Morocco, the Journey Begins Marrakech and Casablanca, February 2026

  

My daughters were promised a trip for their 40th birthday.  This is Chava's trip.

After we came up with a rough sketch of where and when, we settled on a Tour of Morrocco with GAdventures.  We had a limited time for travel, and organizing the logistics of such an unknown place was a bit daunting. But the non booked trip was still daunting. Chava did most of the layout of the trip because having us work at cross purpose seemed to be unwise.

My usual disclaimers apologizing my lack of skill formatting in Blogger, and that the photos are my own and can be seen in better detail without my narrative by clicking on any of them to get the slide show. 

Our epic journey began with a flight to Marrakesh. The tour starts in Casablanca. So we had to deal with the first day on our own  and getting a train to Casablanca. And Chava choose brilliantly. This is not just booking a hotel. This was finding a porthole into a different reality.

Once we had settled on the trip we looked at every book we could get, The best was Adventures in Morocco by Alice Morrison . This led us to find the BBC two part program
Morocco to Timbuktu: An Arabian Adventure   Well worth the watch, even if you are not taking a trip to Morocco .

Landing in Marakkesh 

At random we managed to book one of the nicest stays I have ever experienced.  We fortunately booked a pickup at the airport. This included pickup at the airport, luggage escort, and all tips. (It sounds so easy. It’s not. A whole board game could be created with tipping in Morocco, but more on that later.) I think this may become a habit when I don't know much about my destination.

Transport thru the chaos of auto Marrakesh. I was entranced by the cars, tuktuks, scooters with any number of people, horse drawn carriages, donkeys over loaded, and yes even a couple of camels. Chava with her eyes closed, planning to meet her maker. Our driver was Mohamed, the first of many with this name. He was charming, and loved his country. He offered me a place to live in his village, and C got an offer of coos coos at his sister’s house.

Our vehicle stopped outside of the Medina at a gate that may or may not be called Ph Koutoubia. (Morocco is in another dimension where google may or may not work.) This was a shabby, slightly unnerving place.  I started to question some of my decisions.

After a sufficient wait, with Mohamed talking on friendly terms to several people, and not so friendly terms with several others, a porter showed up. This was an ancient man that could out walk all of us. He loaded our bags, and those of another couple, and he set off at a tremendous pace. Chava was torn between not losing our bags, and losing her mother in a crowd of people.

Ph Koutoubia Gate I don't seem to be able to access for you a better photograph of this gate.  But this is a link to the map.  There are several gates into the city, big and small.  This is a small one.

Medina:  The old section of a Moroccan city.

This is an entrance to the old section of the city. These old cities do not believe in Google and they can be interesting to refind places when you are lost.   This was not our last time to find this gate.

  

Riad Alma Mouassine

A Riad is a very old style of stay.

 

Several twists and turns and the old fellow stopped in front of this door. What awaited us was amazing.  

We were seated in this courtyard and served Moroccan tea. Tea is not just a drink. We learned so much about Moroccan tea on this trip, and in learning tea, we learned Morocco.

Room registration, escort to the room, and a few moments to regather ourselves. Our room opened straight into the dining courtyard. Upside, no stairs. Downside, the staff hangs out here chatting till all hours.

Make sure to look at this one
up close.  The brass is inscribed
with lovely art.

      

The large bed
there were also two loft beds,
and a smaller bed.

     

This was our first breakfast in Morocco
In Riad Mouassine.

    

And this was the little bird that 
entertained us at breakfast.

  

      Medina Marakkesh 

Note the plaster and tile work.
The outside is usually left plain,
It is the interiors that shine.

 Going into the Medina is daunting. It is notorious for getting lost in, with lots of people willing to escort you back to your hotel, for a fee. My solution was to take photos at every turn. The down side to this is that all of the shop fronts disappear when they close. One must make very careful notes. This resulted in me having lots of random photographs that contain so many experiences.

This is the blue of Morocco.
The sky can be this color.

Next order of business was food. Oh so many choices. Most of which are up narrow, hard stairs, often with no railing. If you can’t do stairs you are going to find Morocco quite challenging. Chava went ahead to see if the stairs were OK. 2 floors up were OK. But by the time we got to the last bit, the hand rail was falling off the wall. But you know me. I kept going, figuring I could always crawl back down.

This was our first of many chicken tajines. They are as ubiquitous as a hamburger in the USA. And I loved every one of them. Three stories above Marrakesh, watching the sun set. It doesn’t get much better than that.

After dinner we made it to the plaza, making careful notes about how to get back. Drums, shakes, henna women, shucksters. One area was one food opportunity after another. Each competing for our trade.

The nuts vendor in the lead photo was the one place we actually spent money. Partly because we didn’t want to gather too much to haul around. But more because “I don’t have change.” Haggling, lack of change, and generally making it easier to leave some of your money behind is almost a sport here. More on that later.  The Medina at this point felt less and less like a place for local purchases, and more and more about the tourist part of the city. But I wouldn't understand this for many days.

Our trip CEO explained so much to us about what to do and what not to do.  Like, don't trust the orange juice.  Vendors inject water (you know the stuff you are not supposed to drink.) And do not let the henna women take hold of your hand. And do not let them put a monkey on your shoulder.  Stuff like that.

The next several photos were from our end of the trip return to the Medina. With a bit more experience, we delved a bit deeper into the bowels of the Medina.  There we found so much more richness. I think one could live there a lifetime and still not know it well.

This is a cage that protects the plant
from cats, motorcycles, and other hazards

        

This is a typical alley

  

There are fountains everywhere
The Quran calls for the charity of giving water
In a place of little water,
this is important.

Dar Cherifa 

A world class restaurant. More on this later

Tiled stairs inside a door.

Many of the caravansari 
have become market places
The BBC video has a good explanation
of how these work.
I will be posting more on this later.

                                                                                Chava went for a spa treatment.

I had soup and a visit with a cat.

    

The open air courtyards are a bit difficult during the rains
So some of them have a heavy vinyl panel, with a
fire hose that drains into the central fountain.
The birds are quite capable of finding their way in.
This cheeky fellow was teasing the cat.

Train to Casablanca 

The next morning we took the train to Casablanca.  Once again we allowed the Riad to book our trip to the train station.  Once again this was a good idea.  The station was clean, and modern.  The train was not too bad, and only got there a couple of hours late.

Yes this was the Marrakech Express. But we were going the other way.  The words now have a meaning.

A lovely ride.  Yes go first class. And pretend to be Harry Potter.  But avoid the bathroom if at all possible.

You will bless the things you didn't bring as luggage space is very small.  And having two people traveling together means that you don't have to leave luggage unattended. 

The following photos are kind of random pictures at the station.  We had coffee, and watched the world go by.

I took this photo because it
is the exact pattern in a Navajo rug
that I gave to Chava several
years ago. 

   

 

 Casablanca 

I was a bit hesitant going into the start of our tour. When a tour changes the start hotel at the last moment, it can be a red flag.  It turned out OK. The change was due to a water problem at the original hotel.

But here is where I started to have my doubts about GAdventures. And I now understand that this is not them, it is how the tour industry works. 

I have no quibbles about our CEO (fancy term for handler/guide/leader). He and our driver were fantastic.  My beef is how things are presented.

We had tried to arrange our  'All transport between destinations and to/from included activities', but that turns out that this doesn't include the train station.  Only the main airport.  Several of our group found that there were vouchers that had to be printed. It was not a lot of money, and our hotel had told us how much that  taxi ride should cost.

Note on taxis: Know the going rate before you get in the taxi. Make sure to have the cost agreed upon before getting in.  There are no meters.  And they may swing around to pick up other passengers. At some of the regular taxi places there are people that will assist you in getting a taxi. They may or may not be in uniform or have an ID badge.  They expect to be tipped as this is how they earn their living.

Our train arrived late, and then we had to find food for C (food allergies made this a bit more difficult.) Then negotiate our taxi.  By the time we arrived at the Marriott, we had given up on our booked tour to the Hassan II Mosque. But as we got out of the taxi, a car that was about to leave stopped, and the driver got out. It was for us. Chava ran our bags inside, throwing them at the concierge.  I stayed with the driver and we managed to get to the tour just in time.

Many things in Morocco require reservations, and guides, and all of that stuff that I just hate. But without them visiting some of these sites would be impossible.  I think that this tour was well worth the effort, and having the guides not only added to our experience, but it protects this treasure from the carelessness of many of the tourists. I cannot begin to tell you the stoopid comments I heard around me.

Hassan II Mosque 

Going to Morocco was my first experience in a profoundly Islamic country. It challenged my preconceived notions, positive and negative. Our guide was an elderly man, a retired teacher. And totally blind. We did not realize this until we had walked to several different locations, always a respectful man giving him a subtle elbow.  This guide knew this mosque that holds over 100,000 worshipers. He was a humble, devout scholarly man.  He gave me my first insight to being in this place old and contemporary at the same time.