Last updated: 2011-12-19
Itinerary
Day 1
Day of arrival. Gathering at the Menara Airport of Marrakesh (when the Wednesday flight of Norwegian lands). We spend the day making a tour to Jardin Majorelle, the botanical garden that Yves Saint Laurent donated to the township of Marrakesh. We will also visit Djemma el-Fna, the big town square in central Marrakesh and some other places of your choice. (Your luggage will stay in the minibus during this day). In the evening we take the night train to Tanger.Most people will find it convenient to travel with Norwegian straight fråm Stockholm to Marrakesh. But if you wish you can start your tour in Tangiers. Just tell us in advance so we book the first night at our hotel in Tangiers instead of buying you a train ticket from Marrakesh to Tangiers. The hotel is situated by the harbor so if you come with boat from Spain (from Algeciras with ferry or from Tarifa with fast ferry (speed-boat) you can just walk to the hotel. If you fly and land at the Ibn Batouta International Airport (TNG) formerly called Boukhalef 15 km outside Tangier, just take a cab and you will be in town in 30 minutes.
Day 2
You arrive early in the morning so you have one whole day to discover Tangier on your own. The ancient Greeks and Phoenicians settled Tangier as a trading base and named it for the goddess Tinge, lover of Hercules. It has been under the rule of Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Portuguese, British and Moroccans. In 1912 Tangier was turned into an "International zone" whilst the rest of Morocco was divided between the French and the Spanish. Tangiers itself was divided into blocks, where also Sweden had its part. Still today there is a block called California - where the Americans resided. Tangier is, even today, though since 1956 it was returned to Morocco, a mixture of everything and quite liberal. With its 700 000 inhabitants it is quite big. Anyhow, eating fresh fried fish in a small outdoor restaurant in the harbor, beside the fishing boats, is the essence of Tangier.Options;
- You get an excellent view over the coast around Tangier from Cap Spartel, the northwestern extremity of Africa's Atlantic coast. It is a day trip (14 km) many locals do, through the luxury suburbs of Tangier. You travel with a "grand taxi" that you find outside the "Grand Socco". Les Grottes d'Hercules are not far away, just another 5 km. They are reputed to have been the dwelling place of Hercules who founded Tangier and made the Straits of Gibraltar, with one blow from his sword. The entrance of the cave looks like a map of Africa.
- Inside the Medina (in the southern part you find; Grande Mosquée - that was built to challenge the sight of the church S:t Andrews, Petit Socco - a former drug dealer square opposite Café central, Musée de la Fondation Lorin - with black and white photos of Tangier from the last two centuries
- The Kasbah you find in the opposite end of the Medina, with its Museum (inside the former sultan's palace) - today focused on the prehistoric times of the area, and the Sultans's garden
- Around Grand Socco you find; Mendoubia Gardens - where Mohamed V hold a speech and asked for independence, Cinema Rif - an art house cinema for those interested in film, S:t Andrews church - an Anglican church but with a Moorish style inside.
Day 3
The midmorning is dedicated to Tangier. After which you take the bus to Larache. You will be met at the bus stop by your host families, where you will be accommodated two by two. All families have somebody at their home who speaks English. These families in Larache belong to an organization called "Hanan" who runs an orphanage that you will visit during your stay. The families are well-situated and well-educated but also active Muslim believers so you will have a great opportunity to discuss what living in a Muslim society means to them.Day 4-5
For two days you follow your families in their everyday life. Larache is a small town at the coast with some 107 000 inhabitants (counting close villages) and mainly a fishing village with a big harbor. The river Loukous runs out in Larache and divides the town from the beach (Playa Pelligrosa) and most people go by small rowboats to reach the beach on the other side. There, on the edge of the town, on top of a hill are the overgrown ruins of an ancient roman settlings - Lixus, that you might visit. Names and architecture shows that this town was occupied by the Spanish for most of the 17th century.The last day you take the bus to Fés and check-in at the groups own riad (a rebuilt family house), in the old medina (walled town centre). A small walk around the quarters and time to practice your sense of direction.
Day 6-7
Féz was founded shortly after the Arabs started to spread to across North Africa and Spain. It started as a modest Berber town around 800 AD in a very fertile area but became with time the spiritual and cultural center of the country and it has retained until today its moral status. Arab families from Kairouan (todays Tunisia) created the Kairaouine quarter where you find the world's first university where the elite of Morocco still send there kids to study. Its population is around 1 million and the town is divided into three parts Fez el-Bali (the core of the medina) in the east; Fez el-Jdid in the centre and the Ville Nouvelle built by the French and where you find all the administration.Two whole days you have to explore this old market town, one with a local guide and the other to stroll on your own. Old fashioned dye-houses for leather, coppersmith shops, small boutiques in the small medina and Al-Kairaouine, Africa's biggest mosque and university are all thing you have time to see.
Options;
- The Kairaouine Mosque & University; a complex containing the largest mosque (can take 20 000 people) in Africa and possibly the oldest university in the world; established in 859.
- Medersa is the name for a theological college and there are several of them in Fez; sometime in connection with a mosque and sometimes not: Medersa as-Seffarine; Medersa el-Attarine - a separate annex to the Kairaouine Mosque ; Medersa Bou Anania - the finest of them. You can visit the medersas but not the mosques as a non-Muslim.
- All kind of Moroccan art and craft is still produced in Fez in different districts. You can visit the Chouwara tanneries where they still dye skin in outdoor pits in the leather district and then move further to the wood carving district and the district for metal works or pottery.
- Now if you want it all (and exclusively chosen) you can visit a museum: Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts & Crafts - a restored funduq for traveling merchants or the Batha Museum - also showing wooden arts but also embroideries; carpets and instruments
- In Fez el-Jdid you have the Jewish quarter Mellah and Royal Palace (that you cannot enter), the Habarim Synagogue; the Ibn Danan Synagogue both open to visit and the Jewish cemetery with its white tombs.
Day 8
You travel the whole day by bus, with the exceptions for meal breaks, to Merzouga, an outpost in the desert. The road over the mountains is fantastic. First a green mountain landscape with spots of snow that changes into a desert landscape with breathtaking mountain shapes and green oasis.Merzouga and Hassi Labied are tiny villages just at the border of the Erg Chebbi (erg means sand dune) an area of constantly shape-shifting sand dunes not far from the Algerian border. Between the villages a string of hotels flank the western side of Erg Chebbi, and that is all there is; nothing but sand….
Day 9-10
You leave the Kasbah ( a kind of desert fort) you spent the night in and take a dromedary ride to a Bedouin camp in the desert. Here you sleep under the sky and in the silence. Before that we have time to visit the surrounding plantations where some 15 families cooperate in a sophisticated irrigation system taking water out of the sand dunes. When you get back, you catch your breath and look for fossils in the mountains.Day 11-13
Now you travel west all the way to Ouarzazate. And from there by taxi to the village Tajda, where you stay two and two, with families in the countryside. Tajda is a small village about 5 km from Ouarzazate with some 5000 habitants, mostly farmers.You take part in their everyday chores and help out with what you can. There is an English speaking interpreter in every family. The last day you continue by bus via Marrakesh all the way to the coast to Essaouira. On the road you pass on snaky roads Col du Tichka at an altitude of 2260 meters above sea level.
Day 14-15
You spend two whole days in the fishing village Essaouira by the coast. Here you can bathe and eat fresh fish of the pier. On one of the hotels Rachida holds a cooking lesson, if you are interested. (You can stay here a few more days.)Most of the old city and the fortification in Essaouira date from the 18th century, when it was designed by a Frenchman. But the town, today with some 70 000 inhabitants, has a much older history beginning with the Phoenicians. It has for a long time been a vital link for trade between Timbuktu and Europe and lots of gold, salt and ivory passed the port. Its first name was Migdol. Later on the Portuguese renamed it Mogador. They lost the control to the Saadians in 1541 but not until 1764 it got for the fist time is actual name meaning well-designed. Sultan Sidi Mohammed, ruler of the town, hired a French architect, to create a real city. During French protectorate the town was again renamed Mogador until independence in 1956.
Options;
- The Medina and the port. The ramparts around the Medina can easily be accessed at Skala de la Ville; the sea bastion built along the cliff with brass canons from the 18th and 19th century or at Skala du Port in the harbor.
- ÃŽle de Mogadore is an inhabited island formerly used in Phoenician and Roman time for the production of Tyrian purple dye, from the purple shell. When it is not the breed period for the Eleonora's falcon (April - October) you can visit the island.
- Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah museum has a collection of jewelry, weapons, carpets and instruments of the region but also some Phoenician and Roman objects.
- Eating fried fish and seafood in the harbor. Fried lobster is tasty.
Day 16-17
You go to Marrakesh and have two days in this hectic city, with bazaars around Djemma el-Fna, the big town square, with ambulating restaurants that pop up each night.Marrakesh, a former caravan outpost became a city in 1062 when an Almoravid Berber leader and his wife built ramparts around the encampment. They established the town's underground irrigation system and also the significant pink mud-brick architecture. The town lost its importance twice in history when rulers preferred Meknes or Fez as royal towns and in the end Marrakesh slid into despair. In 1912 the French protectorate granted the Pasha Glaoui the run of southern Morocco and several Medina palaces including the one of Marrakesh. They built for themselves instead a Ville Nouvelle outside each medina. After the independence Marrakesh had no clear role in the nation. But hippies and spiritual seekers built the city's mystique in the 1960s along with famous visitors as Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. In the 1990s with low-cost airlines Marrakesh became the city of tourism.
Options;
- Djemaa El-Fna is inevitable. It is Marrakesh's main square where everybody will end up eating in those mobile restaurants covering the square every night. Snail-soup seller No 1 is a favorite. And entertainment of all kind is available.
- The Koutoubia Mosque. The Koutoubia minaret built in the 12-century, is a 70 meter high tower and a good landmark if you get lost. You can visit the garden but a non-Muslim can not enter the mosque.
- Ali ben Youssef Medersa was once the largest Koranic learning center in North Africa, but lost the competition with Medersa Bou Inania in Fez. The building has carved cedar cupolas and wooden balconies and is really beautiful.
- Bahia Palace, is a palace that has been embellished several times, with inlaid woodwork ceilings, amongst other. But only a small part of its 150 rooms are open to the public.
- Badi Palace was formerly a glorious palace until it was looted. (El-Badi means "the incomparable.) But it is still beautiful and has some special attractions such as the Koutoubia minbar, a prayer pulpit with cedar wood steps.
- Saadian Tombs near the Kasbah mosque is the tomb of a saadian sultan who spent an enormous amount of money on his tomb importing Italian marble etc.
- Musée de Marrakech is in the Mnebhi Palace and contains rotating traditional arts displays but also occasional concerts.
- Jardin Majorelle & Museum of Islamic Art. Thanks to Yves Saint Laurent, his partner Pierre Bergère and the Marrakshi botanist Abderrazak Benchaâbane, the garden contains over 300 plants species from all over the world. Yves Saint Laurent gave the entire garden to Marrakesh and his ashes was scattered in the garden when he died in June 2008
Day 18
The journey is finished. Now you can either take the night train back to Tanger (and travel back by Spain) or you fly home from the Menara Airport (RAK) some 6 km outside town and 20 minutes by taxi. Or you decide to stay for some more days and may bee travel slowly up the coast. After this tour you certainly know how to move around in Morocco.