We were very impressed with the planning it must have taken to make our trip go as smoothly as it did. Chahine [our driver] was great, I don’t see how anyone could provide a better experience than he did for us. He had local guides lined up who would materialize in some small town and take us off to do something interesting that we would never have been able to do on our own. One day we stopped for a lunch cooked just for the four of us by a woman who doesn’t even have a restaurant, but cooks for groups if she has advance notice. We even met a nomad family and were invited to have tea inside their tent. Chahine waited in line to get us tickets in advance for the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech; he didn’t even mention that he had done that, he just gave us the tickets when we got there. We met a couple who mentioned waiting in line for a long time (and there was a big line when we got there, we just didn’t have to wait in it) and we found out that you could not buy the tickets online, which is what we assumed had happened. Chahine was flexible, patient, very knowledgeable and fun to spend time with. We learned so much more about Morocco traveling with him than we would have on our own. Plus it is a very nice break from normal life to have someone take care of all the logistics for you!
Highlight for me was the desert camp–our group of four were the only people there and that made an already unusual experience even more fabulous.
I would have liked more time in Marrakech, but not sure what else on the trip I would eliminate to make that happen. I’ll just have to go back to Marrakech some day.
Our accommodations were all fine, some were much more than that. Basically a function of how much we were willing to spend. I would say that the Riad Mimouna was the least nice of all the places we stayed, don’t know how that is ranked compared to the other places, but it too was fine. The Riad Le Clos des Artes was the most attractive, very elegant. The Jardins de Skoura was (were?)very nice when you got there, but it is isolated and I preferred places where you could walk around a bit and see something.
We all enjoyed seeing the variety of places that our itinerary was designed to show us; less time in the car would have been nice, but again I’m not sure how you would accomplish that without sacrificing that variety. Chahine did an excellent job of breaking up the time in the car and stopping for various sights along the way, and it was interesting just seeing the change in scenery in the various regions.
EIT service was great, very responsive to all pre-trip inquiries, and very helpful with information we didn’t even know we needed for the trip. I would certainly recommend EIT for anyone considering a trip to Morocco–we loved our vacation.
Thank you for planning such a wonderful trip and for assigning our group to Chahine. We had not traveled with a personal guide before, and I was concerned about spending that much time with and being that dependent on a stranger for the success of what for us was a splurge vacation. Turned out that Chahine added greatly to our experience and I am grateful for that. Not just that he made it easy for us to get around, etc, but that he really paid attention to what we liked, established a relationship with each member of our group, and was a charming ambassador for Morocco.
Catherine M.
April and May of 2018