With Experience It Tours, Morocco Was Great!
We recently took a very enjoyable 6-day tour of Marrakech and Essaouira, Morocco with Experience It Tours. The tour was planned, with another couple, at the last minute and yet the company was incredibly accommodating of our travel dates. Kamal Ennajem was our absolutely terrific tour guide and driver. He was full of insights about the culture of Morocco and took us on some great tours of fascinating sites. We had a defined schedule of sight-seeing locations every day. Kamal was very friendly, punctual and accommodating of our personal preferences and any changes we wanted to make. The suggested riads/hotels in both Marrakech and Essaouira were exactly what we were looking for! They were both downtown in the heart of the walled cities. The perfectly renovated buildings dated back hundreds of years and had plenty of authentic character. The souks (original shopping areas) in both cities were both colourful and fun for a day or two. Be prepared to ‘negotiate’ prices. We obtained most purchases of handmade crafts for about one-third of the original asking price. The Jardin Majorelle is a spectacular large ‘desert’ garden, right in the centre of Marrakech. It is well worth a visit and for us, it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We took a side trip to the Ouzoud Waterfalls (about 2.5 hours from Marrakech). Although the van trip to the Atlas Mountains was nice, the area is in the middle of a long-term drought. The first falls took about 20 minutes of moderately difficult hiking over smooth pebbles to reach. It was uninspiring as the flow was down to a trickle. Never made it to the second level, as it was about another 30 minute hike over slippery, moss-covered stones. Essaouira is a beautiful and ancient walled city with a more refined souk than Marrakech and a wide, sandy Atlantic beach. A spectacular ocean view filled our entire window from the riad and was absolutely awesome! Essaouira is a colourful and tourist-friendly city and was definitely our favourite destination in Morocco. Being cat-lovers, we also appreciated the over-abundance of ‘street cats’ (not feral, since they were all well-fed, well-socialized and healthy). Both of the included breakfasts at the hotels were a bit underwhelming but in the evenings we found many very good and authentic restaurants. All of the staff in the restaurants and stores were welcoming and multilingual. We would definitely recommend Experience It Tours if you are planning a guided tour of Morocco. You will find their excellent service is top-notch and well worth it. Once again, we highly recommend Kamal Ennajem as professional, knowledgeable guide to make your trip even more memorable.