Trip to Morocco

Morocco | Apr 29 - May 13, 2019

Memories for a lifetime! We had a wonderful time with Hassan our Marrakech guide, Lamah, Abraham, Mohammed our Imlil hiking guides and especially our driver Hassan who spent 2 weeks with us. Hassan found answers to all our questions and provided great insight to Berber life. We spent 1 day at the beginning and end in Marrakech, 2 days hiking the Atlas Mountains, Ouarzazate, Rose and Dades Valley. We were disappointed we missed the Rose festival but the timing just didn’t work out. The Tondra Gorge, although very crowded on a Sunday, was an education. We enjoyed watching all the locals dancing, singing and having fun. The camel trecking to the tented camp in the Sahara dunes was definitely a highlight. The Berber staff took such wonderful care of us and made sure we had a smile at all times. On one of our travel days we drove through Taroudant where we stopped for a break and found the best deals on rugs @ Tapas Berbere We spent 3 days in Essaouira inside the media which was an incredible experience. Great restaurants, shopping, local activity just outside our door. We enjoyed a great cooking class @ l’Atelier which included a walk and education at a spice suk.

Having most dinners pre arranged worked well because we were tired and would not have wanted to search for restaurants. We enjoyed all the accommodations, especially the Riads. The only accommodation we would not recommend using again was Les Jardins de Ouarzazate which was not clean and loaded with flys.

A couple of recommendations for improving the experience: at the airport hold a sign with the guests name in order to find the driver. I was told to look for a sign that read OT Voyages, but actually the sign had the name of the Riad which I was not looking for, so took a while. Throughout the trip it was very difficult to change large bills from the ATM, even at hotel reception. If the driver could carry a roll of coins to offer exchange to the guests, it would be very helpful. We wanted to tip staff at hotels... for their great service but couldn’t always get change. A daily information plan would be helpful, ie what time/where a guide would meet us in Marrakech, length of the drive each day, the hiking plan in Imlil (we thought we’d drop our luggage at the hotel first then hike so we weren’t prepared when we pulled over to the trail on the way), and more detail on the desert camp (we didn’t realize we could ride the camels anytime and just needed to give them notice the evening before for sunrise).

Overall, we had a fabulous trip, loved all our guides, enjoyed good restaurants, good accommodations and the Kim Kim staff was very responsive to questions while planning the trip and while on the tour. We highly recommend Kimkim!