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Global Travel Planning
Morocco Trip Report - Intrepid Tour Review + Highlights and Travel Tips
Steam through Morocco's northern treasures as Tracy and Doug recount their 10-day adventure with Intrepid Travel, showcasing the country's vibrant medinas, stunning architecture, and warm hospitality.
• Strategically arriving early in Marrakesh, then transferring to Casablanca maximised sightseeing opportunities
• Travelling with Intrepid provided authentic experiences with local guides and a small group of just eight travellers
• Marrakesh overwhelms the senses with colourful souks and lively atmosphere
• Chefchaouen (the Blue City) offers stunning photography opportunities, especially during less crowded mornings
• Traditional Moroccan food features vegetable-heavy tagines, aromatic couscous, and refreshing mint tea
• Small group tours provide rich cultural insights that would be difficult to access when traveling independently
• Navigating medinas requires local knowledge – they're designed like mazes where even experienced travellers get lost
• Weather can be cooler than expected (in March), particularly in mountainous regions
Join Tracy for a women-only Morocco tour next year by contacting us through our website or Facebook group!
⭐️ Guest Host - Melissa Kiely from Queensland Travel Guide
📝 Show Notes - Episode 48
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode #37 - Tips for first time visitors to France
- Episode 42 – Discover Italy: Essential tips for first-time visitors with Dianne Bortoletto
- Episode #9- Trip Report: Snapshots from Asia
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Thinking about visiting Morocco. In this episode, doug and I recap our northern Morocco adventure with Intrepid Travel covering the highlights of our itinerary must-visit destinations, unforgettable experiences and, of course, the amazing food From Marrakesh to Chefchaouen and beyond. We'll share what we loved, what surprised us and whether we'd recommend a group tour for exploring Morocco. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you of the Global Travel Plan N podcast.
Speaker 1:Now this week, doug and I are here to chat about our recent trip to Morocco. So if you've been following us on social media or a member of our Global Travel Plan N Facebook group, you'll know that Doug and I spent 10 fantastic days touring Morocco. You'll know that Doug and I spent 10 fantastic days touring Morocco. Now, rather than us just talking away, we decided that the best way to do this was to be interviewed. So our friend Melissa now Melissa is from. You'll recognize Melissa's voice if you listen to our podcast regularly, because she is the Aussie in our Brit, aussie and Yang episodes at the end of every month. So, hi, melissa, you've come on to ask us lots of questions about our Morocco trip, so would you like to introduce yourself today?
Speaker 2:Yes, hello, I'm Melissa. I'm the Aussie, as Tracy said, from the Brit Aussie and Yank, and I so want to go to Morocco. So I thought why not interview Tracy and Doug, who have just been to Morocco, and get excited about it?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, honestly, it was an amazing trip. We loved it, so we're really looking forward to um sharing all about it with you guys awesome, let's get started.
Speaker 2:Okay, guys, tracy and Doug, just let's do a quick overview first, so like how long was your trip and why did you choose this trip? Let's start there.
Speaker 1:Well, we were there for 10 days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we chose it because we've never been before.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we flew the 18th of February to the 28th of February so they're 10 days and when we were chatting about where to go we were kind of I don't know. We just went well, where have we been? That is fairly easy to go to. And also there was an intrepid sale on, so that kind of we looked at intrepid because we knew we'd probably want to do a tour, um, so we kind of looked and went, oh, there's a tour in morocco perfect and we noticed on part of the tour included a train journey, so that had me sold straight away it did.
Speaker 1:In fact, I had two train journeys, so you are. Once I said, the dog has got two train journeys. We're going to mor, morocco. It's a place neither of us have been to, but we really want to go to.
Speaker 3:It just fell from there, didn't it Fell into place? Fell into place, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, so before you guys started the trip, I understand that you arrived in Marrakesh a little bit early, so tell us about that.
Speaker 1:Okay. So we flew in on the 18th of February and the tour didn't start until the 20th in Casablanca. But because the tour was ending again in Marrakech and we have quite a lot of luggage because we were now making our way back to Australia from the UK, so we're doing that over a few months, so we have a little bit more luggage than we would generally. We didn't want to take that all around Morocco, so we decided to fly into Marrakech, stay in the hotel that we were ending the tour in in Marrakech, leave our luggage there and then transfer to Casablanca to start the tour in Casablanca on the 20th. But we decided to go on the 19th. So we flew on on the 18th and then had a morning in Marrakech and then took a transfer to Casablanca, which meant that we had time before the tour started to actually see Casablanca. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do that. So it worked out best for us and leaving the luggage was a really good idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was a very good idea. It means we could streamline what we actually carried with us.
Speaker 2:So you'd recommend that, like arriving early in Casablanca.
Speaker 1:So what? You're saying, that otherwise the tour didn't really see Casablanca? Yeah, it didn't really. You didn't see anything in Casablanca if you on the tour because, though it started there, the meeting was at 6 pm on the 20th and then we left the next morning to transfer on by train to Tangier so if you didn't see Casablanca that day, or come early, you weren't going to get opportunity to do it. So it worked really well for us because actually we we had most of a day in Marrakesh on the 19th, which meant we could do a tour which actually worked really well at the end, and then it meant that we also had the time to see Casablanca without feeling like too rushed, or you know, we saw the highlights of Casablanca without feeling like too rushed, or you know, we saw the highlights of Casablanca, basically, which worked for us yeah, cool, cool.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about Intrepid. Like you know, tracy, you and I, I mean, we've both been on Intrepid before um so how was your experience with Intrepid in um, morocco?
Speaker 1:excellent, excellent. I mean. They're just an outstanding company and obviously we know we traveled. We did two intrepid tours last year in India which we must talk about on the podcast. I keep saying that we really must. That were amazing. They're a very good company. They're very conscious about making sure that they give back into the community. They look for authentic experiences. You have tour guides from each of the local areas that will take you around, so that again puts some money into the community and employs local people. They're very conscious about things like plastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're very conscious of that. They encourage you to bring your own bottles, and they have large bottles of water which you can fill up at any time. They carry them around with them, so that makes it so much easier. So you haven't got to think where, where I'm going to buy a bottle of water from, because it's all been sorted yeah, so that was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so found them really good, very well organized and approachable and very approachable and, and you know, fred, who took our tour, was just amazing. He was an outstanding guy. Yeah, he was really a fantastic guide, just brilliant. And we had two trainee guides with us as well. Yeah, because there was only eight of us on the tour altogether, so we were really spoilt. I think that we had Fred and the other two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean they joined us for some meals, but they were approachable at all times. And Fred got the the other two trainees involved as well. They weren't just in the background, they're actually up front, they're involved with it. He had them doing sort of day introductions and tour introductions as well. So it really was a little community, a little family yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was very good. And what about the group like when was everyone from? How did that go?
Speaker 1:Well, most were from, so there was eight of us, so three couples and then two single lady travellers who came for solo, I should say two solo female travellers, one from England and one from Dubai, but Australian, and hopefully Donna will be coming on the podcast to talk all about the fact that she's now visited 145 countries. Wow, so she was amazing to talk to. But generally, yeah, we all got on really well, no problems, because you know you're travelling a lot together, but you also had a lot of free time on this to go and do your own thing, so it worked really well.
Speaker 3:But no issues and the free time we had. Quite often we all stayed together anyway yeah, nice, nice, nice, that's nice together, particularly in medina's, to sort of stay together yeah, so it made made the guide, fred's job even easier, and the fact he didn't have to go looking for one person. So, we were either all going to be there or all lost at the same time.
Speaker 2:That's nice, hey, all right, let's get into some of the destinations that you guys visited, like what were your favourite places that you went to on the tour.
Speaker 1:I have to say Marrakesh. Marrakesh is an interesting city to visit, very lively, just colourful, and, yeah, it reminded me, I guess, of the same experience I had in India, where it's just all your senses, you know the smells, the sights, the sounds, everything just kind of yeah, it's not overwhelming, it's just amazing, you can immerse yourself in it. So I think for you, Marrakesh, as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we both enjoyed Marrakesh Well. It's just amazing. You can immerse yourself in it. So I think for you Marrakesh as well. Yeah, we both enjoyed Marrakesh. Well, it's because it's the first place we visited in Morocco, so it sort of sticks in your mind. But to me it just seemed a little bit more low-key and a little bit more relaxed than some of the other places we visited, with a bit more hustle and bustle.
Speaker 1:That's true, but I would say I mean the Medina in Marrakesh is pretty busy. And then I think the next obvious place to mention has got to be Chefchaouen, which is the Blue City.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:If you've seen my photos on Instagram or in the Facebook group, I can't even you know I'm very proud of my photos because they are very beautiful, but, honestly, being there as well, it's just. You can't replace it, it's just, it's just the most beautiful place, and we were actually lucky the first morning that we walked around, because it was actually torrential rain. So we got umbrellas, but what it meant was. And the rain eased off, but what it meant is that we were the only people on the streets.
Speaker 2:So later in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:So I have tons of photos with nobody else in them. It's just amazing. Later on in the day so the rain completely eased off. The rain eased off as we walked as well, but it didn't get busy until later in the afternoon and then we were walking back around and we saw just how difficult it was to get any photo without a million people in the picture.
Speaker 1:Okay, so actually, even though we were kind of like, oh it's pouring down rain, do we want to do this? Actually worked out to be the best thing possible it really did yeah yeah, very, very cool.
Speaker 2:Um, what about, um, any surprises, like maybe negative, positive and what are some surprises for you guys?
Speaker 1:I think I felt a lot safer than I thought it was gonna be. I think, yeah, I just didn't feel at any time unsafe. Um, you know, I mean you use the usual precautions. Like you know, I had my theft proof crossbody bag. I always have that, I'm always careful um, but I don't think anybody at any point felt unsafe or you know, you know and I guess I don't know why I'd had.
Speaker 1:I guess it's a bit like india as well some countries you just have it, or maybe it's going to be a bit more intimidating, um, but it wasn't. I felt really safe. I think it was a bit colder than I expected and I think that caught quite a few members of the group out as well, because I think we were kind of expecting it was going to be early 20s but it wasn't. I mean, some days it was down to like 10 or 11 and especially like chef show and which is between two mountain kind of two big hills in the north in the valley yeah, at that it.
Speaker 1:It was a lot colder than we had anticipated, but, um, I mean we did all right. Everybody had enough jumpers and jackets and you know, you just wear the same clothes three days on a road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who cares?
Speaker 3:yeah, right, yeah there's two things I will sort of mention, and not that it was a surprise, it's just how friendly the people are.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:Everybody was just so kind and friendly and positive and happy to talk about the history of the country, which was far more in-depth and varied than I.
Speaker 1:I realized oh, that's, that's, that's awesome yeah, as well as people being friendly, I think, um, they were also really. We had quite a few people saying thank you for choosing morocco to visit. Yeah, oh yes yes, a few times yeah, a few people said that thank you for coming and visiting our country, which was really lovely. I think Morocco really should be more visited than it is, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, that's really nice to hear. And what about, like the? How are you guys getting around like between cities, like what was the transportation like? So how did we get around?
Speaker 1:well, um, we got around in different ways. We had two train journeys, which, of course, doug absolutely loved, um, we did. We went to local taxis as well, and for part of the time we also had a private small minibus. Um, so it was pretty easy to get around. We organized our own transfer from marrakesh to casablanca, but the hotel did that for us, so we had a private driver. Now we could have done that by train, but we wanted to try because we knew we're coming back that way by train anyway. We decided we'd try. Well, how easy was it to do a kind of private transfer? And it was really. It was about two and a half hours to casablanca, I reckon two and a half three hours. So that was really easy, no problem, um, and not massive. I think it was about 130 euros, so it wasn't hugely expensive. More obviously more expensive than the train, um, but we did that. Um, we found it fairly comfortable.
Speaker 3:I mean, you get motion sickness, so you had to sit at the front yeah, and a few, a few times Fred would say to me you know how are you if you want to stop, but you'd have to stop, but it's nice to be asked.
Speaker 3:It's nice to be conscious of your needs as a tour guide, because obviously he's dealing with everybody else at the same time. Yeah, lots of questions. So that was nice to be considered and you know, at the end of the trip I did actually turn to one side and say you know, thank you very much. You know, you've been very attentive and very kind and considerate.
Speaker 1:And I have to say I found the driving far, far less intimidating than I did in India. Yes, it was a bit crazy in India. Honestly, it was nothing like that, felt safe 100% of the time. I did not feel at at any point that we were driving crazily or you know. But but um, I just think of when we're in india, when we're at the tea plantation going up, there was a little scary, but it was fine if I and to be honest I would say they were very steady drivers.
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean, I'm sure they weren't just doing that for my benefit, but I am very grateful, yeah. Yeah, there was no rushing, we weren't hassled, it was just all very relaxed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was very relaxed. It actually was a very relaxed tour and everybody was on time Nobody you know, we all knew what we had to do, and that always makes things so much easier when everybody's considerate of everybody else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, absolutely. What about the accommodation? Tell us about that. How was that?
Speaker 1:So the accommodation in Marrakesh was really lovely and we stayed at that hotel on the way back. Probably my least favorite was the hotel in Casablanca, which we'd booked our own night before the Intrepid tour and it just didn't. It wasn't my favourite, put it that way. Yeah, it just didn't. It didn't kind of tick a lot of boxes for me, I mean the best thing was it was opposite the train station.
Speaker 3:It was To say the hotel was a little bit Spartan, it was a little bit unexciting. Yeah, it was functional. That was probably the term I'm looking for. It's functional, it did. There was a bed and there was a yeah there's a bathroom, but there wasn't much uh anything character, I guess that's the thing. And it.
Speaker 1:But I mean, you know, it was very functional and it did what it do. But obviously then we stayed at riads, which were far more what you expect in morocco so you know, then you have that, that more of a kind of moroccan experience, rather than staying in a hotel, so they were better, um, and we stayed like a homestay, um, so again, and that I think that was in fez yes um and chef showing as well.
Speaker 1:We stayed in nice accommodation that was the riad. So they were definitely, I guess, what people expect more of with morocco, whereas um casablanca was, say, more functional. The hotel marrakesh was really nice, um, outside into the in the new city part, not in the medina, but um, to be honest, we did look at booking a riad for the first night and then move into the hotel um and leaving our luggage there because they agreed to do that. But to be honest, we were a bit intimidated about getting from the airport into Riyadh because we'd heard that trying to get through. And afterwards, when we saw what it was like in the Medina, we were like, oh, we would have got lost, so we didn't do it. So we were a bit chicken with that one.
Speaker 3:But we stayed in a homestay in Mule Idris. Yeah, a homestay in Moulay Idris. Yeah, we climbed yes, we had to the coach, the minibus stopped and then all the luggage was taken up on the back of donkeys or mules up the backside streets and we stayed in the homestay there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, so it was good. The accommodation, nothing to complain about at all. You know, it was absolutely perfectly fine yeah.
Speaker 3:And all the you know, we, a few of the places, including the homestays, we all had a meal together on one table. So there was no engagement there, there was no little cliques sort of thing. So everybody sort of mixed up the seating, you know there wasn't those always sat with those and it was very, very social.
Speaker 2:Nice. Now, when I think of Morocco, I think of all those amazing colorful markets. So tell us about that. Is that reality?
Speaker 1:oh, honestly, yes again. Um, if you haven't seen my photos on on Instagram and our Facebook group, check those out. I'll put them in the show notes as well. Colorful, I mean, I love color anyway, I love to dress in colorful clothes, uh, and I just yeah, it's a feast for the eyes. It really is.
Speaker 3:It was fantastic and the senses, the smells, the spice, yeah, the spice market.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, just the different souks. It was great and the first day that we're marrakesh, we had a private driver um, a private guide. I should say hi, ishmael, he's on my on my instagram. He was brilliant so he showed us around um, the different um throughout around the medina and the different suks in the medina in marrakesh and honestly, it was great. We did go, we did buy some bits and bobs, um, I bought a scarf you know I'm gonna buy a scarf and and I did get mine on a very nice uh rug, which I didn't buy um, but you know, it's it just.
Speaker 1:And we found people were keen, obviously to sell, but they weren't, weren't pushy um, so, again, and when we we went back to marrakesh the last, the last afternoon and the day after when, when we arrived back from the tour and we we just walked through on that with that particular tour guide, with intrepid, there's a lot of people who were staying on um, and I'm glad that we did the private tour on the first day, because we wouldn't have had the in-depth experience that we had of the marrakesh um medina, because we spent far longer in there and actually meeting different shop owners and trying, trying different things, um, trying to think of the oil, the name of the oil.
Speaker 1:I did buy some beautiful oil and it's really famous and I've completely gone out my head, um. But I did buy some really lovely, um, rose scented oil, uh, which is very good for your hair, argan oil, that's argan oil uh, so bought that and I bought we didn. We didn't buy a huge amount, in fact, because we're travelling a lot, we have to be very conscious about what we bought, but I did buy some argan oil and a scarf I think that was about it, really, yeah.
Speaker 2:How about language? How did you go with that?
Speaker 1:No problem at all because I do speak French. So it did help, though my French is very rusty, but obviously we had the guides with us who spoke English. But I did use French a few times when I needed to. But I say, I'm not, I used to be fluent and it's nowhere near that anymore, but it does help because I understand and I can converse a little bit in French, which again does help. Yeah, so if you have a little bit of French, that will help you, because that's the second language and obviously English. There are a few other languages as well which I'm going to get wrong, so I'm not going to say what they are, but English and French are spoken, arabic spoken. There's a Berber language as well, but most people will speak French if they don't speak. Well, they all speak French and they will have some English as well, but we didn't have a problem with that.
Speaker 3:No, no, no no. Not at all no.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Let's talk about food. Tell us about food in Morocco. What's that like?
Speaker 3:Oh I don't know where to start. Well, I will start, because they go a lot more in.
Speaker 2:You had your birthday in Morocco.
Speaker 3:I did. You know what I'd forgotten? I thought I might sort of fly under the radar with that one. No, I saw it. I celebrated my 21st birthday.
Speaker 2:I do know that 21st birthday Doug in Morocco. How was that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was incredible.
Speaker 2:Did you have a good dinner?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't like to be centre of attention, but they sort of made me centre of attention in the evening with candles and things and cake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was really nice. Which?
Speaker 3:I did share obviously.
Speaker 1:I did eat the whole cake and that was lovely because I organised all of that.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was a lovely surprise Because nobody listened. It wasn't my 21st birthday.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought you were serious.
Speaker 1:No, it wasn't my 21st birthday. I thought you were serious. No, it's really good. I mean, I love moroccan food, is one of my favorite type foods anyway, I used to live in france and I I remember in the 80s being taught to make couscous royale and and always loving it. And when we go to paris we always go to the same moroccan uh restaurant there and um so. But I have to say even I, by the end of it, had probably eaten as much couscous and as much tagine as I could possibly ever eat. So we're having a little bit of a break from it now. But I tell you what I think it's probably because I'm notoriously not a good eater. I mean, I'm probably the only person in the world who goes to Japan and loses weight. I don't like.
Speaker 1:Japanese food, the word fussy does come to mind. But you know what Moroccan food? It's vegetable, it's so vegetable heavy, which I love, so you know I could just have a vegetable couscous and eat that, and the tagines with the chicken, the lamb, so well cooked, it's so moist and tender, so just really tasty.
Speaker 3:It is One in particular. We had a group evening meal. It was in a riad that had been turned into a restaurant, and that was an exceptional meal.
Speaker 1:That was in Fez. Yeah, that was fabulous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was special.
Speaker 1:We had the I think it's called pastis, which is like a chicken pie, which is something that I hadn't tried before and that's a specialty of that area, so we enjoyed that, so it was really good. Just trying different foods, the best thing for me is that there was olives all the time. Olives, olives, olives. Yes, who doesn't like olives?
Speaker 3:You know what they always say if you eat so many olives, you'll suddenly like them. Well, after what? 45 plus a lot more years of trying them, I still don't like them it's not gonna happen, just more for us olive lovers.
Speaker 3:That's all, that's what I said to everybody else, just more to share out yeah talking of food and drink, I have to say I really, really like the mint tea okay all right, it was lovely, it was really lovely yeah, I mean, as you know, we're tea lovers anyway, but to try the tea speciality from another country was particularly special really helped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry I. I was just gonna say I was traveling with tracy a lot. She always has her own little special tea, so I'm quite intrigued to hear that tracy's drinking other people's tea.
Speaker 1:I know I am I know I'm gonna say I'm fussy about tea as well, but, um, I did try it and I was like, okay, I'll give it a go. Um, and some places we had that mint tea. It was outstanding and it really helped with digestion. Honestly, I had no problem. Everything was really healthy because you just it feels like probably one of the most healthiest cuisines I've had anywhere. Now, I know they eat a lot of sugar, so I will say that I didn't have, we didn't go overboard with the sugary kind of biscuits and treats and things that they have, which I know are very, very popular in Morocco.
Speaker 3:Well, with the mint tea, after I tried the first one which was particularly sweet because obviously we've got Fred with us who could speak the language he did actually ask for ones with little or no sugar added, and that's when it sort of stuck with me. I think that's just how I like it, that is just perfect for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, cool. What about? You know, it sounds amazing, but I'm guessing there might were there any challenges while you were travelling?
Speaker 1:I don't think so, nothing that I can think of. It was actually a really smooth, easy trip, yeah.
Speaker 3:Fred was very good at anticipating anything that potentially could have been a an obstacle, and he kept us well informed about foods and drinks and things to do, not to do, and so I think it's very, very attentive. So, no, I don't think we I honestly can't think of anything.
Speaker 1:It was all really went really smoothly. The only one thing that was a bit difficult was actually we had booked a tour in Casablanca and we had two other guests on that tour who did not behave particularly well. Oh yeah, yeah. So that and our guide, eunice, was amazing. So hi, eunice, because he dealt with it. He was trying to deal with it as best he could. So hi, eunice, because he dealt with it. He was trying to deal with it as best he could. But they were just being extremely difficult and they were spending a long time out of the vehicle going to the toilet for half an hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were on the phone when he was trying to talk to us about Casablanca playing music.
Speaker 3:Yeah, playing music.
Speaker 1:So that was really. I've never been on a tour like that. It was a couple of hour tour of Castle Monk. I've never, ever had that happen again or happen before, and I hope it never happens again, where we have two incredibly selfish girls that did that.
Speaker 3:So make that clear that was not part of the Intrepid tour. No, that was separate.
Speaker 1:That was a separate tour that we had booked, but Eunice was amazing, the tour guide who took us and he gets a five stars from us His patience.
Speaker 3:We were getting irritated, but he was very calm and collected and you know very patient.
Speaker 2:Awesome. How about money and stuff Like what was that like? Like the money and paying for stuff?
Speaker 1:Mostly cash. We used cash Just got out of the cash point because you can't get money before. I think in Morocco it's one of those conferences, like India, you can't take it in or out. I think yeah. So we just got it out of the ATM and we didn't spend a massive amount, really, did we?
Speaker 3:No, we grouped together for tipping and then that was done as a group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like putting into that tip and kitty, which is always worth doing, so that's good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but what Fouad did? He had us, you know he handed us some cash each time, you know, asked one of us to go, then go and hand the cash over. So he was not one person. So we were engaged with hotels and restaurants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was really good. I don't think, you know, Morocco was not expensive, so meals were cheap. We didn't have all the meals included, probably less so than when we were in India, Melissa, actually, but it was not expensive to buy. You know, really not expensive to have a meal out and you know, the couscous or having a tagine were really accessible, really not just cheap yeah, it's just yeah, yeah awesome and what about um like health issues or, you know like no good.
Speaker 1:I mean you have to have travel insurance when you go out with intrepid anyway. But nobody got sick, nobody. There's no upset stomachs, because I know, obviously when we're in india a couple of people did get sick, um, but that did not happen in morocco at all. I mean, we did get you know, told not to eat food from any of the markets because they don't necessarily use the clean water and also you can't water or have water. Is that we, because of we're not used to the minerals that are in the water in Morocco? Well, moroccan people can drink the water there. It's not advisable, if you visit to the country, to drink the water, so it's too mineral rich and it can upset your stomach. But nobody got sick at all the entire time.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great. Okay, now a couple of general questions. What do you think? Do you think Morocco is a good destination for, like, solo travels, couples, group friends, like what? Do you reckon who should go to morocco?
Speaker 1:I think, I think it's a great destination for everybody. I mean, I think, um, I would still recommend taking a tour. I mean, we're, you know, we're independent travelers, as you are, melissa, and we 99 at the time we would never do a tour. We'd always organize ourselves. However, I genuinely feel and it's the same for India that you have a far richer experience from doing a tour than you would have if you did it yourself.
Speaker 1:Not saying that you couldn't do it yourself, because I'm sure plenty of people have, and once you plan to get from destination to destination, you know it's you.
Speaker 1:Probably those are the things you'd have to start planning. It's not so difficult, but I would always encourage people, if they're going to do it on their own, or if they're going to do it you know, even in a couple or whatever that they make sure that they use the local guides, make sure that you book locals to take you around these places, because you're not going to learn or experience it or really fully get it unless you do that and also don't forget the the passion that the locals have talking about their own town, their own cities, their own country's history, you know, for the good and the bad, because it's still history yeah, um you know, and I think the shared experience sometimes in a group is, you know, enriches your travel experience yeah, I think I was gonna say, normally, as I say, you know, we wouldn't do an organized tour, but I think there are some times where you have to look at and go.
Speaker 1:actually this is the best option. Yeah, um, and you know I didn't. A bit like india, we, you know, I think, when it can feel a bit overwhelming, then planning for a destination like that and actually, um, even if you know, even going back when it can feel a bit overwhelmed, and then planning for a destination like that, and actually, um, even if you know, even going back to Morocco, and we plan to go back to Morocco and in fact I'm trying to get up off the ground a women only tour next year. I know, let me know, um, because that's something I'd like to get organized and sorted. So, um, you know, I still would say recommend do a tour.
Speaker 1:It's like India Went back to India, I'd do a tour again because I just think that's the best way to actually experience those sort of countries and also we just didn't have time to sit and organise another itinerary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, cool. One last question what one big tip would you give to anybody travelling to Morocco for the very first time?
Speaker 1:What would you say, Doug?
Speaker 3:I think what we did as regards to the luggage arrive a day earlier and see where the tour's going to end and consider your onward journey from there and what fits best logistically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a good idea and I think one tip for me is go, just go, don't you know, just get yourself. Go to Morocco. If you have any thoughts about, oh, maybe I should definitely go. So that's my big tip and do a tour, you know, get involved with the locals. That's what I'm saying. Rather than doing a large group tour, just do a smaller tour if that's what you want to do, or make sure, if you're doing it independently, that you are still looking at getting those guides to show you the places, because you will get lost. You will 100% get lost. Those medinas are like crazy, crazy, honestly like mazes, and you know, the only people who grew up in those medinas will know the way around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah well, I've always wanted to go to brocco, but after interviewing you two now I want to go even more. But as the uh special interviewer guest, I am now going to hand it back to the professional.
Speaker 1:So, tracy, thank you very much for having me oh, honestly, melissa, thanks so much for agreeing to come and chat with us about morocco. I've got your name down for the tour for next year already. It's always great to chat with you and um, and it's been so, so much fun to chat about our experiences in moroc, morocco. And if you're listening to this episode and you're thinking, yeah, I really fancy a trip to Morocco, check out the show notes, um, let me know. You can leave us a message on speakpipe. If you're interested in joining an all women tour to Morocco next year, get in touch and let me know, because if I get the right numbers, we can get it off the ground.
Speaker 1:Um, but otherwise, if you want to see the photos from the trip, doug's also going to put some videos together. Check out our Instagram, global Travel Planning and our website, globaltravelplanningcom. This will be forward slash episode 48. And also join our Facebook group community as well, where we share destinations around the world. But again, thanks so much, melissa. No worries, my pleasure. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.