Wonderful 11 Days in Morocco
Morocco
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Oct 11 - Oct 21, 2022
Our trip to Morocco was amazing from beginning to end. Our driver/guide, Karim, was fantastic -- knowledgeable, friendly, accommodating, funny. We felt so lucky to have had him as our guide. He seemed to know someone at every stop, which meant that our trip was smooth sailing.
We especially enjoyed Karim's expertise with the mountains and the lives of nomads and appreciated his willingness to share his own experiences. We loved our hike with Mohammad in the Atlas Mountains (Monkey Fingers hike) and the lunch afterward with him and his wife and Karim. All of the local guides were knowledgeable and friendly.
Even though we opted for accommodations that were more moderate in cost, the accommodations were comfortable and delightful at every stop. We especially enjoyed the Tiziri Luxury Camp in the desert near Merzouga and our last stop in Essouira at Riad Mimouna, which was just lovely. Our room was right over the ocean, with views and ocean wave sounds from both sides. We wished we had another day there.
Before the trip, Abdellah and Said were great at communicating, answering questions, and responding to requests for changes. I appreciated that Abdel stayed in contact (without being pushy) throughout the period from March 2020 to October 2022, when we had to reschedule and then reschedule again.
Thank you Karim, Abdel and Said!
Hotel Reviews
The food here was just amazing -- some of the best we had in Morocco, which is all the more amazing since it's out in the desert. The staff were very friendly and the accommodations were extremely comfortable.
The hotel was very comfortable. It had an amazing view. We thought the food was kind of average, but that may have been because it was a buffet designed for bus tours and less intimate and individualized than food we had in other parts of our stay.
This is a lovely hotel with amazing tile, plaster and wood work. The owner/host was extremely friendly and welcoming and the food was quite good.
This was a lovely little place to stay right off the main square. It featured lovely tile work. Staff were friendly and helpful. We were only there one night, but it was a pleasant one.
We enjoyed the funky modernity of this hotel. It was a change of pace from the more traditional riads we stayed in the rest of the time. We were only there one night and so our information is limited, but it was a fine place to stay.
We absolutely loved this place. Our room (310) was just the best, with ocean views and sounds out the windows on two sides. The room was lovely and comfortable. The staff were friendly and accommodating. We only wished we had another night there.
Activity Reviews
We really enjoyed our hike with Mohammad and the lunch with him and his wife. It was a great opportunity to learn about the area from a local. The hike was just beautiful and Mohammad has a great sense of humor. We had a lot of fun. Lunch was delicious.
We enjoyed the camel ride. The dunes were beautiful. While the camels are a little scary and bumpy (particularly getting up and down), the guides and staff were very helpful and we were glad we did the ride. The view from the dunes is amazing.
I want to emphasize that we really liked our driver (I think his name was Mohammad) and appreciated the information he imparted at every stop and also about himself and his life. He was wonderful. On balance, however, I think we would have skipped this day and spent another day in Essouira. The tea in the Bedouin tent was not really with the Bedouins and just felt kind of sad. Their lives are so hard and this stop felt somewhat voyeuristic. The other stops -- at the mining area and at the dance place -- were not that interesting to us. Again, not the fault of the driver.
As always, we enjoyed our time with Karim. He was informative at our various stops. The mountain town modeled on a Swiss village was a hoot. We had fun feeding the monkeys. This day was perfectly fine, but really was mostly necessary transit from the desert to Fes, which was broken up by some interesting stops.
Fes is an amazing place with a lot to see. Our guide was knowledgeable and informative.
Getting a chance to meet and spend time with local families is one of the special parts of the trip. We had understood that there might be a chance to help with cooking, which wasn't the case for our particular dinner. We really appreciated that the teenage son was friendly and willing to speak to us (not sure our own kids would have been as accommodating when they were teenagers). The food was delicious.
The guided tour of Volubilis was really interesting. This was an added bonus as we had not realized it was on the itinerary. Really worthwhile and definitely worthwhile to pay for one of the local guides.
