Thank you for helping us to set up this trip. It was a fantastic experience for us. Well-paced for our taste and preference to be active, lots of diverse and fascinating features to the itinerary and overall excellent travel value. The star of the show of course was the country of Morocco, which we found to be warm and accessible. We did something of a reversed tour, starting in Essaouira then traveling to Marrakech, Imlil, Skoura and the desert and finally Fes and the Rif Mtns. We really enjoyed the progression and frankly would suggest it to others – Fes is certainly a high point, more interesting to us than Marrakech frankly even though that was also wonderful, and a great way to wrap up a tour of the country. In terms of general destinations it would be difficult to highlight one area or region that we liked the best. That said, we both felt that the Imlil Valley was an amazing segment of the trip and we would have gladly spent another day or two hiking in the mountains and passes surrounding it and staying at our cosy lodge.
First and foremost: Ayoub was spectacular as a driver and an overall country guide, we got along with him so well and we would (and actually have already) recommend him to members of our own family! He was ever available and concerned for our comfort and welfare, while not being always in our faces or overbearing in any way. His English is great, he was flexible and responsive to our “out of agenda” requests. Most of all, he was a sweet, sweet kid who was self-confident and eager to share his life with us as we got to know him over some long drives together. 5 star A+ rating, keep using him and best of luck to him in his career.
Getting a bit more granular on our itinerary, and working in order of our travel:
- Essaouira was great. Our hotel there (L’Oussia) was fine & friendly, although not memorable. Our guide Said Zaoui was definitely one of the nicest and most well informed/enthusiastic guides who we worked with
- Marrakech lived up to expectations. Riad XO was similarly nice and comfortable. It was located in a somewhat difficult area and while we always felt very safe in Morocco, it was not located in a busy part of the medina and that was not ideal. The owners were trying hard to make the place upscale and hospitable and we appreciated that, but to be honest it really felt like they were trying hard – it is probably difficult to make a tourist riad work outside of the regular touristic zones of the city. One highlight of the stay in Marrakech was a cooking class we arranged with friends who were there at the same time as us (name of association?). Would recommend that you investigate this and offer it as an option, it was outstanding.
- Imlil valley was just wonderful. Our guide Abdeslam and the cook Hassan were fantastic. For active travelers, would suggest even further investigation of 2 and 3 day excursions in the mountains, perhaps pack animal assisted. We skipped the side trip to Ourika valley – too much drive time it seemed, and we preferred to do a day of hiking around the valley on our own, which proved to be a great decision in retrospect. Dar Imlil was a very cosy and authentic spot to stay, would recommend continuing to use them. Jill asked us “did they fix the heating?” and ha-ha, no they hadn’t but we didn’t care, loved it there especially with their stoves lit after a day of hiking and warm blankets in their rooms. Great experience…
- Skoura and northern desert… L’Ma Lodge was a highlight of our entire stay, amzing funky taste in its design and the owner so friendly. Food was wonderful too. Not much to do in Skoura other than L’Ma, but such an oasis again, we would have been happy to spend another night there and just hung out the day in their gardens.
- Erg el-Chebbi. So much fun. A long drive to get there, well broken up by a stop in Tinghir (we found it a good place to buy rugs away from the tourist throng). The ride with Ibrahim to and from Erfoud was epic. Stay in the camp was very touristic of course but so much fun. Having be just an overnight – see the sun set, ride a camel, do some drumming and dancing, watch the sun rise and go – was the perfect amount of time to invest in this activity, don’t change it.
- Fes. Long drive to get there, with the only real memorable stop the gorge, which was unexpectedly amazing. Once there though, Fes was for sure our favorite of the three cities on the trip – what an amazing spot. Riad Laroussa was similarly our favorite of all the lodgings we had, well deserves its reputation. We particularly liked our long day of marching through the medina, had an excellent guide in Ahmed who also seemed to understand and communicate well with us around our interests to experience some of the amazing street life, in between some of the mandatory tourist stops. Of those, the old synagogue and ancient Jewish cemetary in the city were particularly interesting.
- Rabat was a stop on the way to Casablanca, but the visit to Volubilis was an unexpected delight as was the spectacular drive on a sunny day through the Rief mountains – just amazing with the valleys literally blanketed with flowers.
We saw Jill briefly in Fes, but really didn’t have any cause to reach out to her during the trip, which went off more or less without a hitch. With the very small lodging caveats above cited only as areas for “fine tuning”, we think the trip was very good value and we would happily recommend Experience It! Travel to others for well-supported, guided travel in that country – as well as making the general recommendation to just go to Morocco. If there was one thing we might add (if there was more time!) it would have been a couple days in Tetouan and the Med coast area, about which we heard wonderful things. We may try to tack that onto a southern Spain itinerary at some future date.
-John and Susan (April, 2026)
