Morocco was the only part of our trip we decided to book a tour. We booked a 11 person small group tour with Intrepid and found it was just the right size to enjoy the company of other fellow travelers and not to big to get lost amongst a number of people. Also, our “comfort” style tour had good accommodations and a good mixture of touristy activities and unique cultural experiences.
Our tour was 13 days long and we visited Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Chefchaouen, Fes, Midelt, camping in the Sahara, M’Gouna valley, Ait Benhaddou and Marrakesh. A lot of stops and we covered a good portion of the country.
We learned much on our tour of Morocco and were pleasantly surprised on how nice the people were. Learned the meaning of the 5 pillars of Islam: Belief, prayer, charity, Ramadan, and the visiting of Mecca if you can; and how all beliefs and religions are accepted and inclusive. The country is a mixture of modern and traditional. Rabat is a busy and modern capital, yet the rural areas still use donkeys as a main mode of transportation and nomads are still part of the landscape.
Some fun facts:
- Vehicles over 2 tons carry speed calculating cards and are check at periodic check points to determine if the vehicle is speeding. A number of check points were seen across the country and if caught there are automatic fines.
- Food is a bit predictable, however, our meals with families and special accomodations were a great experience.
- Did not see a lot of rental cards and due to the uniqueness of Morocco, I would recommend a tour.
- Fes medina is the largest in the world with over 10,000 streets and alleyways and over 120,000 people.
- Morocco shares similar weather and geography to Arizona as millions of years ago they use to be connected.
- The is a pretty good language barrier and numerous dialects.
- It was disappointing to see the number of broken bottles on the side of roads, and garbage.
- Black olives are more rip green olives and green produce better olive oil.