A (truly) stress-free family trip to Morocco
Morocco
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May 25 - Jun 7, 2024
Our trip to Morocco was truly spectacular and far exceeded are already high hopes of being an epic family adventure (two parents and two boys ages 9 and 6). We typically hate trip planning and KimKim made it fun! I am actually excited to "plan" our next trip with KimKim....because, well...we don't actually have to plan it! The entire process leading up to the trip was wonderful, organized, and very well thought-out. I truly cannot imagine planning another international family adventure without KimKim's help!
Once the trip began we were taken care of by OriginalTravels (the travel agency KimKim worked with in Morocco). Even though I had planned and helped setup the trip, I was very excited to learn that we had a guide/driver (Tarik) to help us at every moment of our adventure. Tarik made the trip truly wonderful...he was energetic, knowledgable, fun and thoughtful. Plus, Tarik's driving skills are unmatched! We were in such safe hands. Also, because Tarik helped us with everything (e.g. calling ahead to the hotels to make sure someone was there to greet us, answering questions, finding bathrooms along the route, etc) my husband and I got to enjoy our family and the experience, rather than stressing about navigation, or where to find kid-friendly food, etc.
As for the actual trip, it was 14 days of wonderful and I will not list everything here. However, one of the most memorable experiences (and the one place I wish we had stayed longer) was Marrakech, specifically, the night market. It was fascinating, and since we had a guide to show us around (Hanan) there was no stress wondering if we were "doing things right". The whole family loved it!
Hotel Reviews
The location was a bit tricky -- it was a bit hard to walk around. The hotel itself was lovely and the staff was wonderful.
Activity Reviews
The family was lovely, so I don't want this review to take away at all from them. However, KimKim made it sound like our family would be eating and spending time with another family (and we were told that they had two young kids around the same ages as ours). However, what we actually got was a family with a 19 yro, and we were really "served" food by the family, not really chatting or spending much time together. To be honest, this felt pretty weird being served by a Moroccan family...we had really wanted to spend time with them instead. The food though was delicious!
Our guide Hanan was AMAZING! We loved her. We got to have her as our guide around the market in the morning, and as our food guide in the evening. She went with the flow with our kids, showed us the highlights, and answered all of our questions. She was just spectacular (she and Tarik as our guide/driver made the "dream team"!). I wish our kids hadn't worn out so early, or I could have walked around with Hanan all day!
Our tour guide was not my favorite (Asdean). He was very nice, but when we told him we didn't want to do certain things, he kept pushing back and ignored it. This made the tour immediately start off on the wrong foot. Also, I had not been prepared for the pressure to purchase items. Asdean took us places (like a rug seller's store) and then had us sit there and look at rugs even though we had no intention to purchase anything.
The description made it sound like our kids would get to make pottery from start to finish. So, when we just went to see how the experts made pottery there were a lot of tears. In the future, KimKim needs to do a better job at explaining that this is really just a shopping/learning experience, not a pottery making experience.
A highlight of the trip. This was one of my favorite activities/memories. I just loved it.
We did not go as our kids were too tired and needed a break from tours.
Turns out, ATVs are not my favorite -- but that was nothing against the excursion! Just me.
This trip was actually 6 hours, so I don't know why KimKim says 4.5 hours. Also, this is the one issue I had with the entire itinerary - driving 6 hours on the day of our flights was not a great setup for a family with two young kids. I didn't realize this at the time, but in retrospect, we should have made sure to arrive in Casablanca the day before and I wish KimKim had suggested it.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you so much for sharing your incredible experience with us! Reading about your family's adventure in Morocco put a huge smile on our faces.
It's fantastic to hear that Tarik took such great care of you throughout your journey. We'll be sure to pass along your kind words to him.
Thank you once again for choosing KimKim for your Morocco adventure. We can't wait to help you plan your next memorable journey!
Warm Regards,
Abdel