Morocco - Marty

December 2, 2013

Hi Carol,

I am sorry it has taken so long to get back to you with the details as promised, but things have been quite hectic as I told you. My father is doing well and the holidays are finally over. Happy New Year! Our trip was fantastic—all three of us truly enjoyed it. In fact, tonight we are having a Moroccan evening for several of our friends. Brian and Micheline took a cooking class in Marrakech and they will be making a typical Moroccan meal—-it should be great. We have terrific photos and we’ll be showing everyone details of our trip.

The trip itself went off without problems. Everything was so smooth and organized from the time we landed in CasaBlanca to the final trip to the airport.

We couldn’t have been happier with our guide, Said. In addition to speaking excellent English, he was pleasant, extremely knowledgeable, funny and we all became fast friends. In fact the day before we left we visited his family in Marrakech, which was quite a treat. He looked out for us all the time, even to the point of making sure we had an escort back and forth from our Riad in Fes to La Maison Bleue the night we went for dinner there (It was terrific). Our driver, another Said, was great—he was pleasant and drove so well that we always felt comfortable and safe no matter how difficult the driving conditions were. He also was so nice, and by the end of the trip we felt quite a connection to him.

Our accommodations were fine with the exception of the Riad Myra in Fes. When we first arrived there after a long day of driving etc, we felt quite a bit of pressure to take a hammam, and when we finally decided that we didn’t want to, we were treated quite coldly. The food for both breakfast and dinner were not great, and the rooms were also disappointing. We are not extremely demanding people but nevertheless this Riad was the only letdown in the whole trip.

On the other hand we absolutely loved the Riad in Marrakech, Les Jardins de la Medina. The rooms and gardens were spectacular and the service and food were great. Micheline did take a hammam there and had a very nice experience. They even had a waiter come in at 4 am only for us in order to serve us breakfast before we left for the airport the last morning!

I won’t go into day by day details of the trip with you but I would be happy to answer any specific questions that you might have.

We loved Morocco and I personally was surprised with the diversity of the landscapes and the people—-I guess I was expecting mostly desert and all Arabs, and clearly this was not the case. Most of the people we met were friendly, and in the shops they were aggressive salesmen but not to the point of being really pushy. When you made it clear you were not interested, they backed off, which has not always been our experience in other countries.

I want to thank you for all the time and planning that went into the trip. We have traveled extensively over the years and you are the most pleasant and profession travel agent we have ever worked with. The organization that you work with is also first rate. I am sure we will contact you in the future when we start planning our next exotic destination. If you should ever need any recommendations you can contact me.

Thanks again,