Week 189: (Part 2) Morocco!

It was a crazy busy week, which is why I split this week into two parts! It’s still super long, so I hope you can make it to the end!

The day after Christmas, we spent the morning packing up and then driving up to Frankfurt Hahn Airport, about three hours north of where we live.

Sadly, Matt and my friend Melissa’s husband could not take off work the week between Christmas and New Year’s. So we decided to take the kids to Morocco during that time.

Our flight didn’t depart until 8 p.m., so we arrived in Fez at almost midnight. We took a taxi directly to the hotel and immediately climbed into bed.

The following morning, we were up early for breakfast and to prepare to depart on our five-day road trip across Morocco!

Before we left, the first thing we noticed was the weather. Before leaving, we checked online and saw it would be a high of 70F and lows of 40s during our trip, but I would be surprised if it were ever over 60 on the trip. It was more like the 30s and 40s the whole time, and we wore multiple random layers of clothes the entire trip.

We hired Morocco Colourful Tours to plan our itinerary, make all our bookings, and provide us with a guide and a driver for our trip. We wanted it to be as stress-free as possible, and we didn’t have any time this fall to plan anyway, so it worked out perfectly. Our guides, Omar and Mohammed, met us in our hotel lobby on the first morning, and we set off at about 8:30.

Our first stop after leaving Fez was Ifrane, otherwise known as the Switzerland of Morocco. Here, many wealthy Moroccans have mountain homes, and the buildings are modeled after Swiss architecture. At this point, the kids needed a second breakfast, so we got a quick meal and then got back on the road.

Our next stop was the Cedar Forest, which is a popular stopping point because of the native barbary apes that live there. These barbary apes were much nicer than the ones in Gibraltar, and I’m happy to report that no one was attacked during our stop!

After leaving the cedar forest, we continued driving into the High Atlas Mountains. The scenery was sparse and more desert-like, but we did pass sporadic water oases.

We stopped for lunch at a cute restaurant in the mountains, where we tried Tajine cooking for the first time. Tajine cooking is done in a ceramic, cone-shaped pot on an open fire. It looks and tastes a lot like what we would call crock pot cooking.

After we left the restaurant, we continued our drive, passing through the Tiz Gorge and the cities of Erfoud and Errachidia.

Our goal was to reach the edge of the desert an hour before sunset. But because it was winter, the sunset was really early, and somehow, over the day, we kept getting increasingly behind schedule. It was like herding cats for our poor tour guides 🤣. They jokingly kept telling us to “yellah yellah yellah” all day, which means to ‘hurry up!’ in Arabic.

We made it to Merzouga, the village on the edge of the Sahara, only shortly before sunset and were immediately put on our camels for the ride out into the desert. Our destination was a Berber camp where we would be “glamping” for the evening.

Camels are actually really hard to ride; they jolt you really hard back and forth. Going up the dunes is easy, but you must hold tight when descending. One of the kids put it perfectly when they said, “I’m fighting for my life every time we go downhill!”

Our camels were also making loud gurgling and bubbly noises; some had their tongues hanging out of their mouths. We felt so bad for them because we thought they were sick. Finally, when we got back into cell service the next day, we googled what they were doing, and it turns out those were camel mating noises that we had been listening to the whole trip 🤣.

Our final day in Morocco started with one more early wake-up call: We had to meet our taxi to the airport at 7 a.m. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time only to discover that we would experience one of RyanAir’s notorious delays. Luckily, it was only two hours, and we made it back to Frankfurt in time to race home for New Year’s Eve!

We chugged along and finally stopped on a high dune to watch the desert sunset. We had fun taking lots of pictures and ‘playing’ with the camels. Then, we watched the sun go down over the dunes, which was beautiful!

Once the sun had set, it was time to return to our camels and continue the trek so that we could reach our camp before it was fully dark.

While we were traveling, one of the camel guides took my phone and said he would take pictures of us. I didn’t realize what great photos and videos he had taken until we arrived at camp and I had a chance to look back. He obviously does this a lot because he got some great shots and videos of us on the camels moving in the dusk light. It was so pretty!

Towards the end of our camel ride, it started to get really dark, and our camel guides were increasingly looking at stars to guide their way. We began to get a little afraid because we didn’t want to be lost in the desert overnight, but we finally made it to our camp.

The total journey by camel took a little over two hours, including the stop to watch the sunset. We reached camp by about 7 p.m., where we were immediately greeted with hot Moroccan tea. It had been chilly when we set off from Merzouga, but it was now below freezing in the dark, and we all needed to thaw out after the camel ride.

We also realized that our phones and Wi-Fi didn’t work anymore there (which makes sense as there are no cell towers in the desert), so we had to put them down and enjoy the time we had there.

Overnight, we would be camping (more like glamping) in a Berber camp. The Berbers are the native ethnic group of North Africa. They predate the Arabs, who arrived several centuries later and have their own culture and languages separate from those of the Arabs. In modern times, they live in communities across North Africa, with some still living nomadically in tents in camps in the desert. And, as we would discover, they are some of the kindest and most welcoming people we’ve met, and they are so interested in sharing their cultures and experiences with others.

After our tea, we had one hour to get situated in our tents where we would be staying. Our tent had three beds and a full bathroom with a sink, shower, and a flushing toilet. The room had a small radiator, but it didn’t put out as much heat as you would want for a night in sub-freezing temperatures. The host gave us several heavy blankets to help us through the night.

Once we were settled, we headed to the dining tent for a tajine dinner. We were served three courses out of tajine pots and then a dessert of fresh fruit, which seems to be the only dessert served in Morocco!

After dinner, we were taken to a campfire, where the Berbers played music on their drums and guitars.

By chance, it was a clear night, and there was no moon, and the stars were the brightest I’d ever seen. Even the Berbers said they couldn’t believe how bright they were. I would’ve brought a better camera if I had known, but our iPhones did pretty well on the extended exposure setting. We were all really sad that Matt missed the amazing stargazing!

We went to bed so tired, wearing multiple layers of clothes and under multiple layers of blankets. It was a cold night!

Getting up was hard the following day because we were so cold and just wanted to stay under the covers! But we needed to see the sunrise, so we got up at seven to watch the sun come up over the desert. It was just as pretty as the sunset the night before.

We had breakfast, and then, while the adults packed up, the kids took out some snowboards and went sandboarding down the dunes! It sounds a little cooler than it was because you can’t move very fast while sinking into deep sand, but the kids thought it was fun.

Then it was time to leave our camp, this time by 4 x 4 instead of by camel. Thank goodness because our back sides still hurt badly from the ride the night before.

When we returned to Merzouga, we transferred to our tour guides’ van and continued our drive through Morocco. Our first stop was in Rissani, a city on the desert’s edge, which has the largest open-air market in or around the Sahara desert. Sadly, it was not market day, but some stalls were still open, so we could walk through and visit some of the shops.

Our first stop was at a spice stall, where the vendor showed us his many spices. Ryan insisted that I buy a bag of allspice, which we brought back, but I’m not sure what plans he has for it.

The kids were also very intent on buying authentic Berger clothes called Jalabas. They felt very inspired by our tour guides, who wore them during the trip. Luckily, our guide knew right where to take us, and three of the kids got Jalabas and wore them for the rest of the trip.

After Rissani, we continued driving and stopped at an old Moroccan underground water canal. We saw how it worked from above and then went underground to see where the water used to flow. Then, it was time to return to the car and continue our journey.

Our next stop was another Berber market, where they dressed us in formal Berber clothes and then took us upstairs for a photo shoot on their roof in front of a palm field. The kids really loved this part, and we had a hard time separating them from the clothes. We did some souvenir shopping and Brooklyn and even got a henna tattoo.

We stopped for lunch along the road and then it was back to the car.

Next on the tour was the Dades Valley, which I would say was the most beautiful part of the trip after the desert. The valley starts with a gorge where rushing water makes the valley below green and lush for farmland. The soil and rocks are all terra cotta, making the green and pink landscape beautiful.

We drove all the way up into the Dades Gorge, but unfortunately, by the time we arrived, it was monsooning, and we could only drive through and jump out for just a few pictures in the pouring rain.

We continued driving through the Dades Valley, briefly stopping in the middle of nowhere so our guides could take pictures of us on a long, straight road. This spot reminded us of a similar spot in New Mexico, where we all took a picture in 2016.

The final major stop of the day was the “Monkey Fingers,” which is an unusual rock formation in the Dades Valley. Our stop was timed around sunset and the rocks took on a beautiful pink glow!

Our guides took us to our Riad, the Dades Paradise, where we would stay that night. A Riad is a traditional large home that’s been converted into a hotel. It is usually centered around an atrium and serves all meals to its guests. Our room was so nice, and we were happy to find the heat pumping!

We warmed up in our room and showered, as we still had sand all over us and in our shoes. Then, we had dinner downstairs, prepared for us by the hotel hosts.

The next morning, we had breakfast at our Riad, and Omar and Mohammed picked us up at 9 AM, and we resumed our road trip. The first stop took us deeper into the Dades Valley, up a winding Mountain Road to a viewpoint where we could take pictures of the gorge below. After we got our pictures, we turned around and drove back out of the Dades Valley.

The next stop was Rose Valley. Our guides told us that during the spring, everything is pink, and the area’s leading economy is products made with rose oil. They took us to a factory, where we learned more about the process and could buy a few products. Then, we were back in the car and on our way.

The next stop was Atlas Studios in Oarzazate. This is the studio where many movies and TV shows have been produced in Morocco, like Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and The Mummy. At this point, Omar was receiving information about heavy snow in a mountain pass along our route, so we only had time to jump out for a few pictures before continuing the journey.

Our next step was the UNESCO World Heritage site, Ait Ben Haddou. The village was a significant stop along the caravan route in ancient times. Two families still live here, while most have moved to the more modern part of town. This is also a filming site of Gladiator and Game of Thrones, and many exhibits throughout the village show photos of the filming. We stopped at a viewpoint a few miles away for pictures and then drove on to the town.

We parked in the modern town, hiked to the ancient town, and climbed to the peak for beautiful views of the surrounding valley.

We had a quick lunch in Ait Ben Haddou and then jumped back in the van. Our next step was to a Moroccan Argan oil factory, where they harvest the argan oil used in many of our beauty products.

After we departed the argan oil factory, we drove up into the mountains and through the Tichka pass, Morocco’s highest elevation road. The snowstorm Omar had heard about earlier had already passed, and snow was on the ground.

After we took some pictures at the highest point, we drove a little further to a parking area next to a huge meadow where tons of people were out playing in the snow. Omar and Mohammed pulled over and gave us time to run around and play ourselves. The kids loved pelting them with snowballs!

Our next stop was the Tizi Tichka Panoramic Viewpoint, where we could take pictures of the winding road below.

We continued down the winding road. Mohammed pulled off at a sharp turn, and they let us jump out to see a goat herder moving his goats down the mountainside. He even carried a tiny baby goat in his arms; it was so cool!

Our final stop on our road trip was Marrakech, where Omar and Mohammed would drop us off at our hotel. We were all so sad to say goodbye to our amazing guides! They really made the trip so fun for us and as cheesy as it sounds, inspired us to love their country so much! I think we were all in tears when it was time to say the final goodbye after dropping us off at the hotel.

After saying our goodbyes to Omar and Mohammed, we dropped our things in our rooms and headed to dinner. We were staying at Eden Andalou, which is a Marriot all-inclusive property. We headed down to dinner and joined the hundreds of other people staying there; it felt like a cruise ship, and we all felt very over-stimulated after our peaceful trip into the desert. We were all wishing to be back there again!

It was an early bedtime, and then we slept in, in the morning before taking the hotel shuttle downtown to visit the Medina.

We walked all around downtown Marrakech and saw the Koutoubia Mosque and the market. Marrakech was extremely busy and the people were definitely way pushier than we had experienced in the rest of the country. Vendors would really hassle you to the point of following you for a sale.

We heard that there was a special Berber market that day and decided to try and find it. We walked and walked, and along the way, a man started walking with us and insisted he would show us the way despite our protests. We were really uncomfortable with it, so we paused our walk and even tried to lose him at one point, but he kept popping up. We finally made it to the Berber market, which was more of an open-air tannery. The man kept following us, and we decided to leave, and he followed us right out, cursing all the way. So bizarre and definitely unsettling.

After the Berber market, and to lose anyone who may have been following us, we stopped for lunch at a rooftop restaurant. It was a lengthy lunch because it was so busy, and we left about two hours later. We wandered through the Medina and did some final souvenir shopping to get rid of the rest of our Moroccan dinar. I got a Moroccan teapot, and Brooklyn got some bracelets. We had fun haggling the vendors down to their lowest prices. Then we emerged onto Jemaa El-Fnaa square, where we almost immediately ran into some snake charmers. Yes, they really exist!

After we had our fill of the snake charmers and performers in the square, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, where we had dinner in the hotel’s sit-down restaurant and then another early bedtime.

Our final morning was New Year’s Eve. We got to the airport in plenty of time but our flight ended up being delayed two hours. Bizarrely, the Marrakech airport has barely any food options, even in the airport lounge! We had to make do with Starbucks, but we were starving by the time we finally returned to Frankfurt!

Our final thoughts on Morocco for anyone who actually made it this far! We loved Morocco so much, and much of that is down to our guides, Omar and Mohammed, who kept everything fun and interesting. Even the teenagers said they enjoyed it, which is high praise. We can’t pass judgment on Fez because we weren’t there long enough, but the desert and eastern regions were beautiful, and the Berber people are some of the kindest. We really weren’t that impressed with Marrakech, though. It was hectic and crowded, and the people were pushy and rude. ‘Rude’ is not an adjective I use lightly or often. Even the hotel staff wasn’t that friendly, which is surprising for a Marriott. The bottom line is definitely go to the desert, but skip Marrakech.

We would love to return to Morocco again one day with Matt, and with some added stops in cities we weren’t able to visit!