Morocco and what else?
 

I'm planning a family trip to Morocco from Canada. The kids are almost adults and we would be going for a minimum of 14 days. With flights being so expensive, we want to make sure we make the most of each trip abroad, so I'm wondering what other country to visit? Something close by, not expensive to get to from Morocco. I looked at flying to the Canary Islands, but it isn't cheap... Any suggestions would help. Thanks! Julie

Dear Julie,
Yes profit the max of your holidays,why don't you visit Spain it is only 15 km away from Morocco you can take the ferry you arrive in an hour or less at I think not more than 800 Moroccan Dirhams per person unless you've visited it before.
What about Morocco? what's your itinerary?have you arranged everything as I have suggestions and recommendations of riads and hotels where you can spend your nights?

Sallam 'lekum Julie,

Many travelers combine their Moroccan journey with a visit to Andalusian Spain or Portugal, as sahbi lamiab suggests. Much of (western) Europe is easily accessible from Morocco, and affordable as well. For example, flights with Easy Jet between London (Gatwick or Luton) and Morocco (Essaouira or Marrakech) can be as cheap as £30 one way. Conversely, it's relatively expensive to fly 'somewhere close' on the African continent or offshore islands, as you've mentioned with regards to the Canary Islands. Perhaps just be mindful to not dilute your Moroccan experience for the sake of including somewhere else...the perfect length of stay in Morocco is 10-14 days.
Your fellow traveler,
Darren Humphrys

Julie - as Darren says, best not to dilute your trip to Morroco, but if you want to go somewhere else after Morocco, go to Spain. You can take a ferry there, either from Ceuta or Tangiers.

I, on the,other hand, combined Morocco with Lisbon. But I agree that it would be easy to spend the entire time in Morocco.

Plan out all the places you want to see in Morocco and you may find you do not have enough time to go to another country. We are staying 17 days in Morocco and then 4 days in Madrid as we fly back from there. There are still places we would like to see or spend more time in Morocco. Travel is always a compromise of time,places, and money.

Another option is what we did a number of years ago: Tunisia. Having already done Spain a few times Tunisia, and keeping to an Arab theme, was an excellent option. Three weeks in total, one in Tunisia (which was probably 3 or 4 days too short). Portugal was our second choice but we're saving that for a Portugal/North Spain trip (Lisbon to Barco).

We are flying to and fro Madrid on FF miles and just got an Iberia ticket for flying into Casablanca and out of Marrakech A couple hundred bucks. There are cheaper airlines but one Ryan flight was one too many for us.
It was very expensive to fly to Africa from New York and the only inexpensive flight was using Turkish Airlines where you go to and from thru Istanbul with very long layovers. Turkish will pay for your stay in hotels though if the delay is over 12 hours.