We are getting back into “the routine” back home, still savoring our memories of Morocco. We get to talk about it quite a bit because our friends and family are so interested in our experience. I’ll try to answer your questions here:
Overall, as I said before, our trip to Morocco was wonderful, one of our best travel experiences ever. We got to see and experience every thing that we had expected, but the tour took us beyond our expectations. Our excellent guides really helped deepen our experience so that we understood the history of the different areas and the whole country, and took us deep into the medinas and souks. It was so good to be such a small group, so that we could make changes at a moment’s notice.
The biggest highlight of the trip was the time spent on the edge of and in the Sahara. There’s no way that a movie or photographs can compare to actually being in the middle of the dunes. Our hosts at the desert camp suggested we get up early to experience the sunrise, and that was really magical. Hank and Chris loved driving the ATVs in the dunes, and our camel ride as the sun was setting was spectacular; the camels surprised us with how docile they were. We were surprised when a Gnawa group came to perform for us after dinner, and that was a highlight as well.
Ryad really helped to make our trip enjoyable and relaxing. He is an excellent driver, and his knowledge of the various areas we were driving through, or about to visit, was outstanding, so it helped us to really get a lot out of the various visits. He was always willing to stop so that we could see something up close, or go get a photograph, or to take a rest and have a coffee. He never made us feel rushed. We always felt like it was his mission to maximize our enjoyment of the travel. Ryad is a true professional and takes his responsibilities very seriously.
Experience-It’s service from the beginning to the end was very complete and professional. As you know, I was particularly concerned about being able to eat a gluten-free diet, but all of the riads were aware of the issue, and most provided alternative choices. So it was clear that your staff had communicated with them about the concern. Experience-It and Ryad also jumped in to make things right when our riad in Chefchouen didn’t have a dinner planned for us; Ryad took us to another very nice restaurant nearby for dinner, and also made arrangements to have you pick up the following day’s lunch. That was unnecessary, but it demonstrated that all of the details were important to you, and your commitment to our satisfaction. It was also very nice to meet Jill from your staff in Fez who wanted to know how the trip was going, and if there was anything that we needed.
Finally, we would wholeheartedly recommend Experience-It to future visitors of Morocco and, in fact, we have already mentioned it a few times to friends who have expressed an interest. We have neighbors who want to visit in the next few years and they want to sit down with us so that we can go over our itinerary and understand how Experience-It works. They have done a lot of very high-end travel and would be looking for a premier experience.
One bit of feedback concerns the menu choices offered by the itinerary’s restaurants. Everything was always good, and well prepared, but the menus became repetitive after the first few days. There was also an overabundance of food served. I’m sure the restaurants want to make sure everyone gets enough food, but often we felt bad leaving food, and didn’t want our hosts to feel that the food wasn’t delicious. It was a very welcome break that last two nights to have dinners that were not traditional Moroccan. Another question/feedback has to do with the guides. They were all excellent guides, but we wondered if there is a financial arrangement with the souk vendors that they take people to. Sometimes they seemed very intent on taking us to particular artisanal vendors whose products were beautiful but sometimes much more expensive that that of other vendors.
-Patricia (April, 2025)
