Weekend Trip to Marrakesh - private driver - fantastic.
Morocco
|
Nov 22 - Nov 25, 2024
Starting with Mohamed, he was very attentive with helping us to make plans for a memorable weekend in Marrakesh. With suggestions and changes, we landed on a great plan. Siad also reached out to us prior to travel to ensure we had all we needed. Contact details and emergency contact details were sent in advance. The helpful tips provided for this area were great as well.
We met with our driver/guide, Karim, and from the first moment we sat in the car, we felt safe, respected, and got excited about the next few days. Karim spoke and understood English very well. French too! We even started out the drive with windows down, sun shining, and a famous singer from our home Country playing on the radio. We knew it was going to be epic!
Karim was very careful to ensure that he was available for any advice, changes to plans, connections, basically he was at our disposal for the weekend. We took a drive to the Atlas Mountains and met with another guide for a short hike around Imlil and lunch at the house of a berber family. Karim made appropriate stops along the way for coffee, water, washrooms, and scenic points for pictures. We also stopped at an Argan oil cooperative where they make organic products such as cosmetics, oils, spices, etc. With the usual cup of tea to start, we had a lovely experience with a young lady to learn of their traditional processing rituals and products. After the long day and after he heard about what we had seen the week prior in Marrakesh, Karim suggested we consider changing our Day 2 plans which was SUPER. We opted for a long ride, but new scenery, and thus, we made our way to the beaches at Essaouria. We really enjoyed our time in Marrakesh and certainly having Karim with us made the trip memorable. We enjoyed the discussions, learning about new things, and much respect. Karim was a perfect match for our travel group. He is kind, patient and his vehicle is impeccable! Until next time!
BTW, we stayed at the 2Ciels in Gueliz which was amazing! Love the rooftop lounge.
Hotel Review
Great location, love the roof top lounge. Patron restaurant - best meal we had during the weekend. Great champagne list! Staff were friendly and hotel is very quiet at night.
Activity Reviews
This showed us that we really touched the tips of this area. We loved it in the mountains and to see snow was fantastic. We come from Canada and ski in the mountains so this was a treat and likely just a glimpse of what we can do next time. Our guide for the hike was very nice, in shape and shared information when we asked questions about the area. It's obvious that he loves this place and shared pictures of mountain hikes and skiing. The hike we did was more like a walk for us. There were more tourists than we expected but we were able to by-pass many. Ibrahim, our guide, changed our lunch location to a different spot, which was less congested. Thanks! Our tagline lunch was super tasty! We enjoyed the drive along the way with Karim which also included a stop at an Argan cooperative. Both Karim and Ibrahim spoke very good english and showed utmost respect to us.
Alert - we skipped this excursion and replaced it with a drive to the beaches in Essaouria. We had already been to the medina with a guide earlier with a group tour. Essaouria was great to see. Again, another glimpse in all that Morocco has to offer. We were surprised by the significant increase in winds as we got closer to the coast. Coming from an Island in Canada, we know winds very well. When we arrived, we learned why this is called the Windy City as there were nearly a 100 kite surfers playing in the ocean. It was a great day!
