Be flexible

Morocco | Oct 1 - Oct 10, 2026

Where to start? Marrakech: the Diamond Riad was gorgeous, the food from the hotel was great including the breakfasts. In the morning , we had another guest open our room door and entered into our room when we were in it! We addressed with the front staff who denied that she gave the key to someone else, another guest, and had no idea how that could’ve happened. No apologies offered. We were told the night before that our third night was canceled and there was no room for us at the hotel. So we had to pack up and move to another location in the morning. We had plans to return to some places in the Medina but we were unable to. We planned on a food guide our first evening and he was about 45 minutes late. He was too soft spoken and did not offer an expectation for the evening. We felt rushed and had to walk quickly to keep up with him. We recommend not having your food tour on the first night in country if you are able. Our tour guide Goshen for the Medina was very good. We did not feel rushed and were often told to take our time.
Next stop: Riad Dar Imil. The room was very nice but we didn’t have much time in the room as we arrived in the evening. The food was decent.
The hike with Hassan and lunch with a Berber family was a disaster in our opinion. It never occurred. We walked for 30 minutes stopped, had a tea, and spent another 60 minutes walking to and through a village. The meal was in a big room meant for many people where we ate by ourselves and five cats. After our lunch of 30 minutes, our guide napped and returned to our room 60 minutes later. He then guided us for 10 minutes down to our driver. He was not friendly when we asked him about meeting the family. He said they were at a wedding. There were no children to give candy to that we had and he took the whole bag for his family. This was one of the main things that we were looking forward to on this trip and it didn’t happen. We are very disappointed in this aspect. We highly recommend that you do not use Hassan for any guiding! As far as having lunch with a Berber Family, I highly recommend that this is pre-organized before anyone wants to do this.
Dar Rihana Dades was our next hotel. The hotel was beautiful. The food was easily five stars. The chef could be on a cooking show and would probably win. The staff, mainly the main person who ran the restaurant and hotel was phenomenal.
Our guide, Mohammed took us into the monkey fingers trail. He was kind, patient, and knowledgeable. This experience for us was phenomenal.
Onto Merzouga. While our accommodation was a tent in the Sahara, it was meant to be two nights and we only had one night. We also requested for a stargazer experience and that did not happen either. The accommodation was very nice, and the staff was wonderful. The camel ride into the camp was good, but our guide was not good. We recommend you do not use him again. He tried to sell us sand!! At first he said it was a gift to us and then at the camp, he said we owed him 100 dh! The food was terrible at the camp! Cold and flavorless.
The next day, we had a Jeep tour with Abdul. He was a fantastic guide. Patient, very knowledgeable, and friendly. Five stars for him and the tour. We stayed in Riad Villa Amood. The hotel was beautiful, comfortable sleep, and the food was great!
The Fossil museum for us was definitely worth a stop.
The drive to Fez was very long. We wish we would’ve stopped halfway to sleep and relax a little bit. Please change the time on the itinerary to 9 + hours instead of 7.
The accommodation in Fes was 3 stars while we felt the staff member/manager was not very friendly, the dinner we had there was terrible as well as the two breakfasts. The bread was at least two days old. There was no protein or fruit served, and the coffee was average. The guide (Mustfa) in the Medina was a three star. He was knowledgeable, he knew where things were in the Medina, But our heart belief felt like he had done this a 1000 times and he had lost his passion for the job. Our meal in the Medina was awesome- Berrada Family. The places he took us to were geared for sales. We did not like this. The carpet place took over an hour! A discussion needs to happen between the Medina guide and the clients as to what the clients want to see and how long they want to see it for. There were some things that we wanted to see, but we ran out of time because we spent so long in the carpet place. The mosaic and pottery factory tour was good but the high pressure salesman was not ok. The owner even followed us out to our car!
Rabat we could’ve skipped, and Casablanca was enough to have our mosque tour and leave.
Be prepared with enough cash for tipping your guides every day.
Our driver, Samir, was friendly, knowledgeable, and an expert driver. He always provided water for us everyday.
Expectations for the day as far as stops (we could have missed the movie set place as we had to rush to our camel ride), toilet breaks, and lunch breaks should be discussed every morning. There were a few days where we felt hungry and had no place to stop and eat. Expectations between client and the tour guides should also be discussed before the tour. We felt we spent too much time doing things in the Medinas that we didn’t want to do and not enough time seeing and experiencing the things we wanted to see and experience. For example, the Koranic school inside the Fes Medina.
Overall, Morocco is a beautiful country and people with a wonderful variety of things to experience. KimKim was the disappointment with our itinerary being shuffled around. We would recommend to our friends, but giving them these words of advice.