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Walking in Atlas Mountains, Morocco

COUNTRY:
Morocco
LOCATION:
Atlas Mountains, Mount Toubkal
HOLIDAY TYPE:
Moderate walking holidays
DEPARTURES:
2012: 4 May, 11 May, 18 May, 25 May, 27 May, 1 Jun, 8 Jun, 15 Jun, 22 Jun, 6 Jul, 20 Jul, 3 Aug, 17 Aug, 24 Aug, 31 Aug, 7 Sep, 14 Sep, 21 Sep
2013: 3 May, 10 May, 17 May, 24 May, 26 May, 31 May, 7 Jun, 14 Jun, 21 Jun, 5 Jul, 19 Jul, 2 Aug
PRICE:
From £629 - £639 (8 days ) including UK flights
MORE INFO:
From £329 - £349 excluding flights.
VOUCHERS:
Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday
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Walking in Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Walking in Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Small group adventure holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.

How this holiday makes a difference

Environment

Responsible mission: As adventure travellers we relish and celebrate the diversity of the world. We also recognise our obligation to protect the environments that we explore. Our aim is to tread lightly, whilst contributing to maintain the world’s culture and nature, and most importantly to engage the help of all our customers to utilise the potential of tourism as a tool to aid sustainable development. We believe that responsible travellers are welcome in the places that they visit.

On this trip: We travel in small groups (max 16 people) so have a minimal impact on the environment as we go. On this trip we use a local agent from Morocco, locally owned hotels, local leaders. Not only does this mean that more of the money we generate stays within the community, but their local knowledge and expertise helps us to better understand the environment in which we are travelling, whilst reinforcing within the local community that preserving this environment is both important and worthwhile

Helping to minimise negative impact: All of our customers are invited to offset their international flight emissions. Contributions go to the Blue Ventures Carbon Offset program, a non-profit organisation which provides solar stoves for subsistence communities in Madagascar, benefiting the people and protecting the environment. We also contribute £2 per person towards offsetting of your in-country travel. We fully offset all emissions from our staff travel and run an energy efficient office.

Giving something back: We have a foundation that collects the funds that you donate to us to support our projects. All our customers are invited to make a £1 per person contribution to the foundation at the time of booking. We will match every contribution that you make with our own £1. You as a customer choose where these funds are used from a shortlist of nominated projects – so it really is YOUR foundation.

Partnerships: As a company we support The Travel Foundation, a UK charity that has been established to promote responsible travel practises throughout the whole of the travel industry. We also work with a number of charity partners who work in the destinations that we visit; including Friends of Conservation and Born Free Foundation. We partner with many small grassroots projects throughout the destinations that we visit - they all share our responsible vision.

Community

We are supporting the Girls Boarding House - Central High Atlas, in the Bougmez valley by donating £2.20 per traveller to Morocco towards this organisation.
By working closely with our local agent we do our best to support and encourage the local schools and projects in all the areas of Morocco you visit. We strongly advise against giving directly to the children in the street as this encourages begging. We prefer to support local well run organisations and projects which are of greater long term benefit.Pax can take pens, pencils, books etc and group leader will assist them in visiting a local school where possible.

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Walking in Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Reviewed 14 Sep 2008 by John Crookes4 star rating

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


Reaching the summit of Toubkal and then getting back down safely.

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


Be fit and have some prior experience of mountain walking.

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


I would like to say, that our guide, Abdul, was absolutely fantastic.

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


A great experience!

Reviewed 10 Sep 2007 by Liza Pullman4 star rating

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


Gite & Camping at Base Camp, local people, daily hikes leading up to summit hike.

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


You need to layer your clothing for the summit hike. Bring lightweight fleece, fleece vest, long and short sleeve athlete shirts, warm hat and gloves suitable for climbing and gripping rock.

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


Well somewhat - the gites and guides were run by local people and it provided important employment. However, pollution is a big problem - and the group added to that by consuming lots of water from plastic water bottles, and needing to go to the bathroom all along the hike. I understand the problems on Everest now with human waste! More needs to be done to curb waste and recycle appropriately. Burning plastic is not responsible.

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


I always love your holidays - and feel they are well planned and organized - first rate guides. I thought the hike was hard - but doable. The hotel in Marrakech was terrible and should be replaced with someplace more welcoming - its ok to have a welcoming hotel before transitioning to Gites and camping - Marrakech is a rough city - and I felt that the hotel prevented me from fully appreciating it because I did not have a "warm environment" to return to at the end of my day of walking. Also - as a single women - the access point to the Medina from the hotel was not ideal - especially for late nights.

Read the operator's response here:

I am glad to hear that you had a great time on your trip to Morocco and experienced many highlights. We are aware of the impact our groups have on the environment, in particular with regards to producing waste. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find feasible and effective solutions to this, given the local infrastructure for waste disposal. We always welcome any suggestions and feedback on this in order to help us reduce the negative impact our groups have on the environment. I am sorry to read that you felt uncomfortable in the Marrakech hotel. We do review all hotels we use on a regular basis and have found this hotel to be a safe choice for our travellers. Admittedly, it does not have the atmosphere of a small, family run hotel or guest house, being a somewhat larger property. Such small guest houses in a busy travellers’ destination like Marrakech usually cannot guarantee availability for groups. We feel that a guaranteed and reliable accommodation is particularly important for the starting point of a trip, when some individual travellers arrive on their own, and that is the reasoning behind our choice. We will, however, continue to look for the best properties possible.

Reviewed 06 Oct 2006 by Guy Busby4 star rating

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


The most memorable part was undoubtedly approaching the summit of Toubkal. After an arduous climb the views opened up across the Atlas range magnificently and suddenly the extra energy was found to push to the top. It was a wonderful feeling seeing the mountains open up before us.

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


Keep your head up and look around you. Morocco was an amazing country and there is a lot to take in.

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


Definitely. The impact on the environment of the trip was negligible and the guides and all other assistance was from the local Berber population. These people did benefit from the trade but also added a huge amount to the experience sharing their knowledge of the culture and country and their irrepressible spirit.
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Holiday 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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