Hanna

Oh oh ohhh Morocco, tell me where you’ve been, won’t you tell me what you knowwww. I wish I knew this song before the trip so I could play it every night and sing it non-stop in my head for ten days. Booked as another deep-pandemic error fare months in advance, I took a gamble not only on Morocco, but on asking a friend to come along also. Well reward favors the bold, and come July the border was open to Americans sans quarantine, and I had an easy-going partner to tackle the medinas and mountains with. As if that weren’t enough, the trip coalesced with an extended overnight layover in Lisbon, Portugal ’cause who doesn’t love a bonus continent.

Our arrival to Morocco was really in Casablanca, but absent any prominent to-dos their, we bee-lined to Marrakesh on an ONCF ATLAS line train, conveniently departing from Casablanca airport, minus a transfer in the city. The train ride is about 3 hours and tickets on this line for 2nd class are about $13, payable online or in person.

I logged probably 5 hours searching for the perfect riad, with criteria like: <$40/night per person, breakfast included, luscious garden space, bougie plunge pool… That probably seems like I was asking for a lot but the options even by those measures are overwhelming. Riad Sebban had it all, and more! This riad is a restored former palace, and let me tell you: no restoration detail was too small or overlooked. To make the deal even more sweet, the staff kindly upgraded our room from a standard to a deluxe. In palace speak - a deluxe is friggin’ otherworldly and enormous. Seriously the best deal I’ve ever gotten in my life, and I’m a voracious deal hunter. I found the best price by booking through Priceline, but always be sure to check the direct rates from the business too. To further their hospitality, the staff prepped us a tray of fruit and tea after their attempts to search for a midnight meal for us were unsuccessful. Gems, I tell you.

The location is ideal too; located near (one of the many) entrances into the Medina, you are close to the street to grab taxis elsewhere, and within quick walking distance to the souks in the heart of the Medina. Palais Sebban is incredibly spacious, with multiple rooftops, an inner courtyard, and lounge areas dispersed around guests rooms. The breakfast is bountiful, with THE BEST ORANGE JUICE KNOWN TO MAN KIND (seriously Tropicana, up your game), a selection of breads, fruit, yogurt, eggs, and of course, coffee and mint tea. Normally, there is a spa and restaurant on premise for guests, however due to covid these were closed. Value per dollar is high here, and it was such a treat to feel like royalty staying here. Typically I don’t look for an experience within accommodation, but I’m so glad I sought out something more upscale and glitzy than I’d usually gravitate to (i.e. legit accommodation over a hostel). P.S. Don’t forget to say hi to the resident cats!

• Pick up a free walking tour:

  One of the things I like doing most to get my bearings when I touch down somewhere new is to hit a free walking tour. Marrakech is a behemoth of a city, and while lovely in so many ways, there is a a relatively high potential that someone will try to scam you and squeeze you for as much money as possible compared to western standards. That makes a walking tour with a trusted guide all the more useful. You’ll not only get a feel for the area and which parts of the city/medina you’d like to visit, but also the knowledge to appreciate the culture of your destination, and the know-how for moving around the city in the safest way possible.

  We found Oussama through Guru Walk and would recommend his guide services. Something unique to this walking tour which was new for me was stopping in some local businesses and getting short presentations on customary local goods like herbs and rugs. Most importantly, these stops are done in a no pressure way, where there’s no shame or guilt begrudged upon you if you don’t walk away with a $500 rug. We also made an entirely elective and optional stop to the Bahia Palace. With covid, guiding work has taken a hit and my friend and I were the only guests. That being said, if you enjoy the tour be sure to tip your guide, perhaps a little more liberally that you might normally, if you have the means.

• Get repeatedly lost in the Medina:

  Another hope of doing the walking tour early is that you gain some sense of how to move around efficiently to make the most of your time. However, I would probably need to go on the walking tour 50+ times to confidently navigate my way through the medina. That said, part of the fun of the medina is getting completely and utterly lost and finding yourself in all the nooks and crannies of the heartbeat of this city. I was skeptical whether I’d enjoy Marrakech because I’m not a big city traveler, but I genuinely fell for this city. I think it’s most attractive element is how authentic and true to form it feels without being overly touristy. Sure hordes of tourists move through the medina, but you’re walk shoulder to shoulder with locals and visiting the shops and stands they rely on for daily life too.

  Learning how to firmly say no and ignore/walk away from persistent sales people is a must-have. Again particularly now when folks who rely on tourism for income are desperate to make money, any sight of a tourist these days attracts a lot of (often unwanted) attention. Whether it’s people catching your eye or even seeing your gaze drift to their products, or men who pressure you to follow them around the souks, the extreme stimuli is constant. It’s important to give this some grace and acknowledge these are people trying to make a living in a difficult time. Otherwise it’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed and turned off by the experience.

  Some of our favorite stops throughout the medina included Le Jardin Secret (small entrance fee of ~$9, but a wonderful escape in the medina to a calm, beautiful space), Max & Jan (both the restaurant and their shop - one of the few places you’ll find with fixed and visible shop prices), Funky Cool Medina (thrift finds plus killer custom pieces), and Terrace of Spices (reliable and delicious food that’s open LATE!). On the other hand, avoid the tanneries at all costs! It’s probably the largest source of getting ripped off in the medina. They all tell you “today is the only day of the week that the native people come and bring their goods”. The smell is nauseating, and after they let you walk through they request an absurd amount of money.

• ATV in the desert:

  For our Marrakech adventure activity, we took up a popular tourist option - quad biking in the Agafay Desert. Our tour operator picked us up in Marrakech along with another party and we made the 30ish minute drive out to the city. Upon being briefed, we were loaded up with helmets and goggles and started our journey with a slow warm up for those new to the experience. Rather than driving around aimlessly for 2 hours, the time was broken up into different destinations. First, a detour to ride with the guide through an equivalent of a ATV skate park. Then, a scenic stop overlooking the valley for photos, and a stop in a local village for tea. Finally, a stop in a palm grove to watch the sun go down (and many, many, more photos). Mohammed, the guide, while he doesn’t speak much English, understands the need to memorialize such fun events with great photos. Dude has a second career in photography - we left with so many fun and nice photos of our adventure!

• Visit the night market:

Part of my ethos of international travel is to attempt to experience the local way of living to further appreciate the destination. Visiting the night market is Jema el-Fna square a genuine contribution to that goal. Every night without fail, that square erupts with food up the wazoo, vendors, street performers, and an absurd number of juice stalls, crowded with locals gathering to share a meal and socialize. The food experience was structured in a novel way to me compared to all of the other markets I’ve swung through. Rather than grab and go food, each food vendor runs something of a mini restaurant, with seating, menus, and servers. This again is a very vendor aggressive space for tourists, with men vying and competing for your business. Maintaining an open-mind and light-hearted attitude is important here. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and internally shut down if you become easily agitated by the vendors trying to earn your business.

• Relax at a hammam:

  A hammam is a traditional middle eastern bath house, but also refers too the act of communal bathing. Going to the hammam is a mainstay of Moroccan culture, and has even evolved to cater to tourists looking for a high end spa experience. I found it to be one of those experiences you didn’t even know you needed until you’re sitting in it. The big choice in going to hammam as a tourist is whether you want to go experience a typical local venue for a small fee, or splurge a little for the spa experience. We elected for the latter at Hamman de la Rose, given the fact that an equivalent experience in the US would be hundreds of dollars, versus <$100 abroad. A little treat yoself action if you will.

  The core principle is the same regardless: sitting in a heated steam room, marinating in black soap, and scrubbing down with a kessa glove for exfoliation. The spa twist is that there are women doing all of this for you - bathing you, scrubbing you, washing your hair… I have to say, communal bathing is a special and expansive experience. In American culture, unless you are an infant, have a physical disability, or are at the end of your life, bathing is an extremely private act and a means to a hygienic end. Elsewhere, bathing is an act of community, of care, and I found it to be rather beautiful - and not simply because it was this luxurious experience. Nudity is not something worthy of shame or embarrassment in a hammam. It is normal, and accepted without prejudice. And this seems to butt up aggressively to western held beliefs of Muslim culture. While I loved the experience of the hammam, I wager it’s greatest benefit was this shift in perspective. That’s what we travel to far flung places for, right? The chance to view humanity through its many lenses and different walks.

  We finished our hammam off with an elective massage, bringing our package total to $70 a head. Before throwing you out into the chaos of the Medina, you’re gently plopped into a cushy room for tea and biscuits. I cannot wait to return to a hammam someday, and to try out the local public hammams too.

Getting around the Medina is easy in the sense that it’s all easily walkable (and it’s sorta your only choice - vehicle access is extremely limited). Directionally? Forget it. That’s why the best approach to the medina is to simply accept and embrace getting lost! Google maps is marginally, helpful if at all. There’s some signage within pointing towards landmarks, and the vendors are always quick to ask if you need help with directions.

Outside of the medina, we moved around via taxi. Ride share services like Uber and Lyft do not operate in Morocco, which we didn’t feel hampered by. Taxis were plentiful and drivers were generally open to negotiating prices. Just be sure to do this BEFORE you get in the taxi and start driving.

To leave the city, there’s a decent network of bus and train routes. Train tickets can be purchased online, or in person at the stations. ONCF operates rail service, and Supratours is the most heavily used bus system. We were unable to find a way to purchase bus tickets online, so I suggest buying those in person at the bus station ASAP! We learned the hard way (twice) by waiting until the day prior, and day of, to purchase bus and rail tickets. Both times they were sold out and we were left to purchase a rental car to get to Tingrir, and negotiating a taxi to get back to Casablanca. Did it work out in the end? Yes. Did we get slammed with unexpected expenses? Yes! Book in advance, especially in the high-season of domestic tourism in the summer!!

The crux of visiting Morocco was actually to come rock climbing at the lesser known (for no good reason!) Todra Gorge. Doing so in July was perhaps not the best way to execute this (🥵) but we don’t question the ways of the cheap plane ticket gods. As I mentioned, we were doofuses (doofi?) and waited until the day prior to attempt to buy our bus tickets to get us close to Tinghir and the Gorge. Just for the record, this is entirely possible by taking a bus from Marrakesh to Tinghir (you might also see this city referred to as Tinerir), and then taking a taxi from downtown Tinghir into the Gorge, another 20 minutes. It’s not a short journey, but an all day or all night affair spanning 8ish hours. Another option is to fly into Ouarzazate, putting you ‘just’ 3 hrs from Todra Gorge.

Or, if you really miss the mark like we did, you simply rent a car from Marrakesh and make the drive yourself. Keep in mind, its beneficial monetarily to know how to drive a manual if you have to rent a car. This ended up being a large expense hit especially because demand was so high for rental cars. Turns out Moroccans like to travel during the late summer months just as much as the rest of the world… On the plus side, we could blast Matchbox 20 throwbacks, and the AC to an equally high degree.

There’s a small town situated just outside of the Gorge with a handful of really affordable options for accommodation. Visiting as climbers, it was natural to stay at The Secret Garden, which caters to the climbing community in so much as it is managed by Sara and Julios who are climbers themselves. Rooms range from private to shared (15-30€), and include breakfast. Dinner can be arranged as well for an extra 10€. Because of covid, we were the only group currently staying on the premise so things were scaled back a bit from their normal functions. This however, didn’t change the fact that the cooks are incredibly talented and can whip up some plentiful meals for two. In fact, we were the first tourist climbers to arrive all summer. In normal circumstances, The Secret Garden is supposed to be the only place to find a beer in the Gorge!

The view from the property is nothing short of total vacation vibes: towering mountains and (to my surprise) sooo much greenery. Within the property, there are shared common areas as well as numerous rooms, all with en suite bathrooms. The only hiccup we encountered, was a lack of airflow in the rooms which made sleeping in the non-air conditioned desert precarious. Wet towels did the trick though…

From a climbing perspective, this is a great place to post up for a stay. Walking into the Gorge takes about 20 minutes, and there is access to guidebooks and locals with all the beta you could ever need.

If you don’t climb, this is about to get real boring. But if you do climb, welcome to limestone gold! The Todra Gorge plays host to over 450 routes - overwhelmingly sport routes - that will take you up as many as 14 pitches. Again, in less strange times, there’s a guide and gear shop in the town outside the Gorge, Aventures Verticales Maroc, if you seek beta or a guide to climb with. We spent our first day single-pitch climbing with the shop owner and getting a lay of the land. A lovely feature of the Gorge is that no matter the season or time of day, there’s always something in the shade.

Our summer morning go-to was the Jardins d’ete area which is great for some easier warm up and confidence building climbs. We also highly recommend Tik sab and Qui L’eut cru? for those looking to practice multipitching. All routes in the Gorge are well-bolted and generally have anchors at each belay station.

Once the sun catches up to you, stroll into the Gorge with the locals for a cool down. The reason the Gorge is a gorge, and it is so stinkin’ green around there, is the spring fed river that cuts through it. There’s this incredible system of troughs built from the Gorge to carry fresh water outward and into resident areas. Other than being friggin’ awesome engineering, you’ve got access to crisp cold water in the middle of the desert. It was really humbling to see how the locals rely on this water source on so many different levels. Whether it’s doing dishes or laundry, socializing or ritual, the river is at the heart of it all. I was so bold as to join the locals in their swimming spot for a post-climb ice bath. I’m sure I looked like a precious snowflake in there shivering while they enjoyed it like it was a hot spring 😂.

Inside the Gorge there’s a lot to enjoy aside from climbing. There are vendors galore, from goods to food and drink, and so much to simply sit and take in. This includes a massive coalition of goats, weaving in and out of the Gorge all day looking for scraps of vegetation. While the climbing was supreme, I think my favorite part was to come into the Gorge and interact with its locals and vacationers. Talking over tea with some of the vendors… I even found myself invited into an ongoing family picnic. No doubt folks were friendly in Marrakech, but there was a special type of welcome and friendship at the Gorge. It wasn’t pushy, it wasn’t rushed. Rather it was laid-back, easy, and warm (on so many levels).

There’s not much to say here. Your feet are more than sufficient to take you in and out of the Gorge. There are some taxis in the Gorge if you decide you want to go into Tinghir for more of a city vibe. Otherwise, a rental car is required to get around the area.

But wait! There’s more! Air Portugal does a fun promotion where you can add an up to 5 nights ‘layover’ on your departure or return when you stop in Portugal, without raising the ticket price. Honestly I think this is genius and can’t understand why every small country carrier doesn’t promote tourism this way. Anyways, we took advantage of this by adding an overnight in Lisbon, giving us one evening and one morning to dip our toes into Lisbon’s tiled streets.

I can’t make many specific recommendations, seeing as we mostly just strolled through the old town (Alfama) and the waterfront. But I will give the unsurprising stamp of approval that yes, the food is so good. The Cartesian shops will quickly drain your wallets. And the little trams are adorable. Do take up the opportunity of a stopover if you fly Air Portugal, whether that’s en route to Morocco or anywhere else!

Oy vey. Where to start! Traveling internationally right now is stressful in this respect, no matter how many times you do it. Rules change constantly, and cumulatively complicate when you transit through multiple countries. My go-to resource has been the WeGo travel blog site, that updates constantly as new rules change - just search for your country of interest. As of writing (October ’21), a subset of country nationals (including US citizens) may enter Morocco without a negative covid test if they show proof of full vaccination. Otherwise, a negative test no older than 48 hours prior to departure is needed. The other subset of countries (including Portugal) are subject to the same, plus a 10 day quarantine at a sponsored hotel for those not fully vaccinated. Some passengers may have to complete the “sworn statement” or complete it upon arrival - check if you fall under that category on the WeGo site. Generally if you arrive by a third country, you take on that country’s rules as you enter Morocco. (This was my understanding pre-trip). This is a lot of confusing red tape, but customs in Morocco was smooth for us, and only required showing our vaccination cards.

We were actually far more nervous about entering Portugal from Morocco on the return, given Morocco (at the time) was not on an approved list, and we don’t hold EU digital covid certificates as proof of vaccination. I think the argument that we just had a long layover and were returning to our country of origin is helpful in that situation. Anyways, upon showing our negative test results at check-in, we sailed through smoothly. Additionally, Passengers must complete an electronic Passenger Locator Card and present it upon boarding. Again, as of writing, and according to WeGo, it seems things are becoming more flexible in Portugal with vaccines becoming more widespread.

On the ground, covid almost felt like a distant memory. Masking outdoors in Morocco and in Portugal was a rarity. I’d say that that was also true indoors in Morocco. At one point on the train from Casablanca to Marrakech, I was looking around and realized that on a full train, my friend and I were the only two wearing masks. The indoor masking in Portugal was a much heavier used practice.

Given the necessity to have a negative covid test to enter Portugal and the US, we sought a rapid test before leaving Marrakech. Without doing a lot of research beforehand, we swung into the first clinic we saw that we knew was performing covid tests. The Clinique Internacionale de Marrakech is a private hospital, which amounted to convenience as speed but at a cost. Our rapid tests were a bonkers $100 each, but that’s still less than rescheduling a flight because your results were too slow. Tests are done at the nearby Analysis Center.

I want to acknowledge the past, present, and future generations of the Native Berber people of present day Morocco. It is their willingness to share their land, food, culture and welcome all who come that make places and trips like this so spectacular. Ultimately it is the people and their spirit that we remember and carry on to the next destination. شكرا and saha.

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