Morocco Tour recommendation for solo travelers
 

Hi,

I would like to travel to Morocco end of August, beginning of Sept. I am a female travelling alone and I have been advised to look into joining a tour.

I do not like to travel with tours and have always travelled on my own.

I have contacted one tour company, Cosmos.
Has any of you had travelled with Cosmos?

Can you please recommend any other tour company?

Any tips and info is appreciated.

I have not been to Morocco yet but have been looking at several tour companies. I'm a fairly experienced traveller and prefer to go on my own as well, but have been told that it's probably not a great idea for a woman to travel solo in Morocco. I would recommend that you look at tour companies who specialize in Morocco such as Isram (went to Turkey with them and it was great!), Heritage Tours, Sunnyland Tours or Y'alla. Most tour operators offer an "Imperial Cities" package for the major cities - Marrakesh, Fez, Rabat, Casablanca - plus more extensive tours into the Atlas mountains, Todra Gorge or coastal region - Essouria, Safi, Agadir. If you find something, please do post it!

I forgot to add a few others!

Homeric Tours
General Tours (has some interesting independent tours)

Look at www.affordabletours.com for more information on these.

Hi Lia,

Thanks for the pointers. I will do a research on them. I am hoping to find a tour company that operates smaller groups and I do not end up with a rushed trip through sites and else.

Will post when I decided on one.

Also take a look at Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). I think they guarantee no more than 16 in a group:
http://www.oattravel.com/gcc/general...aspx?oid=48221

I took a tour of Morocco through Globus (also owns Cosmos). I debated over which tour to take because both are basically the same although I chose Globus because the hotel selections were more upscale. The trip was somewhat rushed but, at the same time, I am the type of traveler that likes to see as much as possible in each country I visit. There were approximately 30 people on the tour with me. We had ample free time in Marrakesh and Fez. My only disappointment was that we did not stop at the film studio outside of Ouazarzate. Also, we rushed through Meknes and Rabat, but I knew very little about these cities and didn't mind. In the end, I was glad that I went with a tour company. I normally plan my trips on my own, but Morocco was one country were I felt "safer" with a group.

I am interested in land only.

I called both gap and oattravel today. Oattravel does not have land-only. It is a combination of land and air.

I also called gap and they offer 3 tours to Morocco. They have 15 and 8 day tours and they said they do not put more than 16 people in a tour which suits me.

I also called Heritage tours and they offer customized tours. In the case of a solo traveller, you travel with a guide. I am not sure if I am comfortable to travel alone with a guide. That is just me but I might end up doing that if cannot find a tour I like.

I also called Cosmos and looked over their tour. My impression was the same that it might be a bit rushed. I am finding out so far that all the tour companies go through Rabat, Casablance, Fez, Marrakesh and some locations in between within 13-15 days including the flying time from USA in my case. This seems awful lot to cover for the amount of time.

Try these - each offers a land only tour:

http://www.generaltours.com/display_...i?tour_seq=721

http://www.marrakeshvoyage.com/Trips.html

http://www.djoserusa.com/www/bestemm...estemming=0007

kcapuani, thanks for the input on Cosmos/Globus. I somehow did not notice your post earlier. I have looked into these tour companies as well. The Globus tours for Morocco seemed to have been cancelled and Cosmos is available.

I am having a hard time find a tour company that I like fully. After looking ath their itenaries, it seems that each one of them lacks some aspect and I need to compromise.

Has anyone heard of a company named General Tours out of NH?

Hi zbjoon,
We took general Tours 10 Day Egypt tour March 19-28. Since my husband and I were the only ones who signed up for this time frame we had our own guide in Cairo for 2 days.
When we boarded our Nile cruise ship. we were in a group of 14 English speaking people.
We were very pleased with General. The guides throughout Egypt were great.
Christine

ChristineC - This is a good sign. Also the travel agent who recommended them pointed to some excellent approval ratings General Tours have.

I am somehow having a hard time nailing down a tour company for Morocco. I know of many companies thanks to this forum but have not come across anyone that has taken the tours I am considering.

I took a Morocco tour in April with a friend (both of us are women) with Cosmos -- and I highly recommend it. We had a great group -- mostly Brits, a few Aussies, a Kiwi and a few Americans. If you go with Cosmos you should check to see when Graham (Aziz is his MoOroccan name -- he is British, but lives in Marrakech) is the tour director -- he is absolutely fabulous -- his balance is perfect -- talks enough to give you a thorough history, but doesn't overwhelm you -- has fun stories and a great personality. All our needs met beyond expectations. The hotels were fine -- one or two could have been classier -- but most were terrific -- you spend little time in the hotels anyway. We did most of the optional tours -- and thought each one was worth the money. Overall, I would say that the Cosmos tour is an excellent value. You won't regret taking it.

Are you thinking of walking or hiking, or more of a city tour? We're looking into booking with Sherpa Expeditions (UK) for a hiking trip. I've travelled with exodus.co.uk before and was pleased with them. They do city tours, but also active expeditions (and a mix of the two, I think).

I wanted to do Morocco this year but the schedule didnt work out. I checked into several companies but was the MOST impressed w/ Baraka Journeys. A tad expensive but everything is paid for up front inc/ daily water! A day tour guide from my Turkey trip recommended Baraka. I was impressed w/ him so I thing I would trust his judgement. Anyway check it out!

Hi zbjoon:

Four friends and I travelled with Heritage Tours about 5 years ago. We told Heritage where we wanted to go, how long we wanted to stay etc. and they put together a terrific tour package for us. We had our own van with driver and an english speaking guide. The guide really helped to smooth out the trip. I don't know if would be economical to do this type of trip on your own but it worked out great for our small group. Since we basically planned the route, we could be flexible as we wanted. It was quite an experience especially sleeping outside under the stars on the edge of the Sahara. Pre dawn we rode camels to the dunes and watched the sunrise - the most spectaculat sight ever! If you would like more info on where we went and what we saw, let me know.
BabsB

Hi, I'm hosting the forum this week--I wrote Fodor's new book, Solo Traveler.
The advice so far is terrific and specific.
I would feel more comfortable joining a tour, at least part of the time. There is lots of hassling in that part of the world. I once paid a kid just to keep hasslers at bay; it's just the way it is.
Part of the solo experience is being safety conscious and sensible. I would err on the side of safety, above all. Tours have lots of pluses, and in Morocco, you'll enjoy the company of others.
Lea

Hi, I am new to this travel talk forum so my reply will be useless to Zbjoon but I hope it may be of help to other solo travellers to Morrocco. I don't like travelling in organised tours as they usually involve going to places that you don't particullarly want to go to but when I checked out Morrocco I found that it was going to be difficult to get around as taxi's seem to be the preferred way of travel. However I found a travel company (I live in the UK) which satisified my needs - www.kuoni.co.uk, which satisfied my needs. I went on a tour of 'The Imperial Cities and Atlas Mountains' and it was wonderful. For most of the trip we were in 4x4 jeeps which held 5-6 people so everyone got to know each other and at the end end we were a big group of friends.

One word of warning!! I decided to stay in Morrocco for an extra 4 days ny the beah an just read and relax. I left the group and went solo to Agadir. This turned out to be my holiday feom hell. Agadir was distroyed by an earthquake in the 60's and has been developed into a package holiday destination with no heart or soul, If you are travelling solo - pick your destination carefully.

Great specific advice, Cambe. I too have been to Agadir, and remember the combination of veiled ladies and topless ladies on the beach. Another reason for soloists to PLAN carefully. If things don't go right, that's when it's hardest to be on your own. Checking things out, like posters do on this forum, can help you avoid needless miseries.
Thanks for the input!
Lea

Lee_Lane and Cambe -
Since I am the original poster, I will fill you in my experience. I have kept quiet for reasons that you will find out if you read on. However, my experience might help other solo travelers particularly females.

When I posted this in July 2004, I was new to this forum and have never consulted any travel site for my trips. I did not know anyone who has taken tours to Morocco either. I am a very cautious solo traveler and quite alert and don’t compromise my safety. I picked a tour company that seemed very reliable. I picked the land-only portion since I was already traveling in Europe. I paid almost as much as air and land combined for land only which was okay with me. I made sure to mention to the tour company that it is very important to me to be in a group. I got there at midnight due to airline delays. The guide who was Moroccan and spoke very good English picked me up. He informed me in the deserted airport parking that I am the only one in the group and I will be traveling with him in a SUV for two weeks. When he came to pick me up the next day(Sunday) I informed him that I am not going to go through with the tour regardless of the financial consequences. He tried to change my mind but there was no use. My Moroccan tour guide was a very descent man and although this was going to cost him money, he was very helpful and professional. Anyway, through a great deal of difficulty I managed to get out of the tour and after paying a penalty for my airline ticket, I returned back to Europe.

Since the tour company only deducted the one night stay and transfers and returned the rest of my money, I decided not to mention their name in any public forum or take any actions. This is the first time I am even posting about this experience. When you read the general information of these tours, you will see that “group” can mean one person and they are not required to let you know. I found that out later and also my credit card company informed me of that. However, if you ask they are required to tell you that you are the only one and I had asked that question one or two weeks prior to the tour.

Anyway, I was somewhat terrified of this experience and sad that I missed the chance of seeing Morocco in spite of all the precautions. However, I really like to go back to Morocco but in no way I will trust any of the tour companies to go alone with them. I will only go with a tour to Morocco if I have a travel companion.

Hi Zbzoon,
Well. First, thank you for posting your experience. You did exactly the right thing, which is to trust your gut. That is the key to this whole solo thing. Trying to "prove" something doesn't work. Each of us has our own level of comfort. I'm sorry that it didn't work out, and am pleased that you got your money back!
That said, I will tell you that at times I have gone alone with a driver. In the 1980s, I did this in Malaysia. I came in alone, and went to the best, bonded company, and asked for their very best driver. I said that I was writing about the experience for a major magazine. I interviewed the driver, and felt ok about it. We spent a wonderful week, and I often invited him to dinner, as my companion. He was 100% professional.
Would I do that today? In Malaysia? Probably not. In Paris? Probably. I would need to establish parameters and trust my gut. Today I would have the help of modern technology to keep me connected to the company and friends during the entire trip--something unheard of in the 80s. But that was a different time. With the "new normal" caution comes first, sad to say.
What do you guys feel about this scenario? What would you have done?
Lea