My Trip to Morocco

So I just got back from my long-awaited trip to Morocco and I have a bunch of reviews, pictures and recommendations to share. There are quite a lot, so one blog post for all of it would be too little. I think I will make a little blog post for each city or place we visited so it will be easy and uncomplicated to search for any specific place. In this blog post I will focus on a few general things about Morocco, so here it goes:

The trip

I went on a group tour with G Adventures (www.gadventures.com), because I don’t enjoy traveling completely solo. This way is an easy way to travel because bookings of hotels and transport and some activities are already taken care of, and you have a number of fellow travellers at hand to share the experience. Of course, there are som downsides to traveling like this; some stops might not rock your boat and you might have wanted to stay longer in one place or gone somewhere completely different. Depending on the trip you choose, you get varied amounts of free time to do your own things, so you can find a level of independence that suits you. 

My group consisted of 14 people, which I think is a good size, as it is big enough that you are almost sure to find somebody you get along with, but not so bit that people get lost in the crowd. Be sure to check minimum and maximum group size, before you book your trip, as some companies have very large group sizes, or maybe you don’t want to do a 7 day trek in the mountains with just two other people and your guide. 

My trip was called “Highlights of Morocco” and we did see a whole lot of stuff. The itinerary was very fast-paced, as they warned us in the description, and we did have a lot of time on the bus. But it was worth it, to cover as much land as we did. In just 15 days we visited big cities, the Sahara, the Atlas Mountains and the coast. A very varied trip that covers most of what you would expect to experience in Morocco. It was a budget trip, but the hotels we stayed in were very nice, compared to other trips I have been on. The guide would often take us out for optional group dinners in the evening and he took us to affordable places to fit with the budget themed trip.

The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

Windows in Tangiers

A mosque in Tangiers

Chef-Chaouen

Chef-Chaouen, the blue city

Riding camels in the Sahara desert

Ait Ben Haddou, the Hollywood of Morocco, where the likes of Gladiator was filmed.

In the Atlas Mountains

Essaouira

The Saadian Tombs in Marrakech

Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech

The food

As for the food, I had very high expectations before I came. I had considered going vegetarian, as I thought it would be easy in a country like Morocco (don’t exactly know why I thought that…) and I have been experimenting with a diet with less meat in it. But boy, was I wrong! To be fair, I was excluded from a lot of the food choice available because I am gluten intolerant, which meant that I could not pick and choose between the sandwiches, pizzas, pastas and couscous dishes on the menus, but was often constricted to meat skewers with fries. Of course, most places also had the Moroccan national dish; the tagine. But a chicken tagine would come with just the chicken; no sides. Being a picky eater at the best of times I struggled to find something to eat that wasn't the same day in and day out. Some of this probably came down to the fact that we usually ate at budget places that all seemed to have the same section of the above mentioned dishes. A few nights we did go out to fancier restaurants, that had a bit more choice for me, but it would have been too expensive to eat at places like this for the whole trip. 

On top of that the breakfasts that were included in our hotels mostly (and sometimes only) consisted of bread. There would usually be a yoghurt or a boiled egg, but bread was the order of the day at breakfast, including rolls, croissants, pain au chocolate and cake. Yes, cake. 

After the first few days, when I realized what was happening, I decided to just stock up on snacks at the supermarket and live off that in case of emergency-bread-only-breakfast. But as it turns out supermarkets are not exactly abundant in Morocco. The few we did find were quite well-stocked however, but they were few and far between. So my advice is to load up on non-perishable snacks when you can! 

Practical tips

As for charging all your electronics they use the same two-pronged rounded plugs as in Europe, but most outlets in Morocco have a prong meant to fit into a hole in your plug. So if your plugs don’t have a hole and they are round, you will need an adaptor. If your plugs are flat instead of round you’re good to go, as the flat plugs will bypass the prong in the outlet.

Like so

Don’t drink the tap water in Morocco! Our guide told us that even though the hotels we stay in are nice we shouldn't drink the tap water. You can buy bottled water in many little kiosks and cafes and at most hotels, so you will always have a supply of fresh water. If you are against buying bottled water you can bring some sort of water cleansing device like tablets or life straws or whatever they are called. 

I travelled in May and it was meltingly hot some days! At the coast in Essaouira there was a fierce ocean breeze, which meant we could wear jeans comfortably, but otherwise light thin clothes are a good idea. As is staying in the shade, having a bit of a siesta in the early afternoon and using abundant amounts of suncreme. A hat and sunglasses are also a must to stay (somewhat) cool. 

I used the Garnier Ambre Solaire Sensitive Advanced SPF 50+ suncreme. I was really pleased with this as high SPF cremes can be quite a challenge to use. Often you end up looking like you are covered in white paint as the creme just won’t penetrate your skin, but rather just sits there. This creme however penetrated nicely, and left your skin protected, but unsticky. I am VERY pale, but using this creme everyday (remember to reapply throughout the day once or twice) I managed to stay unburnt.  And I was very pleased with that as a bad sunburn can ruin the vacation!