ADVENTURES BEYOND SAFARIS
Exploring Morocco
Morocco stands apart in our African offerings, substituting nature for culture, and safari for sand dunes.
A remarkable fusion of African, Middle-Eastern, and Mediterranean influences, it combines these in a distinctive blend of architecture, tradition, and cuisine that reflects this multifaceted heredity while defining its own personality. Such is its defined character that it has seeped across the world, textiles, architecture, and flavors inspiring Western creativity.
Morocco’s exotic landscapes have been the location of numerous historical movies, including Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Would Be King, and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, but beyond the deserts and ancient cities reflected on celluloid, few realize that Morocco also offers incredible coastal vistas, superb galleries, world-class dining, and prolific winelands.
With the soccer World Cup set to open Morocco to the world in 2030, and an underground road tunnel planned to connect it to Europe, the northwest African nation will soon see an influx in tourism. But now is the time to visit, with infrastructure and travel being rapidly developing in anticipation of the event, without the increase in visitors.
Returning after two years, this time with her daughter, Rothschild Travel Designer Aimee Olson was a little apprehensive as to the change that she would observe, but what she found was a nation that has joined the modern world without forgoing its rich heritage:
First Impressions
I first visited Morocco with [fellow Travel Designer] Ruthie Detwiler, about 2 years ago, and I wanted to see how it had changed, how it had evolved.
You can visit some of these older, lesser-known countries, and even after 2 years, they haven’t changed much; they’re still in a time warp. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it had evolved, and it’s become a metropolitan destination. They are spending a great deal of money towards updating their infrastructure. Hosting the World Cup in 2030, the king and the government have really pushed to make sure that they’re a destination that can sustain that.
One of the things I remember from my previous trip was just how primitive Morocco was. The roads were bumpy and you had to pull over to the side to allow somebody else to pass, but now there are highways. It has really evolved; they really want to be known for tourism.
The people are just so friendly and they’re a very neutral, predominantly Muslim country.
But when I say that, there’s a lot of Jewish heritage there because the Jews had traveled through Northern Africa, on the way to Europe. So there’s a lot of history and heritage there as well for that.
A lot of Europeans are now living there, especially in Marrakech and Casablanca. You often find that an increase or a development of infrastructure, or the modernization of a country can often either erase or bury the soul or the culture, but it has been developed very sensitively to its historical aspects. At first sight, everything still looks like a desert town. One thing I noticed about Marrakech is everything seemed to be very old-world 20 years ago, but now there are modern apartment buildings, but they’ve been carefully designed to look like something that’s been there for a while, even though it’s brand new.
The old-world culture and what they’re known for – going from the square right into the Medina and seeing the artisans doing their crafts and making their wares and things like that – they still remain. As a matter of fact, I felt like on this particular tour, I got to see a little bit more of the history and the culture.
They’re also building airports closer to the desert area so that you don’t have to endure an eight-hour car ride to go to the desert.
Getting There
The only nonstop flight from America is from New York to Casablanca on Royal Air Morocco, which is the country’s airline; everything else goes via Europe. I was on Air France and the flight from Paris to Casablanca is only three and a half hours, with regular European connections flying to Marrakech, Casablanca, and Rabat daily.
Expert Guides
Our guide was wonderful. He really gave us the full experience and was very knowledgeable and informative, and really good at reading clients. For example, there was a point where he knew that we were kind of tired of Moroccan food. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Moroccan food, but when we arrived in Marrakech, he was really good about taking us to trendy little cafes and boutiques where we could have a club sandwich, or some salad or pizza.
He was with us from the moment we arrived in Casablanca, until taking us to the airport at the very end.
The Journey: Stage one
We arrived in Casablanca where the industry, government and Morocco’s office district are situated. The only thing of site of historical importance is the Hassan Mosque because that is the only mosque in the country that tourists can actually visit.
I had only 10 days for this trip, so I tried to focus on going to places that I had not been to before and also trying to do as much of an itinerary as I could based on what we recommend for our clients.
I had already been to Chefchaouen, Tangier, Rabat, and Fez, so I didn’t feel like I needed to see those places again.
Typically when we build an itinerary, we suggest that, if the clients want to see the mosque, we arrange a morning or early afternoon tour where they can see that, before departing for Fez or Meknes, which was the first stop on my itinerary.
There are some beautiful, smaller properties in Meknes that are just lovely; the first one I went to was Chateau Roselin. Typically Meknes is only a brief stop for lunch or wine tasting before traveling onwards, but I felt that I didn’t want it to feel so rushed.
Meknes felt authentically Moroccan – I loved it. Beautiful vineyard, beautiful setting, and we had a wonderful tour of the winery. They produce 80 percent of the wine that’s used and sold in all the different restaurants. For example, if you went somewhere to have dinner and asked for house red or white, rather than selecting a specific bottle, this was the signature wine that was provided.
The vineyard has been around for about 70 years, and it produces 50 different labels and many different varieties. It is located in a tranquil valley area, close to Fez, but with the mountains visible in the distance.
The Journey: Stage Two
We got up really early in the morning to leave for the desert. After stopping for lunch in Midelt, which is fairly barren, we continued onwards to Errachidia. This is a larger town where I would usually suggest clients spend the night, relaxing from the long drive before venturing into the desert. Traveling in May, it was very hot, but in the optimal traveling period (March, April, September, and October), there can still be snow on the distant mountains, and the desert weather is far more pleasant.
Merzouga lies almost at the end of the road, surrounded by rolling sand dunes and very little else, but it is spectacular.
We stayed in stunning Bedouin-inspired tents that featured all the modern facilities we could wish for; bedding, linen, air conditioning, flushing toilet, running water, hot and cold. It did not feel ‘rustic’ in any kind of way. I would even compare it to the glamping you might experience on safari.
We either like to send people to Merzouga Luxury Desert Camp or the White Camel, the latter, where I was fortunate enough to stay, offering a touch more luxury. Merzouga has little casbahs and tiny hotels, with large tour buses arriving at all of those accommodations situated on the edge of the dunes. They then have to take separate excursions to see the dunes or to ride camels across the dunes and so on. Merzouga Luxury Desert Camp and White Camel are located on the other side of the dunes, so they’re more private, set far away from all the big tour groups, providing more of a luxurious, exclusive feel.
The staff were very warm and inviting. They wore traditional Berber dress, which made it part of the authentic experience, but the camp had all the modern amenities. The food was wonderful, very well presented, but again obviously all authentic, very Moroccan. There was a campfire that you could sit around; it was hot at the time we visited so we didn’t spend a lot of time sitting next to fire!
Dining was communal, but there was always the option to sit by yourself if you wanted to. Despite a larger group arriving on the second night, it didn’t ever feel crowded. At the end of the night after dinner, the staff and the cooks gathered to perform traditional Berber music.
We had a wonderful sunset camel ride, which was lovely, although there wasn’t a sunset. My daughter also chose to do some sandboarding. They had some snowboards, and you could walk up to the top of the dunes and sandboard down if you wanted to. On the last morning, I got up early and did a sunrise hike over the dunes to watch the sun come up – a spectacular sight across the barren desert. The entire experience was wonderfully tranquil.
The Journey: Stage Three
From Merzouga, we headed west.
The landscape started to drastically change as we approached the Atlas Mountains. We drove through areas where they grow the roses and dates, which the region is famous for.
The landscape reminded me a little of many of the national parks that we have here in America, with little canyons that you drive through, and tall rocks and cliffs with streams running through them.
We then arrived in Skoura where we would spend two nights. Located on the edge of the mountains, Skoura has numerous palmeries where they grow olives and dates. You can walk through palm plantations or garden areas, and guides will explain the irrigation system, with aqueducts built to help distribute the water so that the plants have the water that they need to grow.
It was a nice place to relax after having been in the desert; still warm, but not as hot as the desert had been. There was a lot more greenery, the property we stayed at had a lovely pool, and it was just nice to unwind after being in the car.
The Journey: Stage Four
From Skoura we moved onwards to Ouarzazate, known as the Hollywood of Morocco where a lot of the famous movies have been filmed. Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones were all filmed there. There are movie studios there that you can tour, and a famous cazbah village at Aït Benhaddou that’s a UNESCO site where you can walk around and see the different cazbahs. It’s still an authentic, working Berber village.
Finishing the journey to Marrakech, it reminded me of the city that I remembered from 20 years ago, especially where we were staying, which was very close to the medina.
We stayed at La Sultana for two nights, which is a fantastic hotel. It’s very authentically Moroccan. There are a lot of other fabulous, more expensive ritzy hotels that movie stars, kings, and dignitaries like to stay at, but La Sultana is more of an authentic, smaller property; well-maintained, luxury with authenticity. There is beautiful hand-carved plaster throughout the property, beautiful furnishings… everything was very well appointed, delightful, with friendly, welcoming staff.
Sometimes you go to a ritzy hotel or a high-end hotel and you might feel a little out of place, but at La Sultana, I didn’t feel like that.
The Marjorelle Gardens were bought by Yves Saint Laurent in the ‘70s. These spectacular botanical gardens were established by French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years from the early 1900s and are still just as enchanting today. They had some of his pieces there, his floral flower collection throughout the years, because he really liked flowers and that was part of what he was known for, and his flair.
There was a lovely Berber museum adjacent to the gardens, as well as the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, which I loved.
The Food of Marrakech
The food tour was fun, and kind of hilarious. My daughter was eating snails, but I don’t like the texture and I didn’t want to eat it, but she thought it was delicious.
It was fascinating learning about the traditional food and why is it such an important part of their culture. The dishes for which Morocco is famous are often the daily dishes that they eat, using the tagine dish, all the spices, all of those things that they incorporate. I like to understand sometimes where the food and the purpose behind it comes from.
The Journey: Conclusion
From Marrakech, we spent a day and an overnight trip to Essaouira on the coast. Agadir is a famous, beachy surfing area, and a lot of young people go there, but Essaouira is a fishing village established by the Portuguese back in the day.
It was not the highlight of my trip, but I was happy that I went there; it was a nice opportunity to visit it. Along the way, of course, the landscape and climate change again as you’re coming closer to the coast. It was about 10 to 15 degrees cooler, which was a nice change from the heat of the desert.
While there, we learned about argan oil. You take it for granted. It’s in a lot of different beauty products that you see on the shelves all over the world, but it’s very labor intensive, and they still do things the old-fashioned way where they peel the nut back and then they grind it and press it in order to extract the oil. I’m sure there’s some manufacturing involved in other places, but I did like how they try and keep part of it authentic. We visited a co-op where ladies were doing all the work and we got to see the entire process. Even my daughter said, “Well, it puts a whole different perspective on having seen this when I go to the store and now understand what it takes to make it”. That’s part of travel and the experience so you understand that and appreciate foreign cultures.
Aimee’s Reflections
Morocco is not a safari destination. It’s not even really a wildlife-watching destination. If somebody has been on safari, Morocco offers a wonderful, contrasting complement.
I think the connection is the culture. It is 100 percent a cultural experience, seeing how the native people live, how they’ve developed their land, and the customs that they still have in place. There’s a lot of history, including European history, but they’ve maintained a principality all this time. There is a fear that comes with mentioning that Morroco is a Muslim country, but it is wonderfully gentle and welcoming, the complete antithesis of the impression of the Middle East that we see on the news.
There’s beauty and landscape to see throughout Africa, but you’re there really to see the animals. Morocco’s landscapes are some of its primary attractions.
Our guide told us was the government places a lot of effort on putting money back into smaller communities because they don’t want these people moving to the major cities. They want them to stay in their towns and villages and they’ve provided telephone, internet, running water, offering them all of those modern conveniences so that they will stay in their hometown. In a lot of cultures, in a lot of countries, they don’t do that, and the cultures are lost forever.
While all of our staff journeys are undertaken to research the regions, lodges, and experiences that will be shared with our clients, Aimee’s exploration of Morocco intentionally followed a client itinerary, experiencing the country in just one iteration of the numerous journeys we can create through this fascinating nation.
Learn more about the possibilities of Morocco with our Travel Designers.
