OAT Morocco

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

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.

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.

I went with OAT to Morocco (in 2018), I have also taken three other OAT trips, most recently in Tunisia.

You can bring any kind of luggage you want. I’m not sure why they say no hard shell luggage since you’ll be traveling on a bus with lots of luggage space. Unlike Rick Steves travelers, many OAT travelers bring really big pieces of luggage. You’re likely to have one of the smaller bags! OAT has porters at every hotel who deliver bags to your room and pick them up from outside your room when you leave. Most of the hotels will do laundry (including underwear!) and your trip leader can give you advice about this. Generally any time you have two or more nights at a stop, you can get laundry done. OAT trips are casual - no need for anything dressy. You’re smart to dress fairly modestly. I had a mix of short and long sleeved tops with long pants (It was March, so cooler than when you’re going.). Skirts over the knee would also,be fine. Bring a scarf or two for times where you need to cover up a bit more.

If you are spending nights in the tented camp in the Sahara, you will probably not take your larger suitcase there, just some type of overnight bag (the jeeps that take you out there can’t handle large luggage). You should plan on using a large day bag or backpack of some sort. They store the larger luggage pieces on the locked bus.

Some people in our group had intestinal issues and my observation was that they were often careless with their food choices. To avoid intestinal issues, I believe in “cook it, boil it, peel it or forget it.” For instance, we would often be given the choice of a salad or soup. I always chose the soup - cooked well and hot - much safer than a cold salad that had been washed with water from who knows where. I skipped strawberries (that were in season) because they act like little sponges and can’t be peeled, and stuck with fruits that could be peeled. OAT supplied plenty of bottled water and I used this for brushing teeth and rinsing my toothbrush.

I have found the pace of OAT walking tours to be good. I’ve generally felt that there was plenty of time to see things. We also had some free time where you could explore on your own, especially in Rabat and Marrakech. I recommend the optional tour to Volubilis, an amazing Roman city that is still being excavated.

Have a wonderful trip!

I know that Lane from this forum (lives in Mexico) is getting ready to take this tour. He has done several with OAT. You might want to follow his blog as he usually posts as he is on the trip.
Blog is called Lane is going places.

Thank you so much @Slate, @Renee and @Tammy for your replies. That really helps me a lot. I am happy to hear that most of you are pleased with OAT as I have been a bit trepidatious about trying them again after the 2020 debacle. With regard to luggage, I like taking my smaller RS Ravenna carry on but may bring a slightly larger rolling duffel. We’ll see. We will be in Morocco for nearly a month so I might want to bring a few more pieces of clothing that just won’t fit in our smaller carry on and it may save on laundry. I have been looking at photos of the tour and it is very casual from what I can see. I am not a dressy person so this suits me. While we could carry our luggage upstairs at the riads in Morocco, I certainly appreciate that someone else will be doing it for me as I am older now. It’s something that I really like about traveling with Odysseys Unlimited among others. With regard to luggage, we always have the smallest pieces of luggage when we travel with non Rick Steves companies. In fact, when we were in Petra, Jordan in 2019 the porters were supposed to bring everyone’s luggage in from the bus to the hotel lobby but ours was left standing on the curb as they considered it hand luggage which we should handle ourselves. Comments from our fellow travelers when they saw our luggage were that they need to pack lighter. Old Rick Steves’ travel habits die hard. LOL! Renee, I am with you on the boil it, peel it or don’t eat it and never getting the local water in my mouth in any way, shape or form. That has served us well when traveling to non European countries although I confess to eating a fresh salad in Cairo and Lima, Peru with no ill effects. But these were restaurants in really fine hotels.

Renee, I am sending you a pm.

I went on the OAT pre trip and Morocco tour in Nov 2021 and it is one of my two favorite trips ever. I traveled with the old RS carry on suitcase which is 22" and a backpack. I mostly wore capris and t-shirts. Brought layers because it got cool quickly once the sun went down. I can't remember where, but I had one of the hotels do my laundry. I agree, the TL usu can tell you where it is easiest/cheapest to do the laundry. Also, OAT trip leaders contact you before the trip and you can ask questions. Except for Rabat and Casablanca (modern hotels), the lodgings were fantastic and had lots of charm, atmosphere, and stairs. You are in for a treat. Best lodgings I have had on my OAT and RS tours. Porters take your luggage to/from your room. Travel was just restarting after covid shutdown and the country felt empty of tourists until we got to Marrakech. Walking pace was not rushed at all. Except for the large mosque in Casablanca, you are not allowed to enter a mosque unless you are a Muslim. I had tummy upset/diarrhea for a day and another traveler had on/off GI sx for over a week until he took his Zithromax antibiotic. Advice - in addition to eating carefully, bring rehydration/electrolyte packets that you can add to water, and see if your PCP will prescribe Zithromax antibiotic for traveler's diarrhea and ondansetron for vomiting. I loved Chefchaouen - wake up for the morning call to prayer - you can just hear it echoing back and forth among the hills/mountains. Magical. Climb up (20 min?) to the Spanish Mosque for sunset. It's a dry town so if you want to drink, ask your TL to stop somewhere you can buy wine/alcohol along the drive to Chefchaouen (maybe where you stop and have lunch). In Fez - we reserved in advance and had a great meal at Dar Roumana. They send a porter to walk you thru the Fez Medina to get to them. Had a fascinating conversation (with my poor French), talking about what it was like for him during the covid shutdown. If you book near sunset time, have a drink on their rooftop terrace before dinner and take in the Fez Medina below and the call to prayer coming from (I think) 300 mosques. In the sand dunes - set your alarm to get up for sunrise. In my free time, I walked into the sand dunes (after making sure I got my landmark bearings first and knew where the camp was) for about an hour. All I could see was sand and all I could hear was the wind and buzzing insects. Amazing. I hope you have a great trip!

Thank you @Sloo for your reply. I have looked at the riads on the tour assuming they aren’t switched before the tour begins. In the photos they look delightful and exotic. We are very much looking forward to this tour and, after your description of your travel experience with OAT, even more so. We doing both extensions and all the optional tours as we want to see and do as much as possible. This tour hits all the spots on our list. Re: tummy issues - we always carry Cipro with us wherever we go (even Europe), rehydration packets and antiemetics. So far we have only needed the Cipro a couple of times in all of our world travels so fingers crossed we won’t need them in Morocco. My good friend and travel guru who went to Morocco years ago suggested the rehydration packets in addition to the Cipro. His trip was with a perhaps under the radar tour that didn’t vet the dining establishments and he and a travel acquaintance both got sick from what he suspects was a chicken tagline. He recovered but unfortunately his friend did not so I am very wary. I tend to go vegan when traveling for that very reason. I am considering his experience was a one off.

Regarding Cipro: I go to an excellent travel clinic before every non-European trip. They no longer recommend or prescribe Cipro, especially for people over 60, because of potential severe and long-lasting side effects. Instead they prescribe azithromycin - a much safer and yet effective antibiotic.

Hi, Mary, I just returned from the OAT Morocco trip, Nov. 5-20, 2024. You have received excellent advice and information re. suitcase and staying healthy. I will add that of the 15 people on our trip, one had slight tummy issues early in the trip, and one had slight tummy issues a few days in. I was determined to avoid the issues, so NEVER ate fruit with a peel, or fresh salads, including tomatoes and cucumbers. Plenty of other folks did, without a problem, but I did not and there was no problem avoiding them. There was plenty of good food on offer at all of the group meals. The "salads" at the meals were usually cooked: eggplants, beets, squash (lots of squash; they called it pumpkin); and more. I am also an ovo-lacto-pescatarian, and let OAT know ahead of time. There was always a special dish for me if the main course was meat. Also: I took two Pepto-bismal tablets before any meal in which I thought there might be any question of food preparation (ie: the night market in Marrakesh; a home-cooked meal in Fez; even some of the restaurant meals. And, I took a Travelan a few times, too, just to make sure that my tender tummy could handle whatever Morocco was throwing at it! (And, yes, I had zithromax in reserve but never needed it.) Re. the walking: I have a new hip replacement and was one of the slower folks on the tour, but the pace was moderate and I had no problem keeping up. I do wish that I had brought my collapsable cane on the Volubilis optional tour; climbing around the 2,000 year old Roman ruins was a bit of a challenge, but the guide was lovely giving me a hand when I needed it. Next: If you booked your own flights, as I did, you may know that you have the option of OAT arranging your airport pickup and drop off. I did this so that I could be sure of someone dependable meeting me at the end of a LONG travel day (arrived Rabat airport at midnight)! Next: You WILL need, as noted, some kind of small duffle bag or larger soft backpack to take to the desert with you for a couple of days. Your main larger suitcase will not go with you there. Next: I am an avid hand-washer-of-travel-clothes, and did just fine in Morocco, but several folks on our trip arranged for hotel laundry services twice during the trip; our guide also steered some to laundries near our hotels/riads that provided laundry services at much lower cost than the hotel cost. Next: clothes-wise, none of the members of our group ever wore skirts, that I recall. I made do just fine with two pairs of hiking pants. I looked at some slideshows on the OAT website to see what others had worn. VERY good hiking shoes are also a must, for the old streets, sand dunes, etc. I found the pace of the trip just right. There was always some "down time" or free time, most days, and sometimes individuals bowed out of a walk or activity so that they could rest, or do something else. Finally: This is a FABULOUS tour; our guide was incredible, the people of Morocco warm and welcoming, and all arrangements were amazing. Please DM me if you have any other questions that I might be able to help you with.

I’ll be traveling with OAT, meeting in Rabat Feb. 21. I’m traveling from Madrid, arranged my own flights etc. I’m wondering how folks were transferred from the Casablanca airport to Rabat. It looks like there is a train station in the airport that takes you to the high speed train station. I’m traveling alone so would like to figure this out ahead of time. Thanks for any help!

@ffm351

You might be better off getting an answer to your question if you start a new query on this forum rather than tagging onto mine. We will be arriving in Casablanca and have arranged our own airfare also. We contacted OAT and have arranged for them to pick us up at the Casablanca airport. My suggestion to you is to call OAT and ask what your options are to get to your meeting place in Rabat.