Disappearing Morocco

Marrakech to Fez October 2024

Experience it now before it is gone tomorrow and the souks have been replaced by supermarkets.

©Aussies In Morocco Tours™

In this 9-days/8-nights tour we focus on what is unique and traditional about Morocco – or has been – under potential threat from modernity.

A Group tour of 8 people plus Cara, guide and driver.

A private tour version is also available at any time.

Prices and payment deadlines are in the table at the conclusion of this itinerary.

Marrakech – High Atlas Mountains – Marrakech

October 13-15

DAY 1 – October 13: Marrakech (Sunday)

Meals: Dinner (D)

Arrive Marrakech. Airport pickup. Dinner at our centrally positioned riad – we especially look to book those displaying traditional artisanal work in their interior designs, for this tour.

DAY 2 – October 14: Marrakech (Monday)

Meals: Breakfast (B) & D

Morning tour of the medina. An optional afternoon visit to Le Jardin Majorelle Return to the riad for a bit of quiet time and then join our guided night-market tour for dinner.

Day 3 -October 15: Marrakech – High Atlas Mts – Marrakech (Tuesday)

Meals: B L & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: village life, antiques, oral storytelling.

We take a day trip to the High Atlas Mountains to see the way of life in Berber villages and check out antiques and other old things for sale at village markets. We will stop for lunch at some picturesque location. Then back to Marrakech for the evening and dinner at our riad, followed by some storytelling (in English of course), a once dying art traditional to Marrakech, that is however now seeing some revival.

Agdz

October 16 – 17, 2024

Day 4 – October 16: Agdz (Wednesday)

Meals: B & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: traditional accommodation and the rise of modern accommodation to replace it.

Travel south to Agdz. On the way, visit Ait Ben Haddou an ancient hillside town that has UNESCO world heritage classification. Stay in an ancient Kasbah, Kasbah des Caids. Listen to a performance of traditional music after dinner.

If Kasbah des Caids is unavailable we will stay at equivalent accommodation in the region.

Day 5 – October 17: Agdz – Tamgroute, Zagora – Agdz (Thursday)

Meals: B L & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: artisanal skills and slow-food cuisine.

Day trip to the village of Tamgrout in Zagora to see an ancient style of green pottery that is still being made, traditional silver Berber jewellery skills and the desert! Lunch with a local family, or enjoy a Berber pizza or a barbeque cooked by our guide! When visiting Zagora, we can show you the old Jewish neighbourhood if the group is interested, the underground community that lives there to escape the heat, as well as the Koranic Museum and its ancient manuscripts; adjacent to a mosaic-embellished mausoleum.

For those of you who prefer it, you can instead spend the day at the Kasbah, taking a look around and participate in a cooking class (check you are interested in the style they are offering on the day). One of the disappearing styles of cuisine is slow-food cooking. It remains popular in many parts of Morocco (for now), but it is less adapted to the more frenetic lifestyles of Morocco’s rising middle class that is concentrated in particular around Casablanca and Rabat.

Ouarzazate – Fez

October 18 – 21, 2024

Day 6 – October 18: Ouarzazate (Friday)

Meals: B L & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: the nomadic lifestyle.

Travel to Ouarzazate and then 40 more kilometres to the Skoura Oasis and stay at L’ma Lodge (or equivalent). Here we change to 4WDs and visit the nomads off-road — they live somewhere between the Valley of Roses and Boumalne Dades — to eat Friday couscous lunch with them. More and more nomads are settling in villages so their children can be educated, so it is a way of life that is disappearing in Morocco. 

Please dress modestly for our lunch with the nomads, out of respect for them particularly the older members of the family. This means no shorts, short skirts, décolletage and preferably no bare arms.

Day 7 – October 19: Ouarzazate (Saturday)

Meals: B & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: The artisanal skills in the decorative elements of traditional riads.

Fly from Ouarzazate to Casablanca and drive about 3.5 hours to Fez. Stay at Dar Seffarine, an exquisitely restored riad dating from the 15^th century, (or another traditional riad). Then enjoy dinner at the riad or close by.

Day 8 – October 20: Fez (Sunday)

Meals: B L & D

Disappearing Morocco theme today: artisanal skills and old recipes no longer regularly cooked.

Go back to medieval times with a tour of the medina visiting various artisans whose skills are no longer being passed onto the younger generation.  Examples are a man in his nineties making objects out of animal bone and a master leather-worker who started his career as a youth in the tanneries at Fez; everything with him is handmade even the glue. Details of these artisans are here. Enjoy lunch in a home in the medina to sample some traditional recipes that are no longer cooked much. We conclude the day with dinner at a restaurant with traditional Moroccan food and perhaps traditional entertainment, to end our tour.

Day 9 – October 21: Departure (Monday)

Meals: B

After breakfast, drive from Fez back to Casablanca (about 3.5 hours) where the tour ends at Casablanca airport.

Please note that quoted prices do not include drinks, entrance fees to venues, meals not specified to be covered, airfares to and from Morocco or within Morocco, tips and personal expenses or anything else not specified as included. If we don’t say something is covered by the tour fee, best to assume that it isn’t.

For the flight from Ouarzazate to Casablanca group participants will all need to be on the same flight; so participants will need to touch base with us about this to ensure coordination.

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