Private Tour of Morocco
The 9 day Tour Edition
Private touring (choose your own date)
We’ll show you the best of Morocco and its great Imperial Cities in just 9 days. While others may offer 2-3 languages on board their coaches and tours, we provide PRIVATE group or individual tours, with the language of your choice be it English, Spanish etc. Compare with the 7 Day Edition, add camping in the Sahara.
DAY 1- Casablanca – This is a private tour- Choose your own date.
Arrive at Casablanca. Our local representative greets you at Casablanca’s Mohamed V Airport and escorts you to your hotel. We’ll drop our luggage, have a refreshing cup of tea or coffee, then head out for a panoramic tour of the city including the exteriors of Casablanca’s majestic new Grand Mosque of King Hassan II, second only to the Great Mosque at Mecca in size, before returning to your hotel.
DAY 2- Casablanca – RABAT -Meknes-Volubilis- Fez – Very Full Day (BL)
Breakfast at the hotel. Lunch is included enroute. We’ll drive on across the lush countryside to Rabat, Morocco’s capital and our first Imperial City, to visit the magnificent Mausoleum of King Mohammed V, the historic Hassan Tower minaret, in the afternoon we drive through forests of cork oak trees, we continue on our way to Meknès, the “youngest” of Morocco’s four great imperial cities surrounded by towering medieval walls. We visit the monumental gateway of Bab el-Mansour in the city walls and the palace tombs of Moulay Ismail before heading to Volubilis the forward Roman old settlement that once was the capital of the Roman province of Mauritania Tingitania. Continuing on we will reach Fez in the early evening, where we settle in for the night. If you have a couple more days, then we will be able to break up the drive and touring and have shorter touring days. This program is for guests who do not have time and wish to cover as much as possible within 8 days.
DAY 3 – Fez (BD)
Oldest of the four Imperial Cities, Fez is endlessly fascinating. We tour its medina (Old City) and souk (bazaar), stopping at the gateway of the royal palace, the fortifications of the Kasbah, the 9th-century Karaouine Mosque and University, the medersa (theological college) of Bou Inania, the shrine of the city’s founder Moulay Idris II, and the Nejjarine Fountain. On the way to our hotel, we enjoy panoramic city views from the heights overlooking this fabled city.
DAY 4- FEZ (BD)
Morning at leisure. Afternoon tour of the the monumental gateway of Bab Boujelloud, the old harem gardens, Dar Batha Museum, and the artisans’ guilds in the souks. Dinner at a local charming Moroccan restaurant.
DAY 5 – FEZ- AZROU, BENI-MELLAL & MARRAKECH (BL) Very Full Day
Breakfast at your hotel. Lunch is included enroute.
Out for mountain scenery, we take a leisurely drive along the flanks of the mighty Atlas range via the charming village of Immouzzer du Kandar, the lake of Daiet Aoua, the mountain Ifrane ski resort and town of Azrou before descending to the Kasbah Tadla plain and the fertile region surrounding Beni-Mellal. In the late afternoon we arrive at the palm groves of Marrakech, the fourth of Morocco’s great Imperial Cities, to settle in at your hotel.
DAY 6 – MARRAKECH (BLD)
There is much to see in this great city which Winston Churchill called “the most beautiful place in the world at sunset.” We tour the stately Koutoubia Minaret, the hidden tombs of the Saadian dynasty, and Bahia Palace. In the afternoon, during our tour of the souk (market), we see some of the age-old guild artisans at work. Finally, we end up in famous Djemaa el-Fna square with its medieval circus atmosphere of itinerant dancers, jugglers, acrobats, storytellers, soothsayers, snake charmers, medicine men and public scribes.
Finally, you’ll see the Menara pavilion and gardens, the Majorelle Botanical Gardens of Yves Saint Laurent, planted with trees and flowers from all over the world. Lunch is included at a local restaurant.
Dinner at the hotel or join an optional “Soirée” at Chez Ali, a traditional Moroccan dinner with folklore, in an oases/palmgrove on the outskirts of Marrakech. The additional cost is $50 per person including transfers.
The Cultural Space of Jemaa el-Fna Square. Video by unesco.
DAY 7 – Marrakech – Culinary Experience and a home hosted dinner (BL)
This morning you’ll ride through Marrakech in a horse-drawn carriage. One of the special ways of understanding a culture is through its cuisines–not only sampling exotic tastes, but experiencing the preparation of dishes, how they figure in ritual and ceremony, and how they have grown out of the earth and traditions. We will proceed to the Ecole Hotelière, Marrakech’s own hospitality & Culinary Academy and training school, for a demonstration of the preparation of pastry-style doughs. We’ll stay for a lunch of salads, tagine of Maghdour kebab, and refreshing fruits.
Later, we’ll call on you to take you for your sunset camel ride, in the 13,000 acres of palm groves around Marrakech. You’ll finish the day with a memorable experience of Moroccan hospitality, dinner in the home of a Marrakech family in the old Medina.
Complimentary Dinner is included at a local home:
Meet the locals. You may wish to bring token gifts to exchange with the host family (T shirt, small souvenirs of your home town). This evening we’ll venture where few ordinary visitors ever tread… right into the homes of some of the people of Marrakech! You’ll be invited to a family dinner, and while you enjoy wholesome home-cooked specialties, you’ll learn about and appreciate the outlook, aspirations, and way of life of your hosts. Be assured, as curious as you may be about your new friends, they’re sure to have questions about your own background. Once the ice is broken, you’ll enjoy a lively evening, and find that you have more in common than you ever suspected. Of course, if you prefer, you may enjoy a quiet evening with your travel companions – just let us know your preferences.
DAY 8- Marrakech – Berber Village (BD)
After breakfast in you hotel, leave for Amizmiz, 54 Kilometers from Marrakech. On the way you will see the Oumnast Kasbah then the Lalla Takerkoust Dam built between 1929 and 1935 with its man-made lake. It will take you about an hour to reach Amizmiz, a typical Berber village, and tour the Kasbah and the “Mellah” (Jewish quarter). Every Tuesday an important country market is held, where all the villagers from the area come for their weekly shopping and gossiping… There you can buy interesting Regragra potteries. Your guide will welcome you in his home for a traditional Berber breakfast then you will start your hiking first through Sidi Hossein valley to reach Tizi Oughourane. On the way you will see picturesque landscapes of the Atlas mountains and Berber villages with their houses built in stone and earth. After a typical lunch accompanied by mint tea, you will come back to Amizimiz by a different itinerary and be transferred back to busy Marrakech by late afternoon.
Evening folk show dinner at Borj Bladi “Méchoui Roasted lamb cooked in Terracota oven” including return transfers – always on a private basis. Add a night in a deluxe camp in the Moroccan Sahara! please click here.
DAY 9- Departure- Marrakech (B)
Our local representative escorts you to the airport for your flight. Bon Voyage!
| Four stars hotels as listed. Rates are per person in US $ |
|
| Sharing in Triple Occupancy: | US$ 3485. |
| In Double Occupancy | US$ 3550. |
| In Single Occupancy | US$ 4375. |
| For Dec 20 – Jan 10: Please add 10 % supplement to the rate. | |
| Modest FIVE stars hotels as listed. | |
| Rates are per person in US $ | Private Touring |
| In Triple Occupancy | US$ 4249. |
| In Double Occupancy | US$ 4350. |
| In Single Occupancy | US$ 5275. |
| For Dec 20 – Jan 10: Please add 10 % supplement to the rate. | |
| Upgrade to The Ultra Deluxe Category Rates are per person in US $ |
|
| In Triple Occupancy | US$ 5509.00 |
| Double | US$ 5628.00 |
| Single | US$ 6498.00 |
| For Dec 20 – Jan 10: Please add 10% supplement to the rate. | |
| Sample Listing of Your Hotels (or similar) | |||
| 5 Stars Hotels -Deluxe | Category A 5 Stars – Standard |
Category B 4 Stars- First Class |
|
| Casablanca | Royal Mansour Hotel, Riad Hotel le Doge Relais & Châteaux Farah Golden Tuli or similar |
Royal Anfa Hotel Golden Tulip Farah Casablanca Sheraton Casablanca or similar |
Idou Anfa |
| Fez | Maison Blue Riad, Riad Fes Relais & Châteaux or similar | Palais Medina Hotel Fez Les Mérinides Sheraton Hotel Jnane Palace or similar |
Minzah Zalagh |
| Marrakech | Sofitel Marrakech, Jardin de la Medina, Riad Monaceau, Jardin de la Kotoubia, or similar |
Imperial Borj Hotel Kenzi Menara Palace Marrakech Kenzi Farah Hotel Marrakech or similar |
Diwan |
| Children of 9 years of age or younger: 50% discount. Infants 2 years or younger: Pay only 10% |
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Your tour includes:
- Hotel accommodations, including all taxes and service charges, as indicated or similar.
- Continental (B) breakfast daily; set-menu Lunch (L) or /and dinner (D) as shown in the itinerary.
- Private air-conditioned vehicle for all your transportation throughout Morocco as per itinerary with a private English speaking chauffeur.
- Private guide and private guided sightseeing tours as indicated in the itinerary, including all entry fees.
- All transfers within Morocco, always on a private basis.
- Tea, mint tea or coffee upon arrival at your hotel in Casablanca on Day 1.
What’s not included:
- International airfare to or from your home country
- Tips
- Travel Insurance
Lebes (Berber greeting) or sbah ikheer (Arabic for good morning)!
Spring break is about over and it’s back to work tomorrow. It will be a shorter week at CAS for me because on Thursday I’ll be leaving for the Optimal Match Conference (SPED and Technology) in Rabat. Last year I attended the conference in Madrid, Spain. I’m eager to see if the teachers from Rome, Paris, and Barcelona who I met last year will be attending this year. It is great to network with other teachers and find out about their programs plus hear about new and innovative strategies. The presenters are from the US.
Paul is currently enroute between Casablanca and Amsterdam with arrival due in the US at about 5:30 tonight and then back to work for him tomorrow. We had a fantastic week of touring and seeing more of Morocco – a truly remarkable country with beaches, mountains, deserts, and everything in between in a relatively small area. Paul will send from his email account a number of pictures which might give you an idea of our experiences this past week.
Trekking in the Amizimiz area while seeing the Atlas Mountains with its picturesque landscapes and Berber villages was quite remarkable. Our guide Said served us Moroccan tea and a lamb tagine for lunch in his home. As you can see from the photo they also decided to dress us up in the typical Berber attire for lunch.
We continued on with the drive through the High Atlas Mountains crossing through the Tizi N’ Tichka Pass and descended down through the Draa Valley stopping to see ancient Kasbahs (fortified palaces) and to the caravan-town of Ouarzazate (movie site of The Mummy, Black Hawk Down, Babel, Syriana, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.). Enroute we stopped to hike up Ait Benhaddou and up the sandstone hill which has been the site for a variety of movies including Gladiator. People still live in this UNESCO World Heritage village including Uemna and her husband. She invited us in to see her cave dwelling in the side of the hill and shared delicious home-grown almonds.
Our next two nights were spent in the desert. The first night was at Zagora and in the middle of a sandstorm. Paul thinks that I probably have never been so grouchy upon awaking in the morning after a night spent trying to breathe while attempting to sleep in our nomad Berber tent amongst a haze of blowing sand. I think that the sand is all out of our ears by now. The next night after some fun camel riding we enjoyed a night on the Merzouga Desert in a deluxe tent under the stars. Both nights we had our own private concert with talented musicians and dancers entertaining us with traditional Gnaouan music and delicious Moroccan cuisine.
It was interesting to study the information displayed on Paul’s GPS in the mountains, deserts, etc. In the photo you can see our Moroccan friend and Paul discussing the merits of such equipment. We read in one of the tour books that it is difficult for tourists to locate their reserved auberges (lodging accommodations) or tent sites and that they are encouraged to call ahead for the GPS coordinates in order to locate the correct place in the Sahara Desert.
Riding out into the golden dunes near Merzouga on camels to see the sunset was so much fun while watching four-wheel-drive vehicles zipping up and down the sand dunes (some in preparation for the Dakar Rally). All too soon it was time to start the travel back to Casablanca via Fez. On one of our stops we fed peanuts to the Barbary apes near Ifrane.
Staying in the Riad Dar Al Andalous was an experience of seeing more of the history and culture of Fez. Here we had one more example of the challenges of communication in a foreign country. Paul asked if he should pay for a Coca Cola and before he knew it he was being enthusiastically escorted into the kitchen to meet the ‘cook’ (Coke).
Living and visiting in an international setting is truly an exciting and stimulating experience.
A week after leaving Casablanca via train we arrived back in Casa with our very informative and helpful driver Hamid. Now, we have the memories and the pictures (and a few souvenirs) to enjoy of this adventure in another area of incredible Morocco.
Our time in Morocco is fast approaching an end with one last trip before returning home to Minnesota. At this point we are thinking of exploring more of Spain and the Moroccan coast of the Mediterranean.
M’a ssalama (goodbye – Arabic)
Paul and Dixie
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