The country of Morocco is only a 1 hour ferry ride from Costa del Sol, in Spain where are spending the winter as Canadian Snowbirds. Morocco conjures up images of Aladdin’s genie lamp, and the 1,000 stories of the Arabian Nights, plus the “Marrakesh Express” song (Crosby Stills & Nash). We really enjoy the distinct Moorish / Muslim arch architecture (ogee and multifoil) combined with dazzling 3D honeycomb effects (stalactite vaulting – muqarnas) in the underside of domes and and distinct mud-brick heritage. Every town has its towering minarets similar to church steeples. The classic ceramic tile art work was everywhere. The Moroccan government is working hard to become one of the top 20 worldwide tourist destinations – and they seem to be succeeding!
Brass olive oil lamp with hand painted enamel.
The tour company we used (Mundimaroc) has many tour types including sleeping in the desert caravan tents after a camel trek. We selected a 7-day bus tour to get a taste of various parts of the country, which turned out to be an excellent decision, with a small group of six since we are in the off season. They provided affordable, first class, total end to end service from our residence in Spain. Bus Transportation, hotels, main meals, entrance fees, English speaking guides.
Route
Our 7-day trip took us into Tangier, Morocco from the ferry terminal in Spain, just past Britain’s Gibraltar. You clear customs in Spain, then enter Morocco customs while on the modern ferry, which has comfortable lounges and a cafeteria. The native languages are Arabic and French in Morocco, with limited ability to speak English. The trip exposed us to very modern bustling cities as well as the deep rooted history of some mud brick style villages. It involved a lot of driving but the mini-bus was comfortable and the driver courteous and flexible for stops.
Tangier, Tétouan, Chefchaouen, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Rabat, Fez
Photo Galleries
We have 1,000 photos from this excursion, which will be added gradually as galleries in the links below. Be sure to check back in a week or so to see more in depth coverage.
Highlights:
High speed ferry to Tangier
Tangier: This busy modern city has a lovely sandy beach with a popular promenade, amidst modern buildings and an old historic fortress (Kasbah). Horseback and pony rides are available.
Tetouen: The KING was not at his palace when we dropped by, but still lots of security. The Jewish marketplace was a mini maze similar to Marrakesh.
Chefchaouen: The town became blue in the early 2000’s to help tourist promotion. It is fun to walk the mountainside town maze of streets.
See our photo gallery article about Chefchaouen by clicking here.
Casablanca: Rare opportunity to visit the INSIDE of a Mosque. It is one of the largest in the world. Also famous for the old movie – Here’s looking at you, kid!
More photos of the Mosque:
Mesmerizing Mosaic tile art piece. The mosques are not allowed to have any figurative representation of living creatures, so instead they use Geometric, Floral, and Calligraphic Designs like this one. My personal interpretation envisions that each of the objects in the art is a symbol of a person, illustrating our interconnectedness, similarities and differences!
Marrakesh: Handmade carpet marketplace. They have a well rehearsed sales approach which starts as “cultural education”, but winds up with you indicating the particular ones you like or dislike, until the bargaining for price begins ($1000-2000). Ship by FedEx!
See our Photo Gallery with 3 pages of images here.
We are glad we visited Marrakesh, but to be frank, it really is TOO BIG to really enjoy unless you are staying there for many days. It reminds me of furniture shopping a IKEA – once you enter the maze of departmental pathways you have to keep going, and going and going… Its about 20 times longer than IKEA. There are buskers and snake charmers and we enjoyed a private lunch in a “Riad” which is a large home architecture, where all the rooms face the inner courtyard, with no windows facing out, which helps keep it private. There are no cars in the marketplace maze, but motorcycles ARE ALLOWED, which leads to a constant stream of noise, exhaust fumes and avoidance for pedestrians.
Rabat and Fes
Rabat is a town inside fortress walls, where as Fes (pronounced Fez) is a arts and cultural center, where the King lives. Fes has a smaller more enjoyable marketplace maze than Marrakesh, without the motorcycles.
Camel rides on coastal beach resort area outside of Tangier (Zoom In at bottom right). Saudi King has a huge palace here!
Our Tour Group
Conclusion
Morocco is a “must visit” destination if you enjoy exotic travel to unfamiliar places. It seems safe and we had no issues related to their religious views and culture. Easiest way to overcome the language barrier is to use a guide or organized tour like we did.
The Moroccan travel company we used was “Mundimaroc” which has a Spanish centric web site. Switch it to English using the Ingles button next to the UK flag in the top right side. Some of the pages work better in Spanish if you use the web page translator. Also, we found a delightful travel agency to work with that has an office in Fuengirola called BTravel. Maria Jurado Quilós speaks English in their office, and was very helpful with our questions and booking: fuengirola@btravel.com +34 952585444
Wikipedia’s travel site WikiVoyate has lots more information about each destination: Tangier, Tétouan, Chefchaouen, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Rabat, Fez
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