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Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

COUNTRY:
Morocco
LOCATION:
Imlil, one and a half hours drive from Marrakech
PRICE:
From £20 - £50 per person per night
MORE INFO:
Price is per person per night sharing. Includes evening meal of freshly prepared Moroccan cuisine, freshly prepared breakfast and mint tea.
VOUCHERS:
Gift vouchers can not be used with this holiday
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Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
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Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

How this holiday makes a difference

Environment

We supported the Ait Souka Association (our village association) in introducing water meters to all houses in the village, repairing all the old pipes & saving heaps of water. We offer a carbon offsetting scheme where guests can plant a tree or donate fruit trees to local families. We use solar power for heating the water and we encourage guests to save energy by only washing dirty towels & sheets. All organic waste is fed to the animals. We are a platform where cultural exchange between the Berbers & the guests are encouraged. We offer for our clients many activities around High Atlas Mountains. We have showers and half flush toilets and we change towels and sheets everyday, we have laundry machine for free we usedeco washing up liquid.

I am an active member of the Ait Souka Association, which has also organized courses fight against illiteracy and workshops feminine embroidery. The aim is, on the one hand the socio-economic, and, secondly, awareness of sustainable development. To do this, it has set itself the objective of contributing to the achievement of economic and social projects, and participate in conserving the local environment.

The guesthouse was built by Houssine, the owner, and local workers, Okik the builder and two other people from Tmatert village. Our electrician is hassan and the plumber is Brahim from Targa Imoula. The staff are from the local villages Ait Souka and Tamatert and Targa Imoula near Imlil. All of our supplies (food, interiors, carpets, furniture) are bought from the local village. Local mules can be hired. We employ local people to run the house and local guides (Arbi, Hassan, Brahim, Ahmed) and muleteers (Omar, Mohamed, Lhoussaine, Moustapha, Brahim, Driss) to take our guests for walks.

Community

I am an active member of the Ait Souka Association, which has also organized courses fight against illiteracy and workshops feminine embroidery. The aim is, on the one hand the socio-economic, we recomend all the time for our clients to go to the beautiful restaurants and also do days walk from guest house for give more works to local like guides and cook and mulitiers . With my Association aim is to co-ordinate development and projects in the region on a purely apolitical basis.

In this way we are providing jobs to the community of Imlil & help keep these people close to their families rather than having to leave the village & move to Ciy to look for a job there. We have cooperation with women's association in Imlil, and a local house for making rugs (only 50m from the guesthouse) to set up a rug making workshop with women from the local community.

Medicine and clothes are collected from tourists and distributed to the local community and hospital in Imlil, the supplies are sent mostly by clients who have visited us. We have installed development village association and I'm a member in it. We organize every week rubbish collection sessions with the village children to keep the surroundings clean.

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Story of the accommodation provider

I started this business because my familly need it ! all my brother dont have any work till i come back from school (degree )². now all clients stayed with us taken by one my brother as guide and another brother as cook and one brother work in riad oussgou.

Accommodation provider no: 1272

Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Terrass with breakfast

Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Reviewed 22 Apr 2011 by Jeff Kleinman4 star rating

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?


The camel ride to the dinner at the Bedouin tent; dinner at the tent; and the night in the "desert".

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?


Go with the flow. A couple people in the group were difficult to please - they brought large suitcases that didn't strap easily to a camel; they wanted better bathrooms and sleeping accommodations; etc. There was no running water and the bathrooms were very primitive; the mattresses were thin pieces of foam dropped on the sand. It was totally fun, but people complained about the thinness of the mattresses or the primitiveness of the tents, and so forth. I felt like they never really got into things as much as they could - and that made me sad. I do have to say that the holiday was a little "canned" in that it was rather artificial - the "desert" really was on the outskirts of suburbia, and we trekked for quite a while behind people's houses (with the local children following us, trying to sell us little animals or designs made from folded grass), but quite honestly, that was part of the charm. Some of my fellow travelers were a little offended by this, though. My wife and I brought along our 11-year-old daughter, and I can honestly say that this holiday was the highlight of our trip to Morocco.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?


It definitely benefited the local people. Definitely impacted on the environment, though - fellow travelers threw trash away into the desert, and the car we drove in poured black smoke the entire time. But wow it was so much fun.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?


We thought it was utterly fabulous and without question two of the most fun days we've ever had.

Reviewed 14 Nov 2009 by Gillian Anderson4 star rating

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?


We booked the Imlil accommodation below through Responsible Travel and wanted to highly recommend Houssine and his guest house to your readers. The room was extremely clean and comfortable, the food, including breakfast on the roof and vegetarian dinner, was excellent and the family very pleasant and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble. The new riad was in a lovely quiet setting in an orchard looking down the valley toward Imlil. At short notice Houssine also organised 4 day trek in the surrounding Atlas mountains to visit Berber villages and summit Mt Toubkal. Our guide (Ahmed) and cook/mule driver (Houssine) were absolutely fantastic, always ensuring we were comfortable and well fed even though they themselves were practising ramadan. The tangine and couscous our cook prepared for us on the trek were far superior to anything we ate in Marrakesh restaurants!

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?


It should be stressed to readers to book their transfers from Marrakesh through Houssine. Choice of trekking routes needs to take into account new roads now accessing some of the villages visited on the first and second day.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?


Yes - employment of local trekking guides, cooks and donkey drivers plus flow on benefits of visitors staying and eating in locally run and owned businesses. Demand & support for smaller family run restaurants and guest houses reduces market /interest of larger accommodation chains which have both social & environmental impact of small mountain villages. Catering to smaller groups and independent travellers also allows for greater flexibility in arrangements, promoting understanding and building more meaningful relationships with the Berber people.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?


Highly recommended. We would like to thank Houssine and wish him all the best with his riad and trekking business.

Reviewed 29 Nov 2009 by Moya Neale3 star rating

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?


Staying at the riad was a pleasure: the bedroom was small and nicely fitted out, nice and cosy (it did get cold at night - we had a heater, the blankets kept us warm in bed and there was a djellaba and slippers each to use!). We were greeted with mint tea and wonderful biscuits on the rooftop terrace, which was a great place to sit in the sun and watch the world. We ate there the three nights, delicious Moroccan food, by the wood fire, and Houssine an excellent host, advised us on local walks, organised taxi from/to Marrakech.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?


It's easy!

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?


It felt good using a small, local place to stay rather than a chain hotel. We're not shoppers, so didn't buy any of the craftwork offered. As for impact on the environment - hard to say. We flew, we used vehicles... once a year that seems ok.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?


Lovely to have a contrast from the noise and chaos of Marrakech. I wouldn't fancy the long treks, but we met people who enjoyed them. We had one hard walk up to a col, hard because of the stony ground and steepness, but worth it; and a couple of walks around Imlil and up the Mazrine (?) valley which were lovely.
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Accommodation Reviews

We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!

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Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Guest house in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Terrass with breakfast
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