Winter sun in Marrakech
My wife Annmarie and I had Morocco as a destination on our bucket list since we first met. We planned a visit to the Suk’s and to the Atlas Mountains after watching various holiday shows and cookery programs on Moroccan Tagine cookery.
We decided last October to book into an all-inclusive hotel with TUI as we could tick off both a relaxing no stress winter sun break with the activities to tick off on our ever growing list. One more item incidentally added now for a road trip, starting at Bilbao after a ferry trip from Portsmouth. The plan is then is to travel to North Africa from Algeciras in Spain to Tangier, in Morocco and then along the North African coast to Tunis, across to Italy and up into Switzerland via the Stelvio Pass before entering France for the final leg home. All this in a classic car from 1966.
Our welcome to Morocco after the short 3 ¼ hours flight was a long queue at Marrakesh airport, a modern building with air conditioning which make the immigration queue bearable. My wife did get her rear felt on the way to the coach, however the chap insisted he did it by accident. After a short coach journey we arrived at the Clubhotel Riu Tikida Palmeraie Hotel east of the city of Marrakesh. Our cases taken to our room while we enjoyed a welcome cocktail and a quick bite to eat.
The hotel is well equipped, the food and drink a plenty and good quality considering how many are catered for each day. The staff were friendly and could not do enough, the entertainment enthusiastic but a little dated.
We took a trip into the old city and entered the vast maze of the Suk’s, easily lost you need to keep your eyes on the skyline and the mosque. We tried our hand at bartering with some success, thinking that if they take your money but don’t seem over pleased with the deal you have done ok. It is a crazy place, snake charmers, monkey’s, spices and a varied amount of Moroccan fair. We felt perfectly safe during the day, it would have been good to visit by night but we would recommend a guide if you are not a confident traveller. By not doing the night market it has left us wanting more.
Our other trip out was a 4x4 experience in the ever reliable Land Cruiser to the Atlas Mountains. On this trip you get a feeling of how the Berber people live, the Berbers are the indigenous people of North Africa including Morocco before the Arabic invaders moved into the country between the 7th and 12th centuries. The Atlas Mountains host many traditional Berber villages and we had a chance to experience their culture and way of living. Part of the trip included mint tea in a Berber house and a lunch in a restaurant at the foot on the snow peaked Atlas Mountains. Apparently there are 4 ski resorts in the mountains. A fascinating excursion well worth the day and fairly reasonable cost wise.
All in all, a fantastic trip and highly recommended for some winter sun and relaxation with many activities if you need a bit of adventure.
written by Justin Ridyard