Travelling through Morocco was always going to go one of two ways. Back in February, when we announced to family and friends that our next destination would be Morocco, it raised more than one or two eyebrows. You see, on more than one occasion, they had heard Mark vehemently say, “I will NEVER go back to Morocco. Wild horses couldn’t drag me there!”
But, after a prolonged winter stay in the UK, waiting on plans that never transpired, Mark let those proverbial horses out of the stable and suggested I look at flights to Morocco. I was surprised but delighted he was prepared to give it another go.
Rabat
I reminded him that his horror stories* from his first and only time to the country happened a long time ago, and his 28-years-later older and better-travelled self would not succumb to the same hassles, or feel threatened in the way he previously had been. He reminded me that the previous two occasions I had been to Morocco, I was working for the luxury travel company, Abercrombie & Kent, and travelled under the wing of an expert local guide and had the privilege of returning to a 5-star hotel at the end of each day. I can’t deny that!
*Mark’s tales of woe include being ripped off in every way possible from the moment he stepped off the ferry in Tangier – train tickets, postcards, exchanging money…, scammed by a shoeshine guy in Marrakech, threatened with a broken bottle in a bar in Meknes and being pressured into buying a rug – yes, he actually bought one!
And so we arrived in Morocco with two very different sets of prior experiences.
Due to a couple of constraints – it was too cold (and potentially inaccessible) for a visit to the Atlas Mountains, and the Sahara desert was difficult to do justice to travelling by public transport – we themed our routing around the Imperial Cities, the Atlantic coast and the Rif, a region named after the mountain chain in the north of the country.
We flew from London directly to Essaouira, on the Atlantic, but didn’t book a flight out, keeping our options open in case Mark was ready to leave the country two days later!
Essaouira
Our final routing starting in Essaouira was as follows, ending in Tangier from where we had several options for cheap flights to nearby Spain. At one point, we thought about taking the ferry but a flight turned out to be cheaper!
Our Route for three weeks in Morocco: Essaouira – Marrakesh – Casablanca – Rabat – Meknes – Moulay Idriss – Fez – Chefchaouene – Tetouan – Asilah – Tangier
If you’re still reading, your only question is probably, “So, how long did Mark last before reaching his breaking point?!”
I was right, in that there were no reoccurrences of the incidents that had overwhelmed him as a 21-year-old backpacking beyond Europe for the first time. This time it was more the repetitiveness of what we saw that dictated the time scale.
We both enjoyed the trip but agreed that after a little over three weeks, the medinas were all starting to look alike. I think any trip to Morocco longer than a weekend break should include either desert or mountain (or both) scenery to balance it out.
Here are a few of our favourite and not so favourite things and places about our trip…
Highlights
- Volubilis – intact Roman ruins with mosaics in good condition.
- Street art – an unexpected surprise. Favourite spots were Asilah and the medina of Tangier
- Rabat – Morocco’s capital, in particular the kasbah which, with its fortified walls and blue and white-washed medina, was another surprise.
- Harira – this cheap, filling and healthy lentil and chickpea soup can be wolfed down for as little as 25 pence a bowl.
- The detail – doors, rooftops, tiled floors and the colour are all things that draw visitors to Morocco and it’s easy to see why.
- Although they are a bit of a cliché because it’s where most tourists head, other personal favourites for me were the seaside vibe of Essaouira, the leather tanneries in Fez and Chefchaouene, the ‘Blue City’.
Lowlights
- Riads (traditional Morrocan house converted into a hotel) in the winter – without a doubt, a riad stay can be a highlight of a trip to Morocco however, budget riads in the winter tend to be unheated and damp.
- Lack of alcohol – not being able to find a bar to watch Southampton’s first major football game in a while was a particular downside for Mark! If you’re staying anywhere midrange and up, you’ll probably be able to get alcohol at your hotel. However, alcohol is not part of the local culture and therefore not readily available in many towns.
- Tourists – it might seem a bit strange to list this seeing as we are also tourists. But, in large groups wielding selfie sticks around a tightly packed medina, they are annoying! Fez was the main culprit, although the medina should also be on the highlight list.
- Marrakesh was disappointing. There. We’ve said it.
- Constantly being asked where we were going. Whilst the offer of assistance doesn’t sound like a negative, at times it felt relentless and even though I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, nine times out of ten those offering didn’t have our best interests at heart. Instead, they hoped to guide us to a shop, restaurant or a more dubious attraction. Or to get us hopelessly lost and then expect a tip for helping us to find our way.
Although the highlights may take up fewer words, on balance, they outweighed the lowlights, which were small niggles rather than major negatives. That makes the trip a success in my books!
I’m keen to return to Morocco to explore the Sahara desert and the Atlas Mountains but, whether I can persuade Mark to go back for the third time remains to be seen…
Our Morocco photo gallery is now live and can be viewed via the link at the bottom of the post, but here are a few of our favourites, to (hopefully) whet your appetite…
Zaouiat Sidi Ahmed Tijani Medina (Fes el Bali), Fez medina
Roman ruins at Volubilis
Rooftops at dusk in Tetouan
Doors in Marrakesh medina
The impressive Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca
Chaouwara Leather Tanneries in Fez
Read More: The Leather Tanneries of Fez
Street Art in Tangier medina
Read More: Street Art in Tangier
Marrakesh medina
The Blue City of Chefchaouen
Read More: Fifty Shades of Blue in Chefchaouen
Essaouira sunset
IF YOU ENJOYED OUR IMPRESSIONS OF MOROCCO, PLEASE SHARE IT…
Very interesting and great photos, as usual. Did you come across anyone heading further south on the land route through the former Spanish Sahara and Mauretania on the way to West Africa?
And do you mean to say that after 28 years Mark is now well accustomed to being threatened with broken bottles in bars?
Thanks Doug. We didn’t meet anyone travelling overland across borders when we were in Morocco – I know that in theory it’s possible to travel to Western Sahara but I think only as part of a group. From what we heard independent travellers are frequently not allowed to cross! I don’t know about the US travel advisory but if you follow the FCO advice, you get stuck pretty quickly as they advise against crossing all of Algeria’s borders, except the one with Morocco and as far as they are concerned the entire Mauritania is a no-go zone!
ps I’m sure you can imagine the kind of dodgy bars Mark finds himself in! 😉
Glad you guys persevered and decided to go for it, and sounds on balance it was a good move. Definitely agree the medinas do start to all look the same, so it’s certainly an idea to include as many different sights/landscapes as possible on a longer trip. The desert is something nobody ever forgets, and if you do ever go back make sure you head down there, it’s a world away from the cities and definitely one of life’s ‘moments’! I know you’re more budget travellers than we are (since we don’t travel long term!), but a riad in winter, if you pick the right one, can be amazingly cosy. You just have to get it right…we’ve had amazingly cosy riads in the summer, which was one of our worst moves ever. As for Marrakech, people seem to either love it or hate it (we’re in the first camp, but it took a few visits for us to really ‘get’ it…the first one had us running scared!).
I definitely would like to go back and see the desert and mountains at some point and it would be nice to up for that! This was my third visit to Marrakech so I wonder if I’ll ever come around! I know there are some amazing places to stay there and some of the best dining options in the country so it’s kind of an essential stop on a first-timers trip, but that’s part of the problem – there are a lot of tourists there and we don’t like sharing, lol!
It’s the words ‘budget’ and ‘riad’ which don’t go well together – if the places we stayed in had heating we would have been much happier 🙂
Retrospectively I think Mark’s experience wasn’t as bad as he likes to make out and I’m hoping to convince him of a return visit one day!
Lovely itinerary Kirsty!
Wish you will have a chance to visit the Sahara desert!
We are here for any tips
Thank you. Yes, we’re keen to visit Morocco again and get to the Sahara region next time.
Beautiful photos and we have similar thoughts (or memories) on Morocco.
I remember going there as a 17 year old and having major culture shock with the begging lepers (and other people with horrendous diseases) and the never ending touts.
Now as an adult I like you, would have an issue with the alcohol issue (we like our beer and wine and even a bad day looks pretty good if you can finish it off with a beer).
I think Heather above has a very valid point about how your experience will be very different depending on how you travel. But we’re like you – long term travellers – and I think that kind of travelling usually gives you a pretty good idea of a place.
I would love to see the mountains and the desert and maybe we’ll go to Morocco one day for a vacation (I said vacation). But I don’t think I’d want to be there as long as you did.
Frank (bbqboy)
Thanks Frank. There are some destinations where I think if only we could up the budget a relatively small amount it would make a big different to our experience and Morocco is definitely one of those places. Also easier to do if it’s only for a couple of weeks. By the way, you can get pretty cheap flights to Morocco from Europe if you fancy a taster… Another advantage of upping the budget in Morocco is that the more upscale places are more likely to serve alcohol making that cold beer or glass of wine on your riad rooftop that much easier! 😉
Perhaps we should arrange a group trip to Morocco to cleanse those teenage travel demons for good. And get Heather to guide us expertly through it! 😉
Ha, yes – let Heather be the guide!
Great, great pics! Still have not been, but now as usual from your reading your post, I have more reasons to visit.
Great to hear Mark, is a more seasoned traveler. 😉
Thank you! Morocco does have a lot to offer! I’m surprised you’re not edging your way there on your current travels, if you haven’t been before? 😉
Hi guys! Chefchaouen looks really photogenic. Would love to know how many days in you spent in each city. Thanks!
Thanks Therie, it is! On average we spent 2 or 3 nights in each place – a little longer in Essaouira. We only spent a night in Rabat but we wish we’d had longer there!
Hello,
I have been to Morocco three times in the last four years. The first time I went on my own and travelled around between Marrakech, Fez, Casablanca and Rabat by train. It was very easy with good train standard. I really liked it a lot, however the second half of the journey was a disaster. I got some kind of food poisoning in Fez. I hired a guide there and we had a glass each of freshly pressed juice in the afternoon. In the wee hours I got diaorrhea and vomiting and could not leave the room for about 36 hours. Next I was going to Sale, sister town to Rabat. Still weak after not eating, when I eventually got the riad for the night, a cat had laid under the cover of one of the beds and had pissed in the bed!! A large stinking spot when I lifted the cover to lay myself there. Luckily there two beds… Complaining to the management? Well, their English was very poor at check in, so they would not have understood and I could not quite explain in French.
My last nights were in Marrakech. When I came back to my room in the afternoon the second day the door was unlocked. The doors were locked by pad locks but the one to my door was opened and all the housemaid’s keys sat in this pad lock. When I complained to the man in the reception he just said “we are all a family here” and shrugged his shoulders. This was not important to him, obviously.
However, I could not let this be the dominating impressions from Morroco, a country I had wished to visit for so long, so the year after I joined an organised tour which started in my home town. This turned out to be one of my best journeys ever so in March this year I joined another tour from Sweden where I live, but this time we also got to visit the southern parts and the desert. Also a very nice journey, so all over all I have to say I like Morocco.
Ah, the joys of travelling! Great stories which are much more amusing retrospectively!
I think it’s a very valid point, not to be beaten forever by less-than-favourable first impressions – there are so many things that can influence our travel experience that are not ‘fault’ of the destination. Dodgy tummies for one!
I’m very happy that Mark finally decided to give Morocco another chance (although it took far too many years to do so!) and am optimistic I’ll get him back there for another trip; hopefully one which involves mountains and desert.
Thank you for taking the time to share your own impressions of Morocco. And… Enjoy your next trip there, and the one after that! 😉
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing experience.
You are welcome. We’re happy to hear that you enjoyed it! 🙂