A great tour of Morocco

Morocco | Apr 9 - Apr 17, 2025

We were very happy with all aspects of our Morocco trip facilitated by Morocco Immersion. Maryem, our local specialist, was always responsive and informative, and our pre-trip Zoom with the agency head, Sharon, was very helpful. We were also grateful for the advice sheet, especially tipping hints. A good driver/tour manager is crucial to a successful tour, and ours (Abdessamad or Samad) was superb. He was always cheerful, on time, and very knowledgeable; his driving excellent, and his English sufficient, if not fluent. Our guides were uniformly on time and informative; the Fes guide (Sayyid), an American citizen returned home, was outstanding.
Now for more specifics on our tour plan. We liked staying in riads, and all were good. In Rabat, Riad Kalaa was atmospheric, though the shower sometimes only gave cold water. We really liked the Chellah Gardens (an alternative to the closed Royal Palace). The Al Makan in Fes had an excellent location and helpful staff (esp. Zakariyah). The high point of the medina tour there was the Al-Attarine madrasa.
We had a long but interesting drive down to the Sahara through the Middle Atlas mountains. It rained most of the way and we arrived to a torrential downpour in the desert, but we did get to see the sunset and we enjoyed “glamping” overnight. I took a nice walk in the dunes early the next morning. We then drove to Tinghir and the Dades Valley, which was beautiful as promised. We had a short tour of the city due to the earlier rain, and our (male) guide was also the rug seller at the women’s co-op (we saw no women there), which had been recommended to us by Morocco Immersion. There was a big choice of carpets; I got one we really like, and I assume it was cheaper there than in a big city, but I took their word and didn’t bargain anywhere else. We liked the Tiziri Kasbah riad there, and it had an exceptional view from the roof.
We then crossed over to and through the magnificent High Atlas mountains, reminiscent of our own Colorado Rockies. They were a literal high point of our trip. We spent our last days in Marrakech at the pleasant Riad Nesma, very centrally located and quiet but our room was small. We found the Bahia Palace and Madrasa Ben Yousef impressive, as were the medina and central square Jamma el-Fna, though the latter were a bit overwhelming. We also enjoyed the Majorelle Gardens, despite the crowd. We visited the lovely Ourika Valley our last day, and were happy to dodge the weekend crowds; we liked seeing the Anima Gardens on the way back, and I found a hammam refreshing the day before we flew home.
Again, kudos to kimkim and Morocco Immersion for a wonderful trip.