Our trip to Morocco was marvelous on all coun...
Morocco
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Dec 14 - Dec 26, 2025
Our trip to Morocco was marvelous on all counts--seriously! This was in large part due to the communication with the local travel specialist, Nihad, who planned the trip exactly according to our preferences, and the remarkable warmth, dependability and excellent communication with our driver, Ahmed, who was with us for 12 days. The kimkim site requires an extensive questionaire to be completed, which was very helpful in understanding how/what we wanted from our trip. We wanted to learn about the history, culture, food, and local customs. We wanted to go to multiple large cities and small towns (Rabat, Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, and Marrakesh), and also see the Atlas mountains, the Sahara Desert, and local villages. Thanks to kimkim, Nihad, and our fantastic driver, Ahmed, we got to do all of that.
Ahmed was very responsible and kept up with potential weather concerns. As we we were about to go through the mountains, there was a lot of snow. Ahmed rerouted us, and while we forwent a couple of stops (to Ifrane, for one), we still had a breathtaking drive, and several informative stops along the way. We went to an incredible fossil museum where Ahmed had arranged a very informative and eye opening tour with a paleontologist, a local visit to Tinghir, where another local contact of Ahmed, Abdullah, we met a teacher and her family living in a village that was largely abandoned, but where no money changed hands and we learned about the local crops (palm dates, alfalfa, and other plants) that villagers tended collectively. One more crucial detail: Ahmed introduced us to a whole range of Saharan music, Amazigh musicians, and Gnaoua music--these were great soundtracks on our multiple days of long drives throughout the country.
We stayed exclusively in riads along the way. All of the riads were beautiful, some of them intricately renovated. We had great private rooms with excellent hot functioning showers. The hotel staff was, without fail, warm and welcoming--in every riad. Our breakfasts in each riad were excellent. In places where dinner would be hard to obtain, dinner had already arranged as part of the tour--another detail taken care of through kimkim. The one place where our riad was a bit uncomfortable was in Marrakesh (but the hotel staff and food were excellent!), The Riad La Croix Berbere Deluxe was billed as a suite, but it was a room with a connecting bridge that looked into our neighbors' room and their "living area". It was very noisy, because if the neighbors were in their living area and talking, we could see them and hear them. The "suite" was not private, unless you shut yourself in the bedroom, which was so small there was no room for luggage. I would recommend that this riad not be used in the future (again, though, the staff was marvelous).
In conclusion, we had a fantastic trip and will definitely use kimkim in the future. This was our first experience with kimkim and, having used the service once, we feel more comfortable in crafting our next adventure with this company. The cost of this trip was more than worth it--to be relieved of planning, and to be taken care of so well.
Hotel Reviews
Excellent location, great breakfast. Great room with a view of part of the city.
What a great place to hang out--a great cocktail hour with effusive and kind staff. We had a great charcuterie board with amazing Mekness wine a couple days before Christmas. The room was decorated cheerfully with some Christmas gear, and the roaring and warm fireplace was super welcome after a cold rainy day of touring. We got to meet the owner the next day, Alex and his colleague, Sandra, who were so cheerful and lovely to talk with. The breakfast was also so elaborate--very hospitable!
This hotel had the most remarkable views of the mountains of Chefchaoun. Be warned: many many street steps to get up to hotel. But this is where you learn how incredibly fit and inshape the staff are--they lugged our 3 big bags up those steps and we lost sight of them! They brought us tea to warm us, and our balcony overlooking part of the city was magical. The room was very cold (understandable given that we were in the mountains in the winter), but it took a long time to heat up the room.
This hotel was great in location. We could catch a taxi easily a few steps outside the medina, and we were able to walk to a a number of great places, including a rooftop bar, where we had an amazing set of views.
What an amazing experience! The tent is fully functioning: excellent toilet. Shower was hand-held but it did the trick--it was super cold, understandably. At first, we grumbled about how far a walk it was to our tent (given that it was quite empty due to snowed in roads that had prevented 20 guests from reaching). But we soon realized that the views from our tent were absolutely stunning. Sand dunes, no tents obstructing our views. We were very lucky to have such a great tent. The food was very good. The welcoming reception was lovely--tea and some snacks. The reception room was gorgeous and grand. Loved it! The bonfire was lovely. TBH, it felt like a bunch of Moroccan bros drumming for fun--but we didn't mind. They were sweet, kind, and enthusiastic, and very funny!
It was a lovely hotel, renovated, with a beautiful garden, great dinner of chicken dumplings and rice. What a relief to have a great dinner that was not a tagine after 7 days of travel. Michelle was very warm and welcoming, and we enjoyed chatting with her over our excellent breakfast.
The hotel was located inside the medina, and felt a bit cramped. The hotel staff were amazing and kind, even making us a breakfast package for our very early morning departure from Marrakesh (very useful on a 10 hour Delta flight that provided very little food returning to ATL). They had umbrellas for guest use, very handy given that it rained while we were there. The room we stayed in was designated a "suite". But it was not a suite. It was a very small room (granted, with high ceilings) that left no space for luggage. The "suite part was a bridge from the hotel steps to the room (very tastefully decorated, and gave us space for our luggage), that overlooked our neighbors' room and allowed us to look directly onto the neighbors' "living room"--with their snacks, coats, and even hearing their conversations at full volume because there was no glass or partition shielding them from our view. We were part of their conversation. Ditto for the floor above us. They too had a bridge overlooking the room, and they could hear our conversation/vice versa. this meant that when one of us came in late, the others would be awakened. There was no sense of privacy unless you shut the glass doors of the room (and needless to say, no windows in the room), so a bit suffocating. But again, the staff was lovely. I would not recommend these rooms in that hotel to anyone.