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OAT Morocco

Hi,

We just booked the trip to Morocco with OAT for this coming September (9/23 - 10/18) with the pre and post extensions. We originally booked this tour for 2020 but then you know covid happened. After that tour was canceled, it was a bear to get our money back from OAT but I am making some allowance for them because this was a highly unusual circumstance and they must have been absolutely swamped dealing with the aftermath of this catastrophe. We eventually got everything sorted out. So I am taking a chance again with this tour company (with a little trepidation) as it goes to all the places that we really want to see. I have read good and bad things on this forum. If you have done this tour, any info you could give me would be much appreciated. Could you tell me what kind of luggage you took? Is my Rick Steve’s Ravenna rolling case ok? They say no hard shell luggage but it’s only hard around the edges. What did you bring? Also do they bring your luggage to your hotel room or are you responsible for that similar to a Rick Steve’s tour? We will be there for 26 days but we like to pack light. What laundry service did they offer if any? I don’t mind hand washing undies as I have found that in some Muslim countries they will not do your underwear. Plus I see from the weather info given by OAT that it will be pretty humid there necessitating more frequent laundry. I plan on bringing a few pairs of lightweight quick drying hiking pants and a couple of longish skirts. Any other advice on what to wear other than modest attire? What did you bring? From the videos I have seen it looks pretty casual on this tour. Did anyone experience tummy issues? We have traveled to Egypt and India which are notorious for this but we did not get sick just by keeping the water out of our mouths and good hand hygiene. Of course, it can happen no matter what you do. Did you find that the walking tours were rushed or too fast paced? Sometimes tour companies try to pack 10lbs of stuff into a 5 lb bag so to speak. I found that on our recent tour of Nepal with Odysseys Unlimited that the tour of certain places was a bit too rushed with barely enough time to look right or left because we had a schedule to keep so we really had to hoof it getting from point a to point b. We are booking our own airfare and travel insurance. Any advice or input that you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by
1097 posts

I'll be eagerly following your post. My family of seven plans to travel to Morocco and Spain this December. I am curious about which excursion you will be doing with OAT.
There are several posts about Morocco on the "Beyond Europe" sight on this forum that you might find helpful if you haven't already viewed.
Regarding digestive issues, I found this post very helpful, especially Tom's response:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/pepto-bismal-and-or-travelan

Posted by
2562 posts

Hi Lindy,

Thanks for your reply. We are doing the 15/16 day tour of Morocco with the pre and post extensions. I will look again for the posts on OAT on the forum but they didn’t seem to address my specific questions. We know about Travelan and took it with us to India but dispensed with using it after a week as no one had any tummy issues.

Posted by
316 posts

I haven’t been to Morocco with OAT but have been on several of their trips and am leaving soon for their Tunisia one. I like them a lot. They normally take care of the luggage for you coming and going from hotels. The hotels they use usually have laundry service, but of course that tends to be more expensive anywhere in the world. The trip leader will be able to help you find alternative service if you want. I also do hand washing in my hotel sink quite often, which works well for most items, especially if you do it as soon as you get to the room so it can dry at least overnight. I don’t think they are picky about what kind of luggage you have, or the amount if reasonable, unless the trip has some unusual aspect to it such as an African safari with flights in light aircraft.