim as our excellent driver-guide. We did extensive research before we decided to plan our holiday with Abdel and his team, and the various arrangements and services by Original Travels exceeded our high expectations.
Given this wonderful experience in Morocco, we will also definitely look to KimKim, who put us in touch with Original Travels, to help us plan trips to future destinations as well.
Hotel Reviews
The Riad Passali is a wonderful accommodation with large open guest areas and pool, and lots of artwork in every corner. We loved our very comfortable rooms as well. The staff is amazingly friendly, and the location ideal for exploring the old medina. Highly recommended!
The riad is beautiful restored and has a very relaxing ambience. Very friendly staff and great breakfast. The location is ideal for exploring and relaxing in the media and the waterfront; it is not a beach hotel close to the sand beach.
We loved this camp and would highly recommend it. Perfect tents, wonderful staff, great food, and some lovely late-night folk singing in the middle of the desert – and do not miss the sunrise in the dunes. The camel safari that preceded our arrival here, and the 4-wheel drive ride back to our vehicle by camp staff through the dunes, were all very memorable! The management of the camp builds on ecological principles as much as possible, seeking to keep the environmental impact of the camp as minimal as possible. We loved our stay here!
We loved this riad. It is one of the smaller and more intimate riads, with each room carefully furnished according to a specific theme. The staff was exceedingly friendly and the whole ambience was charming; a true oasis in the middle of the bustling medina (within easy distance to the riverfront as well).
We really enjoyed this riad. It is a bit larger than others and a bit more modern, sporting even an elevator, but the charm of a riad is unchanged. The location is great, the breakfast/dining area very charming. We particularly loved watching the sunrise and sunset from the beautiful roof terrace.
This was a wonderful riad in the blue city, very beautifully renovated with a charming and friendly staff, and an excellent location, perfect to explore this marvelous city and wander around. We particularly enjoyed the indoor pool that could be used privately (by one group only at a time). It needed to be booked a day or a few hours in advance but that worked out smoothly. We also loved the massage service. The massage here was one of the best I have ever had!
A truly impressive Riad building. It comes over as a fairy-tale palace, with large ground-floor guest areas all luxuriously decorated with ornamental tiles, plants, and lavish furnishings. We had a very comfortable stay here. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful in all ways. There was also a huge roof terrace that we did not use, however, because of the mid-summer climate. Dinner at the Riad was also delicious.
This is a lovely small and personal riad, run by three very friendly brothers, with excellent rooms and a wonderful view over the valley. Their restaurant offers the best food we had on our entire three-week Morocco trip, with a highly innovative fusion of Moroccan and other cuisines. This included the beautifully laid out breakfast but also both dinners, which we chose to eat there as well. There seems to be another riad with a similar name in the area, so carefully check for the name (ours was the Dar Rihana Dades, not the Riad Rihana Dades!). As for our local guide in the Dades valley, you must ask for Mohammed; he was one of the highlights of our entire Morocco trip.
Activity Reviews
An absolutely beautiful mosque and our guide was very knowledgeable and with a lovely sense of humor!
This was definitely very worthwhile, we loved our Volubilis stop over. Our local guide at Volubilis (who our driver, Karim, organized for us) was excellent.
We loved our guided tour of Fes! Our guide, Hamid, was very knowledgeable and managed to pack everything we would have wanted to see into the time that we had together. He went the extra mile to make sure that we would get a very good idea of all that the wonderful medina of Fes had to offer, so that we could continue to explore by ourselves the next day. We would very much recommend him and a guided tour, generally!
We loved the food, it was amazing!
The camel ride was one of the absolute highlights of our Morocco trip, highly recommended!
We absolutely loved our hike in the Dades valley with Mohammed! This was one of the highlights of our trip. Mohammed was very knowledgeable and highly enthusiastic and friendly, sharing with us stories of his life in the valley and many 'Berber wisdoms' that we greatly appreciated! It was lovely to end the hike by having lunch with him in his warm and welcoming home and to meet his lovely family.
We loved our traditional hammam and massage experience, highly recommended!
Our guide in Marrakech was a wonderful lady, Hanan Elaadi. Hanan was a very knowledgeable, and an extremely competent and professional guide, showing us in a calm, unhurried and comprehensive manner all the key sites of the Marrakech medina. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to her explanations and enjoying the Medina highlights with her. We also loved the opportunity to get to know more about her, including how she came to be a guide. It was a fascinating day for us. Hanan was also very flexible, accommodating our desire to go for lunch to a specific restaurant and focusing on parts of the medina that we were particularly interested in. We recommend her very highly!
