This was a wonderfully organized trip. We wo...
Morocco
|
Sep 17 - Sep 23, 2022
This was a wonderfully organized trip. We would have never seen as much of the country without KimKim and Original Travels help. Our only negative is that the trip cost more than our requested budget but we could have eliminated some items so that is on us.
Our driver, Ilyace, was the heart and soul of our trip. He was extremely knowledgeable, personable and it was very fun spending long hours in the car with him. He was an excellent driver and we always felt safe with him, even on the crazy one lane, winding roads.
Our guide for the tour in Fes, Hafid, was fine but we felt the emphasis of the tour was to sell us local crafts, not experience Fes. We felt way too much pressure to make purchases.
Hanan, our guide for the Marrakech half day tour and the food tour, was excellent. She was very knowledgeable, kind and we enjoyed spending time with her. She answered many questions about local customs. The food tour was fun as we tried several items we would not have tried otherwise.
Hotel Reviews
This was one of our favorite nights. The Glamping was amazing. We enjoyed the pool, camel ride, fancy (and delicious) dinner in the outdoor tent. The sleeping tent was above and beyond our expectations with shower and bathroom included in the tent and 5 star linens!
This was the smallest Riad we stayed in and we loved it. The location was central to everything although we would not have been able to find it on our own. A porter met us at the drop off location and we walked 5-10 minutes to the riad. The staff was wonderful. Breakfast was delicious. We enjoyed a couples Hammen at the spa and strongly recommend it. (It was a full body scrub with a very stiff loofa).
This Riad was spectacular with very impressive design/interiors. Our room was very large with a separate bedroom and living area. (We noticed many rooms were smaller like a normal hotel room.) There was a rooftop area that we discovered the second night and enjoyed spending time under the stars. The breakfast was fine but they brought out trays and baskets of items, many being types of bread, and we could only eat a small fraction of the food. Seemed very wasteful.
Very nice Riad but not as impressive as the others. Location was inside the Medina so very convenient for restaurants and central plaza. Breakfast buffet was excellent.
Activity Reviews
This is a long drive so a stop somewhere is needed. However, the Ruins were only so-so interesting as we have seen many Roman Ruins elsewhere.
As mentioned before, the tour was too focused on trying to sell us 'stuff'. The tile factory and leather tannery were interesting but the sales pitches after were annoying. The carpet showroom was over the top annoying; we didn't actually see anyone working on a rug! It was straight to the salesroom and after saying a dozen times that we weren't interested, they brought out more carpets. I felt so much pressure to buy that I considered a small, 20" x 30" rug until I found out it was $200 US$. I finally got mad and said 'we are done' and we walked out. The rest of the tour was hurrying through the Medina at a fairly fast pace.
We went off script and asked our driver to stop at a beach a little north of Casa Blanca, which was right off the route to Marrakech. It was the perfect stop to stretch, get some fresh ocean air and a little sun. My husband also viewed the nearby golf course and wants to go back to play golf someday!
This tour had a nice variety, beautiful mosque, amazing Palace tour and great overview of the Marrakech Medina including the square.
We had the same guide, Hannan, for this tour as the previous tour so it was nice to see the friendly face again. We enjoyed trying some new foods that we hadn't tried yet.
This was actually two separate trips: hiking in the Atlas Mountains and the Camel ride at the hotel. The hiking with a guide was a fun adventure. It was about an hour and a half and we had some great views of the mountains and a waterfall. We choose not to do the Berber Lunch but in hindsight we should have. The camel ride was just as expected, a little corning but so worth it. Got some great sunset pictures that included the camels.