We are a couple from Spain and had our first trip to Morocco. Our trip was an unforgettable and wonderful trip filled with adventure. Our plane landed in Marakech where we stayed at a hotel (Riad Assala) in the older part of the city. It was also and convenient location because it was close to the famed Jami Lafna where entertainment, food, and other merchandise are sold. There, we met a couple from Italy, who visited Morocco many times. We got a lot of valuable information from them which helped us to get a tour guide for the rest of our journey .I recommend this tour guide because I found him to be fair and most of all honest. He met us at our hotel and we showed him our itinerary of the places we wanted to visit. Before we left, he made arrangements for us for our transport, hotel accommodations, and activities. It saved us a lot of the guess work of how we were to get to these places.
Our first day took us to the Gorges via Ticheka, Ait ben haddou Ouarzazate. The view was spectacular and incredibly beautiful on the way. We visited the Skoura palms and a small kasbah. The most unforgettable moment of this trip took us to the original people of Morocco who lived in a cave.....the Berber tribe . We visited with these people and sat down to drink "Berber Whiskey" aka mint tea and ate some lamb kebobs. These people welcomed us and really enjoyed the company of foreigners. It is good advice to travel with some medication (commonly used OTC). I was asked by most of the people at this place for aspirin. They somehow thought me and my wife were doctors. Our trusted guide was so funny , when he interpreted what they were saying to us. He really was a big help to us and such a gracious guide. Well, we gave them the bottle of aspirin we had as we could easily get more at the next pharmacy we may possibly see.
The next day our trip took us to Merzougha also known as the Erg Chebbi dunes. We passed through the towns of Erfoud and Rissani before getting to Merzougha. Our guide had booked us a camel trekking trip for the day. This place was so awesome and breathtaking. We booked a night's stay at the Yasmina Hotel. Our guide took great care in getting us food prepared by the wonderful staff at the hotel. We wanted to stay another night because we were treated well at this hotel and service was out of this world. We had only a few days left and had to get back to Spain. We decided to go on a tour of the dunes the next day. We got up early to take photos of the sunrise and then we were on our way to a small village in the middle of the desert. As we were traveling we came upon a nomadic tribe who lived in tents. We stayed to look around and our guide spoke with them for a while as they looked at us with curiosity. We finally got to the little village and where the local people played Gnawa music. Very interesting music so we bought a CD from one of the locals and he was very happy and satisfied to make that sale.
The next day our guide woke us up to eat breakfast and get ready for our next trip. We were on our way to Fes via Midelt. As we passed through Azrou we got to see our first animal (besides the many stray dogs).......monkeys. Our guide was making us laugh trying to act like the monkey. He kept us well entertained. We stopped in Ifrane aka the Snow City and had a very good lunch at an outdoor eatery. We stayed in Fes for 2 days and had such a great time on this trip.
I would like to recommend this tour guide to anyone planning to travel to Morocco. He was flexible in his scheduling and made time for us to make changes. For those of you who take trips and think traveling or vacation is about saving money. We did not save any money , but we made sure that what we got was worth it. Our guide spoke english, french and arabic. The english and french helped us a lot to communicate. This is the websitel of our guide .....www.saharaeyes.com. He did everything to make us feel comfortable. It is also advisable to be respectful and treat them the way you want to be treated. I think you will get more out of your trip. Oh, the name of our tour guide is Mbarek. Very funny guy and definitely a great tour guide.
