Has anyone traveled to Morocco with a group tour that's similar to a Rick Steves' tour (i.e., focus on history, art, culture, going off the beaten path at times, group size not too large)? I started reading about Odysseys Unlimited as one option. Or does anyone recommend creating your own itinerary using local guides on occasion instead of going with a group? Our main interests are those mentioned above (history, art, culture). Thanks in advance for your input.
Posted by
San Diego, CA, USA
472 posts
Highly recommend Overseas Adventure Travel, aka OAT. Terrific Morocco itinerary (includes several nights in Saharan tent camp), always excellent native trip leaders & maximum group size of 16, waaay off-the-beaten-track experiences, & very good pricing (founded by USA teachers who wanted to travel but didn't have grand paychecks). My wife & I have taken eight of their trips, in between independent travels, ninth is booked. Tell 'em Stew & Vicki Shaw sent you!
Posted by
Morocco and South Africa
29 posts
Sallam 'lekum Ellen,
My apologies for only seeing your post now, but I've (thankfully) been on the road for the past 6 weeks, guiding a steady stream of intrepid travelers in both Morocco and Southern Africa. There are many companies offering scheduled, group journeys around Morocco, of which Stewart correctly advises that OAT is one of the better ones. Their Moroccan guides are always of a high standard (in both the knowledgeable sense as well as the ethical sense) and their itineraries often offer something different from the mainstream companies offering group tours (Trafalgar, Cosmos, Globus etc). Our travelers have recently been choosing private journeys that offer a personal guide and driver, as the itinerary can then be totally customized and has the flexibility to even be amended during the actual day, should the traveler wish to do something different than what was scheduled. Just to give you some knowledge with regards to costs so that you can compare between a group tour and a personal journey, our recent travelers looking for a similar experience to what you mention but traveling with myself and a driver have been paying around US$2900pp for 10 days and $3700pp for 12 days. The accommodation has been of a high standard, staying in places like Hotel le Doge (Casablanca), Villa Mandarine (Rabat), Riad Myra (Fez), Les Jardin de la Medina (Marrakesh) and the Luxury Desert Camp in the Moroccan Sahara...I've certainly enjoyed 'having' to stay there with our travelers :-)
Good luck with your planning and well done on considering magical Morocco for your next journey.
Darren Humphrys