Incredible Local Experiences!
Morocco
|
May 21 - Jun 3, 2023
As frequent travelers, this is by far the most memorable and unique trip we've been on. Going through Morocco Immersion Tours allowed us to experience parts of Morocco that we wouldn't have seen had we planned the trip ourselves and gone to just the major cities. Our driver Rafik was an informative guide and great travel companion during our two weeks, which was important as we spent a good amount of time in the car driving between locations (the drives themselves were beautiful, don't let the distance between stops deter you!). One of our favorite days was spent with Amnay (Sharon's brother in law) at his house in the Valley of Roses--not only did we help make absolutely delicious food (we’re still thinking about the berber pizza and how to recreate it at home!), we were able to walk around his property and get a much better idea of how people live in Morocco. Amnay is also a guitarist, so it was very fun to hear some Berber music and jam with him a bit! Another highlight was riding the dunes in the Sahara on a 4x4 with Rafik and the local driver—a very fun day, and included a visit to a local nomad family for some tea and soccer! Overall, the best parts of the trip were the ones experienced off the beaten path and with very friendly locals, so we’re very thankful to Sharon for setting everything up and to Rafik for being an excellent guide, introducing us to the “real” Morocco outside of the cities, and letting us get to know him and his country over an incredible two weeks.
Hotel Reviews
Very friendly and helpful staff--fantastic! Rooms were a bit small but the breakfast was great and the Riad itself was beautiful and in a great location.
Staff was friendly, room was large and very clean. Breakfast was pretty good. Dinner was not excellent and a bit boring (not much variety), if the itinerary had allowed it we probably would have requested to eat elsewhere the second night, but we had a full day planned!
This Riad was AMAZING!!! So beautiful, amazing views, every common area was so well decorated and comfortable, the pool area was stunning--we commented several times that we wanted to come back to stay there for a week! Of note, the room we stayed in had multiple levels--the bed was a step higher than the rest of the room so we definitely face planted a few times during the night going to the bathroom (not a big deal to us but could be to others).
Comfortable tents, good food, attentive staff. We were the only 2 people staying in a camp that sleeps ~30 so that was cool :)
Overall a good option and I realize options are probably limited in this area, and we had to stay there because the drive was too long to make in one day. The room was very large, unfortunately water pressure was not the greatest and the meal was acceptable but not exciting.
Very friendly staff, welcome tea and cookies were great :) The room was nice and the roof deck where you could eat dinner was STUNNING! Amazing view of the city and the sunset.
Room was very nice, common areas were beautiful, meals were quite good, staff was very friendly. Great location in the main square!
A necessary stay--very convenient to the airport. The food and drinks were not great and there were ants all over the floor in the restaurant. I'd stay there again but I wouldn't be excited about it.
Activity Reviews
Amazing!! Had a perfect day riding the dunes, having tea with a nomad family, and experiencing the desert region
Tour was interesting and informative. It seemed like we may have skipped a couple stops from the itinerary or he glossed over some items and was fairly low energy. We were also jetlagged and not firing on all cylinders so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. One of the less memorable tours though.
The food we made was delicious, the chef was a very gracious host and it was cool to not only learn some recipes but also see how people live in Marrakesh. The language barrier made interacting fairly difficult.
Beautiful drive, Rafik gave a good tour of Ait Ben Haddou and found some shady spots to rest for a bit since we're wimps in the sun :) Also a cool little market at the entrance.
Can't say enough great things about this day! Amnay and the host family were very welcoming and we made a delicious meal, had a great walk around the valley, and had a great time listening to and playing music!
Beautiful drive!
Very cool experience! Just the right amount of time spent on the camels and our guide leading the camels was very friendly and took lots of great pictures
The stop to feed the monkeys was really cool! A very unique experience. It was also cool to tour the fossil processing center and we bought some cool fossil items.
Our guide was amazing!! Very friendly, very high energy, extremely engaging and knowledgeable.
The guided tour of Volubilis was very unique and you definitely needed a tour guide to get the most of the experience. Meknes was a good place to stop for lunch and there were some good shops in the area we stopped.
We went on an amazing walk with Rafik around the Medina. We ended at the spanish mosque at a stunning viewpoint to watch the sunset--we spent almost 2 hours sitting on the wall enjoying the day and the view :)