joserunner

I love Morocco...the food and sceneries. You will find very aggressive people in the market...a lot of harrassment which I don't like but this is part of their culture.
Marrakesh and Issaquera??? are the best places for me.
When you go shopping, make sure that you only go inside the store if you really want to buy and if they offer you TEA..just say NO.
Good luck...

tower

Laarista:

We "did" Morocco in a fair amount of depth in '98. Certainly one of the more exotic locales and we enjoyed it immensely. We only travel
independently and weren't about to let Maroc challenge that.

After an enjoyable week in Sevilla during Holy Week, an unforgettable experience, we rented a car, drove to Ronda and spent the night in Gibraltar. Next motning we dpoiuste the car at the ferry terminal in Algeciras and ferried to Tangier.

We hired a Mercedes driver at the ferry dock to take us to Fes for $100 (four hours) and thoroughly enjoyed five days at the Palais Jamai (now a Sofitel)...wonderful establishment overlooking the world famous medina. The hotel found us an official guide (they all hang out in the parking lot!) $15 for the full day, to take us into the medina...by the next day we felt we could find our way without him and it WAS challenging to say the least.

We didn't rent our car until the last morning in Fes..then we headed south to Erfoud (end of the paved road)and stayed at the Riad Salam, a very adequate cottage hotel at the "end of the line"...they arranged for a desert guide for us and at 5 am, we started out for the gigantic dune (Erg Chebbi)in time to catch the magnificent sunrise...again, for $15, Yosef drove our car and we had a marvelous day with him touring the desert villages (the fabled Rissani market, etc).

After a few days in Erfoud , we drove to Ouarzazate (La Berbere Hotel...excellent, first class)via the Todra and Dades Gorges and used "O' as our base for the next week, visiting a remote village (Fintt), and Ait Benadhou.. and finally driving through the colorful Draa Valley to another garrison town, Zagora, which we used as a base to explore more desert villages on the "Road to Timbuctou"..fascinating!

Our next destination was the long drive over the mountains to Marrakech and we found The Hotel Imperial Borj..quite nice and walking distance to the heart of the medina and walled town. Spent four nights there and then went to the coast to spend some time at Essaouira where Orson Welles filmed Othello..lovely fishing town and a marvelous boutiquey inn, Villa Maroc. (rooftop breakfast and dining with drmataic ocean views)...
We ended our visit by driving to Rabat and Casablanca for a few days.

Maroc is a photographer's paradise...and a foodies heaven..Moroccan food is exceptionally pleasing.

Drive it like we did...petrol station plentiful, good signage. Off the main highways be prepared for dirt and rocky roads.

Above all, enjoy Maroc..it sure as hell is different.

Stu T.

I8Ds

I was working with John Skype of Xotic Destinations..and he worked with them...but he is currently not doing any bookings, that's why I gave you his Moroccan contact...we paid Xotic directly...but I can tell you, when my husband and I had some issues with a rug we were having made in Morocco, the Moroccan agency, got involved and straightened everything out...Moulay is about the most scrupulous person alive and the organization he works with handles many many private groups

Trish

My husband and I were there in 2004 for close to three weeks. I planned the trip myself and prebooked most but not all of my hotels/riads. We had an amazing trip with a lot of driving but we saw so much it was worth it. My Lonely Planet was my bible when we were there. I have a full trip report on the Africa board and I have lots of pics on my virtual tourist page http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4a4b1/edc/

tower

Please excuse the few obvious typos...

Stu T.

Unfortunately I didn't use a digital camera then..but I do have a ton of photos..if you'd like me to scan a few, I'd be happy to send them to you...

[email protected]

I8Ds

just a desert camel ride tip...they are not all on the same level....some you camp out with other groups all herded together....it is so much more fun to have your own camp set up, with dining area, etc....when it was just my husband and me, we also had that...and all i can say, is that it sets the bar very high for "restaurant ambience".......surrounded by sand dunes, stars over head, and our "tent" made out of carpets with little mirrors sewn in twinkling in the candle light.......ahhhhh...

laartista

I'm so happy with all this info and positive feedback re; Morocco. My mother has been trying to talk me out of it but my mind is set and now I can't wait.

for those interested
www.morocco-travel.com

also a good site and www.riadsmorocco.com

BabsB

laartista, I was in Morocco 6 years ago. When I get home from work , I'll pull out my file and post some info for you. In the meantime, ttt. Barb

Clifton

Some of the best info I've seen for awhile too. Michael, I will have a email off to you shortly.

Stu, do you recall how long it took you to get from Fez to Erfoud? As we've been discussing idea, we've been loosely planning a variation on the reverse of what you did. We start in Casablanca to see the mosque, then to Essaouira for a few days of downtime. Back to Marrakech, then spending a couple of days (and overnights) by car through the Atlas to Merzouga. We'll turn in the car (if we don't switch to bus for the whole route) in Fez. Day trips until we head to Chefchouen by bus, followed by a Tangier ferry/train to Ronda (+white villages)- Granada.

We're still debating on whether we could do the Merzouga to Fez portion without an overnight somewhere. Did you all stop enroute?

Clifton

Oh - thought I'd share some favorite bookmarks I've been using a lot. Best informational site I've seen on Morocco (despite the name, it's not a tour company): http://www.triotours.com/faq/ma/index.htm

Also good visually (to see what towns look like) but a hard website to navigate: http://www.lexicorient.com/morocco/index.htm

Also:
http://www.fez-riads.com/Fez.htm
http://www.maroc-selection.com/index.php
http://www.terremaroc.com/gateway-home.html

mwatson

hi, We went to morocco last year and had a great time. We spent time in Marrakech on our own and did a desert dash with www.saharatrek.com the whole experience was surreal. Can't wait to return. I think I posted a short trip report with a link to a few pictures.

mv_rd

Bookmarking for future reference.

laartista

Hey Stu T I will email you for some photos-so thanx and clifton great links. Barb looking forward to your info. I'm really happy with the feedback here, again has made me very comfortable with my decision to go.

laartista

Hey Trish, Great trip report thanks for the link.

tower

Clifton, old boy:

From Fes we drove to Ifrane, a most unnatural sight to see...a-frame houses, chalets, a veritable "Little Switzerland"..the ski center of Morocco...from there we continued on to sone of the foothill villages (village of Itzer is most colorful, women washing the laundry in the town stream) in the Atlas Range, and through the Legionnaires Tunnel and wide open country to Erfoud...

If I recall correctly, we had left Fes at about 10, had "coffee and" in Ifrane, scouted the town as described above, lunched in a Berber tent on the grounds of a hotel in Midelt (Hotel Ashiya,smack aside the highway), and then continued on to Erfoud, arriving about 3-4. I imagine if we had driven straight through it woould have been less than four hours. Very good road, absolutely no traffic...

WARNING! Be careful when you stop for photos because gangs of young kids materialize out of nowhere like a thundering herd, pestering the hell out of you for money and candy..I barely made it back to the car several times, as my wife stood watch and warned me when the kids came over the horizon. I kid you not!(pun)... The word for "no" in Arabic is "La"...so my facetious answer to them was a sing-songy "la, la, la, la",...

Have fun...a world of difference from Romania...super exotique!! La, la.!

Stu T.

Guenmai

I've been and it was fabulous....some years ago. I stayed in Marrakesh for a whole week at a hotel called Hotel Les Almoravides which was really nice,relaxing, and convenient to walk to a lot of places like the main square. Happy Travels!

Clifton

Thanks Stu. Yes, sounds very different than Romania. I like the people there too, but they're generally reserved of course. That's funny about the appearing kids! Not quite so magical, but I think I had my training wheels taken off where the kids are concerned this past January in Cambodia. Hands down, it's now my new favorite place in the world. There, they had stuff to sell. Lots and lots of stuff. Wow are they good! But cute. (really, you should go if you've never been - never could there be a more charming and kind people, anywhere, nor more amazing structures) Lots of necessary "no" there too of course, but we broke out into a lot of tangent conversations with them all over the country. My wife would stand aside and laugh and let me get swamped with a dozen kids surrounding me as I tried to walk. Comic over-the-top exasperation could usually change the sales pitch to giggles and we could move on to a talk about school or such. I look forward to seeing if the same can happen in Morocco. I may even take their picture, if they agree.. I have that shutter bug too.

I'd read about Ifrane, but we were kind of thinking about going via Sefrou. I had heard it had quite a history. There's a walking circuit around the cedar forests somewhere thereabouts too, where there's supposed to be monkey ("Barbary apes&quot habitat. Got more reading to do... So - not sure if we will overnight or not, but it's good to know we wouldn't have to, if pressed for time.

tower

Clifton: We had considered Sefrou but the road was nearly impassable due to heavy rains and the car rental guy warned against it so we went via Ifrane instead. By the way, when we saw the rental Peugeot I was stunned....dents, scratches, generally a wreck...we had the agent note all of this and he said if we were going off-road, it would be best to take this less than perfect car. He was absolutely right. For example, the "track" to Fintt (and I strongly suggest you go there..it appears on the Moroccan Michelin)...great experience...about ten miles of bone-jarring, until you get to an un-fordable stream...where the guide(s) await..we had a young guy named Aziz who was the lone greeter that morning...and a passle of kids standing about who wanted the job of watching the car while we went to the village with Aziz. He'll take you through the village (about a half mile away) and invite you to his home for tea..mucho photo ops galore!

Also the roads to Itzer and most of those into other Atlas villages are unpaved and quite rough... when you're into the desert beyond Zagora and Erfoud, no pavement anywhere.....so we were quite happy with the wreck of a car...when we turned it in in Rabat, no problems at all.

By the way, no problems with English-only throughout the country...my wife speaks fair French (Montrealer) and that got us by otherwise....even my Spanish did quite well at times..but French is widely spoken in Maroc.

Stu T.

Trish

laartista, we drove from Fes to Merzouga all in one day (a long day) we stopped for gas once but that was it. The drive was about 8hrs all on pretty good roads. We were happy with all our hotels but the Villa Quieta in Essouira was a stand out in our mind, very relaxing but it is outside the medina walls (about 15 min walk along the beach front) http://www.villa-quieta.com/. In Fez we stayed at at the Hotel Batha which has a great location right outside the medina walls and it has a pool which is nice when it's hot.

Opus81a

I was in Morocco some 15 yrs ago for a quick visit and loved it--so much fun, even went dancing (pasa double) in a Casablanca restaurant/nightclub. My husband and I were about to spend a week in Portugal and at the last minute, my sister, who was living in Paris at the time, wanted to meet us--we decided on Casablanca then flew to Marrakech for a quick visit. We had a fun, knowledgeable driver/guide in both cities that was very reasonably priced--I do not usually travel on escorted tours.

I recall that the salesmen in a rug store in Casablanca were quite aggressive, somewhat unpleasant since I'm accustomed to being "left alone to browse".

I would return to Morocco, need to visit Fez among other places.