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Writer's pictureSarah Rodriguez

Plans for Morocco

Updated: Apr 21, 2021


While researching Morocco, I found an amazing tour group for those who are between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. I used the link above to gather all of the information that is below. In my experience, tour groups give a more in depth trip and provide opportunities that planning a trip on your own would not. Below I included top highlights, what is included in the trip, accommodations, flights, and the itinerary.


Top Highlights

  • Barter like a pro at one of Africa’s largest marketplaces

  • Visit the Aït-Ben-Haddou—a desert film-set that has hosted dozens of your favorite movie shoots

  • Mouth-watering Moroccan food like chicken tagine, couscous, figs, zaalouk, and more

  • Ride a 4x4 at the Erg Chebbi sand dunes

  • Sare up at the Atlas Mountains, down into Todra Gorge, or straight across the infinite Sahara Desert

  • Monkey around with Barbary macaques in Ifrane

  • Examine thousands of years of unparalleled masterpieces in the form of ornamented city gates, museums, and palaces


Your Trip Includes

  • Round-trip flights & airport transfers

  • Multilingual Tour Director & local guides

  • Private deluxe motorcoach

  • 9 nights in hand-picked accommodations

  • Welcome Dinner with appetizers, full Moroccan meal & drinks

  • Daily breakfast

  • Four authentic Moroccan dinners

  • Three-course farewell dinner

  • Entrance to select attractions including Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, Ksar of Aït-Ben-Haddou, and more


Accommodations

  • You’ll stay at accommodations hand-picked by our team of local experts, in rooms only for EF Ultimate Break travelers

  • Each property is located in a safe, convenient area

  • You’ll receive your exact accommodations 30 days before your trip departs


Flights

  • Flight costs are included in your monthly payment plan, so you can pay over time

    • The cost of this trip ranges from low to mid $3,000s depending on what time of year you plan on traveling

  • Airport transfers are included, so we’ll be waiting, sign in hand

  • Flights are booked with major airlines

  • 24/7 support no matter what time zone you’re in

  • One checked bag included on most flights

  • Option to make changes to your trip up to 99 days before departure


Itinerary

Day 1: Overnight Flight to Morocco

  • Board your overnight flight to Marrakech, one of Morocco’s oldest cities and home to the largest market in the country

Day 2: Arrive in Marrakesh

  • Meet an EF representative at the airport

  • Transfer to your accommodation and check in

  • Receive the latest schedule from your Tour Director

  • Meet your fellow travelers as they arrive

  • In the evening, it’s time for your Welcome Dinner. Enjoy drinks overlooking Jemaa el-Fna Square, then a traditional Moroccan meal with fellow travelers. Afterwards, you’re free to take the party elsewhere!

Day 3: Explore Marrakech

  • Feast your eyes on the pseudo-European floral beauty of the Gueliz District—designed by the French while feeling homesick for Paris

  • Pay respect to your elders when you see Koutoubia Mosque—it’s over 800 years old, but doesn’t look a day over 799

  • Bask in the gloriously geometric architecture of Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, and the Medina (old city)

  • Prepare to have your definition of “supermarket” blown out of the water as you haggle your way through the Marrakech Souk, the city’s premiere market and meeting-place

Day 4: Free Day in Marrakesh + Optional Moroccan Cooking Class

  • Catch a whiff of organized chaos as you weave in and out of Marrakesh’s spiraling alleyways mingling with the nearly one million city residents

  • Spend the day crafting puns on the word “souk,” meaning “market,” as you bargain for souvenirs at any of the hundreds of vendors around the city

  • Treat your taste buds with an optional Moroccan cooking class

  • Free Time Suggestions:

    • Garden Variety: Visit three different museums at the Majorelle Garden, named for the eponymous French painter who designed the sprawling grounds and lived in the shockingly blue villa on the property. The cactus-laden complex also includes the Islamic Art Museum, the Berber Museum, and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum

    • Gate Grandpa: Not to be confused with the similarly named mashed eggplant dish, Bab Agnaou is a 12th century city gate that once represented Marrakesh’s doorway to Sub-Saharan Africa. These days, however, it’s mostly just a cool spot to take a selfie with a very old wall

  • Moroccan Cooking Class (extra cost)

    • Learn the ins and outs of chicken tagine and assorted Moroccan salads as you cook and consume your own authentic lunch. Melt the rich flavors of the Mediterranean and the Maghreb together hands-on

Day 5: Travel to Ouarzazate via Ait-Ben-Haddou

  • Board your bus from Marrakech bound for Ouarzazate

  • Stop for an included lunch in Aït-Ben-Haddou, and take some time to reenact your favorite Game of Thrones/Gladiator/Lawrence of Arabia desert scene

  • Stare at the imposing High Atlas Mountains—nothing to shrug at

  • Feast upon couscous—the food so nice, they named it twice—and other foods at an included dinner upon your arrival in Ouarzazate

Day 6: Explore Ouarzazate + Sightseeing En Route to Erfoud

  • Walk the kasbah on your morning stroll through Ouarzazate’s fortified palace, the Taourirt Kasbah

  • Enjoy lunch in the quaint town of Tinghir

  • Gawk at gorgeous gorges at Todra Gorge, featuring 500-foot high limestone walls on either side of a narrow canyon

  • Gorge yourself (today is a day of gorges) on an included dinner once you settle in Erfoud

Day 7: Explore Erfoud & Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes

  • Enjoy a morning excursion, off-the-beaten path, to Rissani to see the spectacularly decorated Mausoleum of Moulay Ali Cherif, and the Ksar El Fida—a gigantic desert castle

  • Return to Erfoud, where you get to see some bones and fossils from some of the dinosaurs that lived here when the Sahara Desert was underwater

  • Cool off with a refreshing swim in the hotel pool

  • Set out for the Erg Chebbi sand dunes

  • Stop at a traditional Bedouin tent for a musical performance, snacks, and classic Moroccan mint tea

  • Return to Erfoud for an included dinner and a free night

Day 8: Travel to Fez

  • Board your private motorcoach bound for Fez

  • Pass through the lush and extremely photogenic Ziz River Valley and Atlas Mountains

  • Stop in Midelt—known for its abundant fruit trees—for some free time to grab lunch

  • Continue on to Ifrane, a Euro-inspired city built by the French last century in the high alpine forest plateaus of the Atlas Mountains

  • Enjoy an included dinner upon arrival in Fez

Day 9: Explore Fez

  • Be dazzled by Fez’s ornate Moorish architecture like that of the Royal Palace Gate and the Bab Bou Jeloud

  • Visit the Old Jewish Quarter, known as the Mellah, and learn about the rise and fall of Fez’s once-numerous Jewish population

  • Attend a ceramics demonstration

  • Get down and dirty at one of the world’s oldest tanneries and learn that leather is traditionally soaked in cow urine and pigeon feces

Day 10: Travel to Casablanca via Rabat + Farewell Dinner

  • Board your private motorcoach en route to Casablanca via Rabat

  • Let out the occasional “ooh” and “aah” as you tour Rabat, visiting sights such as the emerald-roofed Mausoleum of Mohammed V, Kasbah of the Udayas, the Andalusian Gardens, and an Atlantic-coast beach

  • Hassan Mosque is envisioned to be the largest in the world before construction ceased in 1199

  • Arrive in Casablanca

  • Farewell dinner

Day 11: Fly Home

  • Wadaeaan ya asdiqa

    • Meaning “goodbye friends”

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