For many travelers, experiencing Morocco is about so much more than just fancy hotels and good food. Particularly in Morocco, discerning travelers are eager to find for real, authentic and genuine local experiences.
We’ve compiled a series of unique, bespoke experiences that can be incorporated into any custom itinerary in Morocco.
Go Berber in the High Atlas
Immerse yourself in the daily life of an authentic mountain community. Journey through the lush Ourika Valley while taking in the dramatic Atlas landscape. Bake bread and prepare tagine in the kitchen of a village family and get to know them better over a
pot of traditional mint tea – made by you! The conversation should also start to flow, with a little help from your guide!
While lunch is simmering, get your hands stuck into wet clay in a ceramics workshop. Later, try your hand at weaving a colorful kilim with the local women behind their prized ancestral looms, and walk the farm terraces to see the sweated labour that goes into ancient irrigation and subsistence farming methods. You’ll also meet the community’s youngest members at the charity pre-school centre where little Berbers learn Arabic in preparation for big school.
Historic Aghmat and A Treat for Your Feet!
Follow the lush green Ourika River valley into the snow-capped High Atlas to discover the ruins of an 8th century Berber emirate that controlled the trans-Sahara trade routes before Marrakech had been invented. The, travel backwards in time as you walk the ruins of ancient Aghmat’s market place, mosque, palaces and well-preserved hammam and pay our respects at the mausoleum of the last caliph of Seville.
Continue through olive groves to one of Ourika’s best-kept secrets: The Saffron Garden, a botanical oasis perfumed with over 100 varieties of flowers, medicinal plants and healing herbs. But wait until you try their Barefoot Walk! Follow a trail of textured sensations for the feet: smooth river stones, crunchy salt, soothing rosemary, rough palm bark, petal-scented baths, healing herbal dips and exfoliating scrubs, finishing with a heavenly foot massage!
Essaouira Coast and Country Chill Out
Travel through forests famed for their argan oil and golden thuya wood, stroll beneath date palms at
a Berber oasis and take in the panorama of the peninsula and its islands, whose sea snails provided
the purple dye that jazzed up Roman emperors’ togas.
Stop in to see several fascinating villages en route: Had Dra, whose Sunday farmers’ market is one of Morocco’s major events; Akermoud, departure point for Regraga, when pilgrims visit 44 shrines in 44 days; and a surprise in the artisan village of Zaouit – a hands-on pottery lesson and mint tea with a local family.
Lunch is served in a café overlooking the dramatic Atlantic coastline, before we drift down through fishing villages to the endless gold beach. Kick off your shoes and feel good to be alive!
Shop, Cook and Eat in Arabic
This amusing experience will take us to different food markets in the old city of Fez, starting from the Blue gate, you’re going to cook lunch for a Fez family in their own private kitchen. If that sounds daunting, don’t worry. We’ll take it step by step.
You’ll get a crash course in Arabic phrases as your guide leads you through the Medina to meet your hosts and prepare for the first challenge of this full-on day: making bread and taking it up the street to bake in a public oven.
Get your haggling head on as we head to the food stalls for fresh ingredients. It’s way more sociable
than supermarket shopping! Then it’s back to the kitchen for an Arabic cookery class when you’ll learn
to prepare tagine, preserve lemon, make a mean Moroccan marinade and other staples of a hearty Fez
feast. Bi’ssaha– enjoy – as the locals say. Finally, after a mint tea-making lesson, try out your newly-learned Arabic on your host family and ask them what they really thought of your cooking!
Interested in learning more about these experiences, and how we can build these into one of our fabulous Morocco programs just for you? Please contact us today to get started customizing your Moroccan adventure!