Marrakesh?

[Core Shot]

Might have a sweet custom tour in my future.

Anyone been there?

[cycology1]

we did a family private tour 2 years ago where we had a driver, a private van and circumnavigated the country. our guide had a Dr's in Moroccan history and it was non stop Q&A for the 10 days..which was the coolest part...marrakech was my least fav... but that's just me. Branson has a sweet place with rooms...really sweet!!. we went for a trail run out the front door in the high atlas mountains and drank great wines, visited w the locals and had tea on a roof top in the mtn village. the medina in Fes was cool too. but marrakech was like a dirty breck on a holiday weekend..maybe we did it wrong?

[cycology1]

oh yeah, we did the camel thing in the desert...thought we were being kidnapped and driven across the visible boarder to Algeria..but ended up being dropped off for a decent dinner and lived to tell the tale. I would have rather rented the rovers and raged in them in the dunes!

[dunfree]

I went riding on the express, once, don't you know?

[claymond]

I spent a few days in Marrakech while in Morocco in 2016. It was culture shock in a good way. Flow with the evening crowds in Jemaa El fna and the souks. Eat tanjia, this delicious slow cooked beef only in Marrakech. Renting a scooter and joining the chaos sticks out as one of the more fun things I did there. There's some pretty cool old mosques and buildings. I don't think a guide is necessary. I'm not very well traveled and after the first day being a little overwhelming, kept my situational awareness up but relaxed into the bustle and hustle. The couple bars I went to were expensive and boring

[bw_wp_hedonism]

Had a snake charmer put a snake on my head in Jemaa El Fna. Wouldn’t take it off my head unless I have him 10 euros. Started walking away with the snake on my head, he backtracked real quick.

Also, I hate snakes.

[Buke]

My wife and I took our honeymoon in Morocco in 2004 so any beta that I have is way way way out of date.

I will say that Marrakesh was interesting. It had that super crowded market vibe in the old town area but it was so overrun with tourists that it didn't sit well with my preferred style of travel. Pretty cool place though. I'd say definitely stay in an old house in the old part of town. The architecture is super cool. The food is awesome. If you can get in with a local somehow you'll have an awesome time. Definitely worth going.

Of the various places that we went (Casa Blanca, Marrakesh, Essaouira, Tetouan, Chefchaouen, Meknes with trips to Volubilis and Moulay Idriss, and Asilah) Marrakesh wasn't the highlight but definitely not the low point either. We backpacked around kind of dirtbag style and didn't even have lodging pre-arranged, let alone a solid plan of where to go or what to do after the first few days on the ground. For us, the several nights we spent in Essaouira were the highlight (It's the inspiration for "Castles Made of Sand" by Jimi Hendrix). If smoking hash is your thing then you could have a really fun time in Chefchaouen but it wasn't really our thing so the hippy stoner vibe there didn't do anything for us. Tetouan was probably the most interesting place because it felt like there wasn't another tourist in the entire city. Unfortunately my wife got super sick there so we didn't really get to explore it adequately.

Morocco has lots of potential as a tourist destination. With that said, there's so much tourism there that it can be hard to have an "authentic" experience. Couple that with just enough poverty and it can be a tough place to travel. Maybe things have changed in the last 15 years?

I find people either love it or hate it, there doesn't seem to be much in between. For me, I enjoyed it but it's a big world and if I'm travelling all the way to Africa again then I'm going to go somewhere else (I'm looking at you Libya, Senegal, Ghana...).

[::: :::]

Random memories of Morocco from 25yrs ago:
- They drive in the middle of the road, only pulling into a lane if passing or being passed.
- They beep their horns to say “here I am”, not in warning or alarm. So, there’s actually a lot of beeping on the road.
- It might be more of a Mediterranean thing than Moroccan, but I loved the “bitter lemon” drinks that were squeezed fresh and so thick you could stand a spoon in them.
- Haggling is assumed at any transaction and was supremely annoying coming from a place where that’s not common
- lotta wind for windsurfers (or kiters now) on the Atlantic coast. Back then beaches were pretty quiet