Miriam O'Keeffe review 23 Apr 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Trekking in High Atlas mountains; ferry across from Algeciras to Tangiers; the Medina in Fez; Semana Santa in Malaga.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Read your guidebook in advance - sometimes it was hard keeping all the info from the guides straight and we got lots of different versions of what stuff was/ meant etc. Be prepared to carry luggage up and down steps a lot and lift it up and down from high racks on the trains. The hotels were very very basic. No hot water in Fez a lot of the time. Food can be pretty samey - especially the breakfasts - lots and lots and lots of bread!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
It benefited local guides, hotels etc in Morocco. I would have liked to have had a female guide to get a different perspective. We passed the school where the tour operator are sponsoring two girls which was interesting. I think the train travel definitely had a minimal impact. Also guide quite often had us walk between station and hotels, sending our luggage ahead in a taxi - which minimised the number of minibuses/taxis we used (and probably had more to do with keeping the tour operator’s costs down than the environment!) We did eat in quite a few local restaurants, out of the way spots which was lovely.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A lovely varied experience. Lots of travel and things to do and see.
Raymond Alderton review 8 Oct 2008
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Seeing the different places and cultures. The optional trips to volubilis and high Atlas Mountains were very good.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Enjoy the trips make the most of the time available.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Appreciate the use of local guides and smaller hotels. No noticeable effect on environment but also no noticeable efforts to minimise effects and having guided tours that lead you into shops should benefit the shops but when most of the group are tired due to the travelling due to late trains they are less likely to buy anyway particularly if high value items offered eg carpets and pottery.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very good. I would say an extra day in the itinerary somewhere would allow a bit of breathing time especially if trains were late which apparently they do run late quite a bit.
Lucia Brusati review 29 Sep 2008
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The train journeys, the excursion to volubilis roman town.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Although this holiday doesn't require any trekking it is a quite demanding one for the train journeys and walking tours with no time to rest.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, we have used family run hotels and minimise taxi rides and of course this holiday is by train and ferry with no internal flights.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Great for cultural contrasts and for unusual itinerary but quite tiring.
