basic morocco culture

Morocco | Oct 17 - Oct 24, 2018

We enjoyed an unforgettable introduction to Morocco. The places we stayed were, without exception, all very lovely and well located, with full, nice breakfasts and excellent staff. Our driver was nothing short of wonderful. He was extremely helpful, offered what turned out to be excellent advice when requested, and took outstanding care of us. We realized the driver could not substitute as a professional guide, and there were a few times he could not provide answers to our questions, because of language difficulties, or just lack of really specialized knowledge. Yassine and his colleagues made certain that we were always well cared for, and they were genuinely concerned that we enjoyed ourselves.
If there were one aspect we would have done differently, knowing now what we do, we would have covered less, or else lengthened the trip. It was impracticable to cover the distances we did and still arrive at our destinations with enough time to do any exploring. We definitely needed another full day in Chefchaouen. We thought Essouaria was more important to visit than Volubilis, Moulay Idriss, or even Rabat. Ifrane was better just to pass through than visit. We spent proportionately more time in the car than we wanted. We did rely on the trip planners to know how long it would take to reach a given city, and travel times in general; despite cutting down on some of our original plans, we still could not cover everything.
In Fez, our cooking class was very enjoyable; we did not get as much benefit from the professional tour guide as we had hoped, however. He repeatedly remarked that he could not show us what he wanted to because we had come to Fez on a "holiday" (Friday), and that we needed to visit on a different day to see more activity. That was hardly anything we could have known in advance. He also disappeared whenever he "delivered" us to merchants he thought we should shop from. We loved the goats and the argan cooperative; Todra Gorge was excellent; we enjoyed the hammam in Marrakesh; and our overnight in the Sahara was probably the single most important experience.
Overall, the special attention we received throughout our trip, and particularly in Marrakesh, made us very glad we chose Kimkim and MOTB/Yassine and his team to make our arrangements.