A travel review of Morocco: a land of beauty

When I think of Morocco I have a great deal of conflicting views. I’ve visited there twice and still want to go back to and explore further. The two cities I visited were rich in diversity but scary in their extremes of rich and poor. This travel review of Morocco shares a couple of our experiences in this beautiful country.

In 2007, I was on a cruise with my mom and we visited Tangier. It was a ‘replacement’ port for Casablanca. The firing of gunshots occurred on the previous itinerary. Honestly, after our experience in Tangier, I wonder why the cruise line felt compelled to have a stop there! We were very much looking forward to the day trip we had booked through the cruiseline (at the time, I couldn’t find any private excursions that didn’t give me some sort of concern). As expected with Celebrity, we got aboard our bus like clockwork and were on our way into the town and surrounding area.

Tour

• Learn the rich history of Tangier
• Meet the local culture through a walking tour
• Wander around the Kasbah & Medina
• Explore the Souks

And, of course, an obligatory visit to the rug store! This was really most amusing and I must include it in this travel review. My mom was having a grand time chatting with our tour guide and not really fully understanding him. This led to me being ‘sold’ to an old guy for a goat! We got it all sorted out, but, I must admit I was annoyed that I only garnered a single goat!

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Following the walking tour we visited Hercules Cave, passing by the summer palace of the King of Morocco. Very beautiful and lots to see and experience. Above the Atlantic beach, the view and pristine scenery is really awe-inspiring. A warm day, and no one walking or enjoying the beach. Understandable given the approximate 99% muslim society, but still surprising given the beauty.

The Scary Event

It was midday and we were out for a large part of the day. Our tour guide had a different idea. As we approached the port gate, the driver turned right and started to drive out of the old town and along the corniche. Many of us were concerned as this was not part of our tour, and we were late getting back (4:15pm due time, and it was 5:00pm). We started chatting and one guest decided to go to the front of the bus and ask where we were going.

Asking the tour guide in a loud voice, the tour guide responded by explaining how little money he has for his family; how with Ramadan underway, he had ate very little that day, along with our driver. And food costs money. After 2 minutes of him speaking in this vein, it was enough. “Return this bus to the port to our ship immediately!”. We made it back to the port very quickly after that. We were the last tour back so the ship officials were waiting for us.

The day was overshadowed by this event.

2nd Visit

Many years later, in 2014, we were sailed from Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona with a group of friends. We were on Oceania cruises (check out how we plan & book our cruises here!), and enjoyed a couple of weeks onboard before pulling into port in Casablanca. No travel review of Morocco would be complete without this city! We booked a small private tour from a recommended company for a group of us and toured around the city.

The day was really beautiful – the sun was shining, it was warm with a light, heady breeze, and we walked and drove all over Casablanca. The Hassan II Mosque was simply amazing – clean, bright, white marble and inlaid tiles. Our local guide received permission for us to look in the door as the call to prayer was just commencing – it was beautiful!

We finished our day in Casablanca at a couple local stores shopping for embroidery and other small souvenirs – and, we made our way back to the port on foot, with lots of help from the locals! A very positive impression from this visit. We are so glad we got to sample two of the cities – we see it in our future again but likely inland with some sampling of the sahara –

Enjoy!