Morocco | September 09-26 2020
Morocco September 9 – September 26 2020 | 18 Days
Part circus, part grand bazaar, part history lesson but mostly a series of chapters from the book of earthly wonders, Morocco is a soul-stealing place. A fusion of Berber, Arab and African cultures, it’s a country of two halves, the cosmopolitan, European-inflected Morocco of the north and the traditional, conservative, Berber-dominated Morocco on the south side of the Atlas Mountains. It’s also a safe and secure Islamic country that opens its door to visitors.
Escorting this tour, travel writer, photographer and Tripologist Michael Gebicki and partner, Liz Ryan, have designed an 18-day tour of this extraordinary and intoxicating country. Michael is a passionate and curious traveller with photography skills that will help you capture the full flavour of Morocco. Liz has an instinct for culinary and cultural experiences that open windows, giving you an intimate perspective on the country and its people.
This is a small group tour, maximum 10 guests, travelling at a slow pace. We’ll taste the world’s best dates, visit mud-walled kasbahs, walk through villages and palm groves that might have come straight from the Book of Job, hear the strange and intoxicating gnaoua music that originated with African slaves, explore wonderful gardens, troll through labyrinthine souks, ride camels through the dunes of the Sahara to our luxury desert camp and stay in some beautiful small hotels and riads.
We’ll start in the former Portuguese coastal town of El Jadida, in a hotel that was once a Spanish church, visit Fes with its World Heritage-listed medina, tour the Roman ruins at Volubilis, cross the Atlas Mountains and spend nights among the majestic dunes of the Sahara with Berber nomads, walk through the miraculous Valley of the Roses, stroll through the Garden of Eden in the Ourika Valley, visit the old trading port of Essaouira and finish in the fabled city of Marrakech.
“Our first trip together was across Asia on the hippie trail way back in the 1970s,” Liz and Michael recall. “It was pretty gritty. Some of the hotel rooms we stayed in you wouldn’t want to walk through barefoot. The bus journeys were long and cramped but everything was a revelation – the sights, the sounds, the food, the hilarious things that happened along the way – we still dine out on those stories. And that’s what we want to bring to our small group tours. The hotels where we stay in Morocco are palaces compared to way back then but it’s that sense of being somewhere completely different, the excitement of discovery and surprise that we want to bring to our trips. We want to expose our guests to the place because that’s what makes it come to life. Expect thimbles of early morning espresso in cafes with the locals and perhaps an evening session of live Berber music at Café Barcelona in Fes. This is rock and roll like you’ve never seen before.”
“Morocco is unlike anywhere else,” says Michael. “If you want to experience a place that comes from the far reaches of the imagination, and do it at a slow pace, come and see Morocco with us.”
Why travel with us?
In preparing this itinerary Liz and I made two trips to Morocco, one in April 2017 and another in 2018. We’ve tried and tested the hotels, the experiences, the restaurants we’re including. I even spent four hours riding a camel through the Sahara, Liz too the Jeep option for the sake of balance. All in the name of research.
While you can do Morocco on your own, if you want to get the most out of the experience you need a guide. Morocco is a rich and multi-layered experience and it’s difficult to penetrate or even appreciate what you’re seeing without an expert eye. That applies even if you have conversational French, the main European language. Having said that, you don’t need a guide all the time. Wandering around in Fez and Marrakech on our own was a delight, although in both places we had a guide show us the highlights when we first arrived.
For this tour we’ve formed a relationship with leading adventure tour operator World Expeditions, under their exclusive trips banner
.This brings some real benefits for our guests – for example the ability to book air travel through World Expeditions to mesh with their tour booking.
World Expeditions have been really terrific in supporting us, giving us a completely free hand to engineer this itinerary as we see fit.
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Dates
Sept 09 – Sept 26, 2020
Cost $8540
Trip highlights
- Explore Essaouira, a former slave port transformed into a city of cafes and boutiques
- Have tea with a Berber nomad family surrounded by the dunes of the Sahara
- Walk in the date palm, fig, olive and pomegranate plantations in the Ourika Valley
- Mingle with the Koran readers, acrobats, Gnaoua musicians, fortune tellers, dervishes, trance healers, food stalls and sellers of fetishes in Marrakech’s Djemaa el Fna
- Enjoy a Moroccan fusion-food lunch at Scorpion House overlooking the sacred town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun
- Walk through the green ribbon of the Valley of the Roses, nestled within the ochre foothills of the Atlas Mountains
- Drive through rust-coloured villages in the Ounila Valley
- Visit the crumbling but still majestic kasbah of the El Glaoui family
- Lunch at the sublime Secret Garden in Marrakesh
- Shop for exotic souvenirs in the souks, with a visit to modern boutiques in Marrakech
Whats Included
- Safe and comfortable air conditioned vehicle;
- 17 Breakfasts, 3 Lunches, 12 Dinners
- Airport transfers from Casablanca Airport to El Jadida and from Marrakech to Marrakech Airport
- 17 nights hotels/riads (4 star) on a twin share basis
- 1 night in desert camp on a twin share tent basis
- English-speaking guide with the tour group at all times
- All admission fees except for Yves St Laurent Museum (optional) and cooking class at Valley of the Roses ($45 per person)
- All tips for porters, guides and restaurants where meals are included
- Half-day guided city tours in El Jadida, Fes, Essaouira and Marrakech
- Traditional Berber scarves for desert camel ride
- Still water with meals and on the bus
What’s not included
- International flights
- Travel Insurance
- Medical treatment
- Items of a personal nature – eg. laundry, alcohol and soft drinks, phone calls, spa treatments
- Spending money
- Final tip for guide and driver
- Meals and beverages not mentioned in the itinerary
More information about travel in Morocco :
Download Morocco itinerary 2020
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