Your own group walking holiday to Morocco
| country: | Morocco |
| location: | Atlas Mountains |
| departures: | You can create your own group with a minimum of 6 people, the maximum number is 12. In addition thre will be a leader and appropriate local staff. The minimum age for this holiday is 18. We can arrange for a member of our staff to meet your group to discuss the options |
| price: | From £524 - £615 (8 days) including flights from the UK, from £245 excluding flights. Local payment Dirham 1000 (approx £65) |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
The Atlas Mountains of Morocco provide some of the most rewarding trekking experiences to be found anywhere. Morocco's immense mountain landscapes vary with vast peaks and ridges that stretch as far as the eye can see, sub-Saharan rock formations of a surreal extravagance, a geologist's paradise.
We stay in a simple but very pleasant gîte located in the village of Tijhza. The picturesque valley gives us access to mountain walks to turquoise lakes and high altitude pastures.
Each day walk varies in both length and content, providing enormous variety, and you can choose to walk as much or as little as you like.
A visit here is equally rewarding on the human level: a rich history and rural culture is evident even in the remotest valleys. The Berber inhabitants in their tiny, cliff-hanging villages are cheerful, colourful and friendly, their extremely hardy way of life a constant source of amazement. During your stay in Marrakech there will be a chance to explore the souks, palaces and alleyways of this genuinely romantic city and do some serious bargaining.
We stay in a simple but very pleasant gîte located in the village of Tijhza. The picturesque valley gives us access to mountain walks to turquoise lakes and high altitude pastures.
Each day walk varies in both length and content, providing enormous variety, and you can choose to walk as much or as little as you like.
A visit here is equally rewarding on the human level: a rich history and rural culture is evident even in the remotest valleys. The Berber inhabitants in their tiny, cliff-hanging villages are cheerful, colourful and friendly, their extremely hardy way of life a constant source of amazement. During your stay in Marrakech there will be a chance to explore the souks, palaces and alleyways of this genuinely romantic city and do some serious bargaining.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive in Marrakech |
| Day 2: | Spend the day in the ‘pink city’ of Marrakech when we can soak in its atmosphere and setting, with views of the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas. The town is a maze of bustling bazaars, palaces and mosques |
| Day 3: | On the journey to the Atlas mountains we stop in Telouet and visit the kasbah. This amazing fortress/palace is hidden deep in the High Atlas mountains is as romantic a spot as it is possible to imagine. After arriving in Animiter it’s a further 45 minutes on foot to our Gîte. Late in the afternoon there is an optional climb to a spectacular viewpoint overlooking the hills surrounding Telouet |
| Day 4: | The next few days’ walking are designed to be flexible, different walks may be offered depending on the ability of the group and the weather! A moderate 5-6 hour loop through the Tizi’n’Ourghsan and back down the Ouarikt river to our village. Starting in the terraced fields of Ouarikt we climb up through the high summer pastures to reach the col with fantastic views of the Ouarikt Gorge |
| Day 5: | Leaving the Gîte we head around the back of Ouglagal and over pastures to lunch in a ‘gorge’ or rock shelter. We head back along the riverbed to kasbah at Telouet |
| Day 6: | Today we could attempt a longer, slightly harder day with a visit to the very beautiful Lake Tamda, an azure lake amidst stark white-rock scenery. This lake is almost a kilometre long between the impressive peaks of Jebel Anghomar and Jebel Tamda |
| Day 7: | A fairly easy day with a stroll through the villages of the Tijhza valley, passing fields cultivated by the Berber women. We return to Marrakech by lunchtime leaving the afternoon free for last minute shopping |
| Day 8: | Return to the UK |
travelling in your own group
To classify as a group, we usually require a minimum of 6-8 clients although we can often accommodate larger numbers up to 16. We are often limited by the size of our accommodation or transport, but we will endeavour to accommodate your group wherever possible. If our stated dates are not available we will do everything we can to arrange a similar trip to fulfil your requirements. All trips are competitively priced, but it should be noted that a number of circumstances, such as flight availability, can affect the cost. We therefore recommend, booking and planning your trip as early as possible.award winner
This tourism business won an award in our 2004 Responsible Tourism Awards - organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical, Magazine of the Royal Geographical Societyhow this holiday makes a difference
|
As a part of our continued commitment to responsible tourism, we operate this trip in a way that aims to reduce impacts and to give as much back as possible to the local communities
Whilst staying at the gite in the mountains we will have the opportunity to visit the local school, which has been adopted by as one of our Responsible Tourism projects. We have already supplied a water pipeline system to the village as well as a toilet block for the school and we are keen to continue much much-needed improvements for the people of the village. We also support the Terre des Jeunes Project based just outside Marrakech. This project was set up to help young, underprivileged children, to be integrated back into society. The school gives these children a support network, offers them education along with the skills necessary to gain a gardening apprenticeship. They are then supported in the task of finding employment at a local hotel. The projects aims are both to help these children and to promote environmental awareness. In Tighza you stay in a local gite, which has provided direct benefit and employment to the local community. We use a locally run operator, who employs local leaders. We have worked with them for many years and over this time have built up an excellent working relationship, we have regular training sessions with the local leaders to help them in all aspects of their jobs, to encourage them to think about the responsible tourism issues and to implement these ideas on the trips. We are also working with our operator on issues such as reducing our impact by not buying plastic drinking bottles but developing a refill system on our centre based trips We use local leaders and they receive regular training from us, which covers all aspects of their jobs including Responsible Tourism and ensuring that all clients are given a responsible tourism briefing. Leaders are also encouraged to take all clients to visit our responsible tourism projects in the areas they visit. We use all locally owned and run accommodation on this trip. This contributes directly to the local communities as local staff are employed and locally produced and sourced goods are bought for the accommodation benefiting the wider community. The group is limited to 16 and this small group sizes means we can stay in small locally run accommodation so helping to benefit the local communities who employ local staff and source supplies locally. This also means that the groups do not have a dramatic affect on the local communities in terms of litter and resources We have at our offices worked to reduce our carbon footprint through a reduction of energy use and energy conservation measures. We also actively reduce the waste produced by having active reduction and recycling policies in place. We run annual staff workshops on Responsible Tourism. Global warming is a reality and to help you make a difference by reducing the carbon dioxide that is produced when you travel we offer a chance to carbon balance your flights. We encourage all our clients to do this and do so for all our staff travel. Go on do your bit! |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |