6. Adventure travel information

 

where to stay

 

Morocco has a huge range of different accommodation options. In ascending level of comfort/ facilities, here is a list of most of the different options and a short description:

 

Outdoor camping – on trek we camp in high quality tents with 2 people sharing. There is usually a toilet tent available for the group’s comfort, a mess tent where the group joins over meals and a cooking tent where food is being prepared.

Permanent tent camp – in the desert Bedouin camp is often on this basis in permanent nomad tents with dining and sleeping area. Expect to share with 1 to 3 others. Some bivouacs offer even a toilet tent and showers.

Family House - most basic lodging with Turkish/ Squatting toilet (porcelain hole in the ground) and occasionally a shower. Sleeping facilities consist mainly of dormitory-style or small shared room with basic sleeping arrangements. The hosting family will eventually prepare local delights for you too.

Gite D’etapes – French borrowed name for local house upgraded and registered as tourist accommodation. Shared rooms (usually up to 4 people), bathroom/ showers and toilet facilities (Turkish or European)

kasbah – a converted adobe-brick big house with all different standards of comfort that exist across the south of Morocco and some Atlas mountains.

Auberge – Rustic small hotel, often European owned equipped with private or shared facilities with rooms on a twin-share basis and may be a pool.

Riad – traditional medina town house set around a courtyard and converted into accommodation. A real harbor of peace and beauty offering large rooms, toilets, showers and stylish services. Some can even procure spas, massages and swimming pools. It has become the most popular way of accommodating people in the last few years and introduces visitors into the heart of Medinas. They also offer real experience from inside the local culture and peaceful stays.

 House/ hotel accommodation.  Or hotel- apart with all categories that exist, from basic to deluxe.

Hotel – from 2 to 5 stars. We book in place with central locations lodgings dominated by local character.

 

 

Trip grading and pre-trip preparation

It is your responsibility to advise Moroccan Skies of any pre-existing medical condition and /or disability that might reasonably be expected to increase any kind of risks or the normal conduct of your trip and the enjoyment of other trip members.

 

Please take note of the advice given in our tour dossiers on the level of fitness required for each trip as well as all the information on the nature of the trip. Being properly prepared for an adventure holiday or any holidays is a key element in your enjoyment of the trip. As a general rule of thumb it is important to have a good basic level of cardiovascular fitness for all of the trips besides some legible references prior to climb a Moroccan summit. And if you do not exercise fairly regularly it is important that you do so in the weeks / months prior to your trip. Having said that, none of the trips is aimed at the super-fit (unless clearly specified) and a reasonable level of hike specific or trek-specific fitness is sufficient unless it is made clear to prove your physical abilities or stamina. For some tour that require specific abilities it is important to fill in a questionnaire to assess your suitability of the tour in question.

 

7. Supplementary Information

Reading List

Books about Morocco

• James Curtis, A journal of travels in Barbary in the year 1801

• The alleys of Marrakesh by Peter Mayne

• Mark Twain, travelling with the innocents abroad

• Interesting story of an Englishman who lived in Marrakesh during the 1950s

• Mohamed Mrabet, look and move on

• Paul Bowles, their heads are green and their hands are blue

• Gavin Maxwell’s Dada ATTA and his thirteen sons

• Colette places by Peter Own

• Culture Shock! Morocco by Orin Hargraves

•  A great and useful cultural compendium, absolutely to read before you travel to Morocco

• Valley of the Kasbahs by Jeffrey Taylor

• An adventurer’s travel story who follows the Draa River from springhead down to the Atlantic coast

• Voices of Marrakesh by Noble prize winner Elias Canetti

• Vivid depiction of life in Marrakesh, the square and the main nightlife events in the red city.

• Trekking in the Moroccan Atlas by Richard Knight : good trail indicator with some itineraries and general Mountain guide discovering the High Atlas and parts of the Anti Atlas

 

• Insight Guides – Morocco

• The best read of all the guide books, good photos and some specific details essentials to a successful trip to Morocco

• The Tangier Diaries by John Hopkins

• Morocco as it was in the sixties when the blue city was international, cosmopolitan and hippy.

• Lords of the Atlas by Gavin Maxwell

• Morocco in the Pasha Glaoui glorious days, his accomplishments, despotism and celebrities hosted over the years.

• Hideous kinky

• ‘Travelling with a Tangerine’, illustration of Morocco’s best traveler adventures.

 

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