The trip itself was great. (Air France botched our flight home and we are still trying to recoup money from that but that’s not your fault!) I’ve already recommended your company to a friend who might be going to Morocco within a year or two. 🙂 We’ve never been to a non-EU country and never done a tour like this so we didn’t really know what to expect. Namir was great. Maybe if I had listened to his instructions on eating while in Morocco, I wouldn’t have gotten so sick. At one point I was vomiting uncontrollably and running a really high fever — I really hate to think about not having had Namir there to navigate us to the pharmacy, I think he even arranged to get me an actual bed to nap in at the hotel we were waiting at to go on the camel ride…having him with us for those two weeks to arrange everything was just such a burden lifted from our shoulders.
Highlights – my favorite city was definitely Chefchaouen. I liked having both the city and the countryside accessible by walking and most of the vendors (I think being pretty young, we were courted pretty heavily by the marijuana guys) weren’t as aggressive here. Plus it’s pretty. Also loved the quick stop to look at the Barbary macaques. I talked about that one for a few days. Walking into the Riad Myra took my breath away, since it’s SO beautiful and that was the first time we really realized what can be behind the drab walls of the city. The scenic drive through the Atlas was enough to make us want to come back and possibly hike the mountains some day. I know my husband and I both loved the horseback riding excursion in Essaouria and I was also just really impressed with that company in general. The camel ride was also pretty awesome – our Berber camel guide was also very “real” and I liked that, although I got sick again as soon as we hit camp and missed out on dinner/festivities.
There was also a moment around Erfoud where Namir showed us around the inside of an old kasbah-area that was still inhabited. He was playing with the kids and the whole moment was just very…real. Un-touristy. I really enjoyed that.
The accommodations were generally pretty great. Everything was clean, everywhere, and all the staff generally pretty nice. I LOVED the place we stayed at in Skoura. (Ksar el Kabbaba) Could have stayed there for a couple of nights
Overall, everything was great. Service from your company from the moment I inquired about pricing to the very end was fantastic. Poor Ruth was more on top of things than I was and was probably sick of having to remind me to reply to her emails. 😉
I thought I’d close this by pointing out that whenever we were asked what tour group we were using, by folks running the riads and the restaurants, everyone always had really good things to say about the *integrity* of EIT and the people running it. I thought that was kind of cool. 🙂
Hannah.
(October and November of 2017)