MOROCCO!
During our 9 day Moroccan adventure…
-We visited many of the country’s mystical cities, ancient towns and awe inspiring landscapes.
-We immersed ourselves in the traditional culture and local cuisine at each destination we visited. (Can you say tagine?, Have you ever went to the bathroom in a hole?, Harira soup may be my favorite soup ever!)
-We stayed at riads within the Medinas and loved being greeted with cookies and mint tea each time at check in.
-On more than one occasion, we were roused from sleep by the call to prayer.
-We were pleasantly surprised about how inexpensive everything was in Morocco.
-We shopped and bargained and shopped some more in the souks and came home with an abundance of scarves, pouches, sneakers and a few leather jackets.
–We donned ourselves in traditional Moroccan clothing
-We had our fill of adventure upon mules, camels and ATVs and used our feet as well. We sand boarded on the Sahara dunes and we hiked in the High Atlas Mountains and in Talassemtane National Park. We climbed to the top of Aït Benhaddou and up to the Spanish Mosque.
-We were treated to a few sunsets and an unforgettable sunrise in the desert.
-We marveled at the blue washed walls, buildings, stairs and alleyways of the Blue City where we posed and snapped pictures in every direction we turned.
-We felt safe as we traveled. The Moroccan people were friendly and hospitable. The only time I was nervous (probably unnecessarily so) was one night when 5 of us (all women) left the Medina in Rabat to go to the cash machines.
-And we drove… Unfortunately, to see as much as the country as we did, you need to be in the car often and for long periods of time. We took naps in the back seat and watched the latest Netflix hits. We had a private driver and a large SUV so it was a very comfortable ride.
-We started in Marrakech and ended in Rabat. In between, we drove through the High Atlas Mountains, to Ouarzazate, to the Sahara Desert, to Fez and to Chefchaouen, stopping at many sites along the way.
I hope you enjoy reading about our trip.
Marrakech
Old Medina-We flew into Marrakesh Menara Airport and had a short drive to our riad in the walled Medina. Our first activity was a walking tour of the old Medina given by a local guide. We were led through the winding alleyways of the ancient quarter seeing artisans making copper pots, weaving rugs, and crafting metal objects. We purchased Moroccan spices and olives that we indulged on as we walked. We marveled at all of the beautiful light fixture displays. You know what I am talking about if you follow Marrakech or Morocco on Instagram.
Djemaa El Fna-The highlight and where we spent much of the evening was the famous central square of the Medina, Djemaa El Fna. 
The Djemaa El Fna Square comes alive at night with snake charmers, monkey tamers and tons of food vendors selling various Moroccan specialties. We ruined our appetites for dinner with sausage pocket sandwiches at I think Stall #55 or #57 (I can’t remember). They were amazing. We also sampled many of the delicious juices at the abundance of juice stands and consistently walked around nibbling from bags of nuts and dried fruit.
Moroccan Dinner-Despite not being hungry, we had our first of many traditional meals at Nomad, just outside of the Square. Here we had our initial tastes of Moroccan salads, tagine and cous cous. We followed our meal with some more snacks in the square, posing with the vendors, and some shopping at the many sneaker and shoe vendors in the souks. It was fun and scary haggling with the vendors, my friend Marlo was really good at it!
La Mamounia Hotel –Our second night in Marrakech we had dinner at the legendary La Mamounia Hotel that looked like a palace from the outside. There was heavy security to get in so look presentable if you go. The hotel was very impressive and the bar food and fancy drinks quite good, despite the hefty price tag. We were able to walk from the Medina to the hotel, passing and walking among the grounds of the Koutoubia Mosque, the largest mosque in Marrakesh. There are tons of people (mostly tourists) hanging outside of the mosque at night.
We missed-In favor of our adventure in the Atlas Mountains that we did while based in Marrakech, we missed the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. The museum is devoted to the life and works of Yves Saint Laurent and sits within The Jardin Majorelle which looks amazing in the pictures and I am sad to have missed. Next time!
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in Northern Africa and the highest peak, Toubkal, (13,671 ft) sits in Morocco. Most people make a day trip to the mountains during their stay in Marrakech to visit the remote Berber villages. The drive from Marrakech to the small village of Imlil, where most begin their trek either on foot or by mule, is about 90 minutes. Many people summit Toubkal but it requires some camping. Maybe I will tackle that peak one day. 🙂
Hiking and Mules In The High Atlas Mountains And Lunch With A Local Berber Family-On our second day in Marrakech, we set out at 8:30am for the Atlas Mountains. When we arrived in the village of Imlil, we paid to go to the bathroom IN A HOLE at a local hotel. The jokes were endless at first, but we soon realized that this would be our mode of going to the bathroom quite often during our trip and eventually the novelty wore off (not really though). 
From Imlil, we set off with our caravan of guides and mules for a moderately challenging 2 hourish hike through the mountains with Toubkal, the highest peak, as a climbing fixture along our path. We had the option of hiking or riding our mules and most of us switched off throughout the two hour climb (watch out for the herd of goats!). Our ultimate destination was a Berber family house for lunch.
The house that hosted us for lunch was a typical Berber house built into the side of the mountain with rocks and clay bricks. The house was one level and had a few different rooms, a small kitchen and a bathroom (with a hole). Despite the sparse setting and lack of kitchen equipment, the local Berber family served us up a traditional gourmet Moroccan feast-from the mint tea and khobz (the round bread baked in the oven) to the platter of Moroccan salads as our starter, to the featured event, the tagine. 
The tagine is a standard Moroccan dish which is named after the cone-shaped earthenware pot in which it is cooked and consists of layers of meat, and vegetables and spices. The one prepared for us that day contained beef, potatoes, strignbeans and carrots. Our courses ended with with a tray of whole fruit that we came to learn is a typical (healthy!) dessert in Morocco. The whole meal was a memorable and enriching experience as we gained insight into the Berber culture, customs and local life which, to this day, has remained remarkably intact!
Ouarzazate
This town is a typical stop to break up the long ride between Marrakech and the desert. Many movies have been filmed here and the city is still being used by filmmakers today. Even some scenes in GOT were filmed in the Ouarzazate area.
Cooking Class in Ouarzazate-On our long drive from Marrakech to the desert we stopped in the city of Ouarzazate. Here, we cooked our own Moroccan feast at DarMouna, a family’s traditional house that faces the village of Ait-Ben-Haddou (see below). 
The menu for us to prepare contained Moroccan salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, dressing), harira soup (tomato, Lentil, and chickpeas-so good!), chicken tagine with vegetables, and harcha (Moroccan pan-fried bread made from semolina flour). 
After about an hour in the kitchen, we enjoyed our lovely meal inside (it was chilly) with windows facing the site of Ait-Ben-Haddou. Note, it was a very long meal with the courses being spread out over long periods of time. We definitely got a little impatient. However, it was all so good and even more so knowing that we created the dishes on our own (with lots of oversight :-). ). I highly recommend doing a cooking class in Morocco!
A Climb To The Top Of Ait-Ben-Haddou-Long ago, Ait-Ben-Haddou was a thriving town and resting stop for caravans on the trans-Saharan trade route from the Sudan to Marrakech. Today, It is a walled village and a UNESCO Heritage World site (1987) with towers, palaces and houses made of red-clay bricks.
It looks magical as you are walking up the village, crossing over rivers on bridges made of sand bags. (Don’t fall in!). There is a real bridge you can cross too but that is obviously not as exciting.
You need to know where to strategically enter the village so that you will not be bombarded with tour guides who will want to lead you up the confusing maze of narrow pathways. We avoided the tour guides, but of course got lost and ended up having to pay (a nominal fee) to walk through one of the four homes, that actually still exists in the village, to continue our ascent to the top. It was a cool walk through!
The climb to the summit is moderate and when you reach the top there are a lot of pictures worth taking. However, there are also a lot of tourists and touristy souvenir stands too. In fact, this is the first place where we finally met another American tourist and it was our third day in Morocco.
Another cool fact about this site is that because of the unique architecture and setting, the site has been used as a backdrop for many famous films and television shows. Game of Thrones fans, this was the city where Daenerys Targaryen freed the slaves and was living in exile, a cool fact that Daniel and Madison (2 big GOT fans) were really excited about.
Atlas Film Studios-This is a movie studio in the Ouarzazate region and is a popular tourist destination and a standard stop on most Morocco itineraries. In my opinion, you can totally skip it. We stopped here after the climb up Ait-Ben-Haddou and walked around for about an hour, climbing on some of the structures and snapping a few pictures. Since many of Moroccan movies are filmed in Ouarzarzate, it is known as the Hollywood of Morocco. The studio has become the final resting place for old sets that were used for movies filmed in Ourzazate. The decaying sets are scattered amongst the vast grounds of the movie studio. It is actually depressing (IMO).
Todra Gorge
Todra Gorge is a typical stop en route to the desert from Ouarzazate. The views of the limestone river canyons get better and better as you continue to walk up the concrete road. The high walls surround you and you can see why the area is so popular with rock climbers. Those of us who embraced the walk, marveled at the immense structures and beautiful colors. We got a bunch of cool shots!
The Sahara
The highlight of our trip was our night spent in the Sahara Desert. Here are all of the magical details…..
The camels-We departed from the desert outskirts on camels in the late afternoon for our luxury desert camp. Riding the slow moving camels in a line was easy and fun. (We had previously rode camels in Israel). 
The ride to the camp was about 45 minutes. The trickier part is when the camel stands up after you are astride and when it goes down for you to get off. I so wish someone would have taken a video of Mason (who hates riding any animals) when his camel lowered itself down. His face and screams were hysterical. Know that we did not take all our luggage on the camels, we all had day packs and took only the essential items for the night. Our bags stayed with our drivers.
The camp-The camp was made up of a u-shaped area of tents which were equipped with rugs, solar-powered lighting and even furniture. There were outlets to charge our phones in the communal tent, where we had our meals. Each tent had a sink and toilet (which wasn’t even a hole! it was a toilet). At the camp there are places to sit and congregate. As pre dinner snacks, they served us potato chips and sugar wafer cookies. When is the last time you had a sugar wafer cookie? We passed the late desert afternoon eating tons of cookies (me), trying our legs at sand boarding down the dunes (not me) and relaxing and enjoying the desert surroundings. At night, we slept in jackets. It was cold in the tent during the night but not terrible. Just be prepared.
The sunset-As dusk approached, the light in the desert against the dunes became that golden orangey glow (honestly, it was unimaginable). We climbed to the top of one of the dunes (not easy), and took tons and tons of sunset pictures. It was captivating watching the last sunlight of the day disappear behind the dunes.
The evening festivities-We had a hearty dinner in the communal tent and all took turns charging our phones in the community charging station during dinner. Can we stay at dinner a little longer please? 
After dinner we were entertained around the fire by our Moroccan friends who chanted, played instruments, and sang for us. At one point both my family and my friend Marlo’s family were dancing around the fire for quite some time freely and without an ounce of hesitation or embarrassment. The very funny dads would throw in their own English chants during our circle dance which added to the experience. Belly laughing is an understatement. This night will live on for me as the most memorable one of our trip. It was so authentic and so much fun.
The sunrise-We made our way up to the highest dune to watch the sunrise. It was a strenuous early morning workout that left us huffing and puffing. Fortunately, we didn’t have to get up too early as you won’t see the sun coming up over the dunes till about 8AM. 
We were a lot more subdued at dawn than we had been the previous evening at dusk. We were quiet, contemplative and grateful as we sat and watched the day appear. The trek down the dune was a pleasure compared to our ascent.
The Quad Bikes (ATVs)-I was hesitant to do the quad bikes in the Sahrara Desert but nobody else was, so I was outvoted and thankfully so! In contrast to our simple and relaxing camel ride into the desert, it was a fast paced, scary and challenging ride out. It was easy to learn to use the motored vehicles. 
Just like a car, one pedal was for the gas and you had hand brakes to stop, like on a bicycle. The hardest part was building up enough nerve to rev the bike to the maximum speed to get up the gigantic dunes. Many of us (not the boys..hmm) got stuck leaning backwards mid dune. The guides would need to come rescue us by digging us out of the sand and finishing the climb for us as we jogged along side. I don’t think they were too happy with us, but luckily they barely spoke English so we really couldn’t tell what they were mumbling under their breath. I ultimately became braver, got the hang of it and by the end was soaring up the dunes at full speed and loving the experience. I was happy we all made it unscathed. Whew!
Ifrane
Ifrane was a stop on our never-ending ride from the desert to Fes. Ifrane is a small town in the Middle Atlas Mountains and it looks like a ski town because of its alpine style chalets and actual ski mountain. It was a quick stop, but it was nice to get a break from our relentless driving to stretch our legs.
Fes
Guided Tour-We had a 6 hour guided tour of Fes (by car) and its Medina (by foot). We started at the King’s Royal Palace taking photos outside in front of the golden massive doors. This is the palace where the King of Morocco stays while visiting Fes. We visited a fort on a hill outside of Fes. From here we had a stunning panoramic view of the city. We toured a pottery studio, which was somewhat of a tourist trap, but still really cool. 
Here we witnessed men molding, firing and painting impressive pieces of pottery. 
However, most fascinating were the workers who were creating the tiles to later be arranged on the intricate mosaics. The tiled sinks, mirrors, and frames on site were absolutely gorgeous.
Later we entered the Medina (or should I say horror show) and began our exploration on foot. As in the Marrakech Medina, we saw the artisans such as the metal workers, dyers, wood workers & silk weavers. However in the Fes Medina, we walked through an area where many of us (not me) needed to avert our eyes with each step. We were confronted with trays of cows heads, dead chickens and the finale, a camel head on a pole, all for consumption. Daniel took tons of pictures which I will not share here. The grand finale was a man sitting with a bucket of small live birds, picking them up and breaking their necks. Those of us who didn’t look were still able to hear the crack. We all had such a good laugh when we finally were out of the part of the Medina, it is something we will never forget.
Tanneries-The highlight for tourists in Fes are the tanneries. The tanneries are where leather is processed in the same way it has been done for centuries. I must have seen pictures of the Chouara Tannery, the largest tannery, 100 times on Instagram, before I was there and taking my own token shots. 
At that location, the girls (boys just suffered) probably spent an hour trying on and choosing colors and styles for the CUSTOM MADE AND REASONABLY PRICED leather jackets that would be delivered to our riad at 10:30 pm that night. Once you pick your color and your style, they measure you and set off to work. 
Jessie and I are sharing ours and we got a navy and white short jacket. (At the time of this writing in April, I have worn my white leather jacket about 10 times already!) Marlo got a brown suede and her girls got navy and red jackets. The shop was happy to throw in wallets and belts galore (no charge) for the boys who patiently stood by and watched.
Notable Restaurant-We were almost a week into our trip when we were in Fes and were happy to change it up from the Moroccan fare. We had a great, contemporary meal at Restaruant Lounge MB. Note, this restaurant was not in the Medina, but a taxi ride away. It was worth it.
Voluubilis-are the ruins of the Roman/Berber settlement dating from 2nd and 3rd century and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. En route from Fes to Chefchaouen, we stopped here for a guided tour (1.5 hours which we cut to 1 hour) of the site. For those of you who have been to Pompei, this site is similar but on a much much smaller scale. It was interesting to hear about the lives of the ancient people who lived and worked in the settlement. We saw some gorgeous mosaics and learned about some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status houses. The coolest part to me is that only half the site has been excavated. Each year they excavate a bit more.
Meknes and Moulay Idriss-We also stopped at these 2 spots on the way to Chefchaouen. We took some cool pictures at the Royal Stables of Meknes but we never really saw the town because we got there too early and nothing was open. It was disappointing. Also we were under-impressed with Moulay Idriss although I do like this one picture that we took.
Chefchaouen
Although Chefchaouen AKA The Blue City is pretty far north in the country (about 4 hours from Fes), not taking the time in our itinerary to see it wasn’t an option. I had been captivated by the frequent Instagram posts that highlight the city and all of its many blue photo ops. 
It was the place I was most looking forward to visiting on our trip and it didn’t disappoint. It was by far the most picturesque and charming place that we visited in all of Morocco with it’s striking, blue-washed buildings, narrow alleyways and cobbled paths. It reminded me of a Greek Island town with the colors and views to rival it.
Lina Ryad, our accommodations in the Blue City, was my favorite riad that we stayed in. The riad was light and airy with BLUE accents and furniture. The helpful staff spoke the best English compared to any other place that we visited. The rooms were bright and very spacious and its location was in the heart of the Medina.
Photo Shoot-What was supposed to be a tour of the Medina and notable sites in Chefchaouen turned into photo shoot for us girls. 
Our guide, Youssef, happily obliged and in fact knew all of the popular picture spots (and hidden ones too) and even offered guidance as to poses and positions. 
He had obviously done this many times before which is confirmed when you check out his instagram site. 
Follow him on instagram at chouen_guide. I think we probably spent almost 3 hours in different locations taking various shots. I still haven’t been able to tackle sorting through all of the pictures from that morning, there are so many. Luckily, the boys weren’t with us that morning, they would have hated the photo shoot. Instead they were off hiking in the mountains of Talassemtane National Park.
Hiking at Talassemtane National Park-The boys said that their 2 hour”ish” hike was challenging and beautiful. They saw a bit of wildlife, a few waterfalls and some funny signs. They didn’t tell us that much more, but seemed happy when we all met up for lunch.
Lunch with a local and henna tattoos-We had lunch right outside of the Medina, in a local woman’s flat. Needless to say we left hungry. The main dish, sardines, were buried at the bottom of our soup bowls (under the soup) so we did not hurt her feelings. She barely spoke English and it was definitely an experience. We all posed for pictures with her before we left. She was a proud mother and grandmother, and definitely had a favorite in Zac! After our sardines, a henna tattoo artist came and all of the girls got henna tattoos. They faded and washed off in about 3 days. I told our tour company that I would amend this entire part of the itinerary!
Hike to the top of the Spanish Mosque to see sunset-It was about a 30ish minute walk/climb from the Medina to the top of the hill where the Spanish Mosque sits overlooking Chefchaouen. It is a very popular spot to watch the sunset over the Blue City, as was evidenced by the many people on the path walking with us and the limited spots along the walls at the top. We had a few clouds when the sun finally set, but we got beautiful pictures all the same.
The kids favorite dinner-The amount of delicious Chinese food that we got for $60 American dollars per family is ridiculous. We sat at a big round table and enjoyed the typical Chinese dishes at Sky in the Medina. The kids were so happy as at this point, they were tired of tagine!
Rabat
Rabat was our least favorite city that we visited on our trip and in retrospect, maybe I should have chosen Casablanca to stay the night before our flight. While in Rabat, we had a mini tour of the city in the afternoon where we visited the Royal Palace and had fun taking pictures with the many pillars at Hassan Tower. 
Being it was our last night, we did a bunch of shopping in the vast Rabat Médina picking up sneakers, bags, backpacks, etc. We, five women, braved the streets outside of the Medina to collect more cash for our purchases. Shopping in the medinas is not very conducive to earning rewards! Also, although the Medina was quite large, it was extremely crowded, more crowded than any other shopping area we visited. If you do not like crowds, I would avoid this area.
Back Home
I am not sure if I will return to Morocco as we covered a lot of the country on this first visit. However, I keep hearing (and seeing on Instagram) how beautiful Essaouira looks and would maybe return in the summer to check out this coastal town and the surrounding area. Until then, I will continue to enjoy my tagine at local Moroccan restaurants and keep vowing to try my hand at Harira soup. I will also certainly appreciate American toilets!
