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Published: November 8th 2009
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I have just been to Morocco for four days from the 1st of November to the 5th. It was a short but intense trip to this North African country. I love Arabic culture and I also speak French therefore Morocco has been on my list of countries to visit for years!
I went there with my husband Matt and my 18 months old son Oliver. Since I became a mother it comes only natural for me to be eager to pass my travelling passion to my son....since he was born he is already been to Scotland, Denmark, Turkey, USA and Italy.
I was looking forward to take him to Morocco where he could have experienced different sights, smells and people, even more exotic than those in the countries he has been already. People are really ignorant and annoy me when they say" He won’t remember anything!" Under a cognitive point of view they are probably right but they are unfortunately overlooking the stimulation that every trip provides to an infant's brain, and an infant brain during the first 3 years of life is developing fast, extremely fast, stimulating it in every way can only do good, contributing to his IQ,
EQ and imagination which will last throughout his life and a trip somewhere is a source of endless stimulation even for a child that young! Anyway...let's get back to my Moroccan experience!
We booked this trip trough a website and found a really good deal ( I called it our credit crunch holiday) 4 days in Marrakech flight and hotel included for the whole family for only 350 GBP.
We stayed at a hotel that was advertised as a 4 stars but I'd give it a 2 stars ratings really as it is very old and their credit card machine doesn’t even work, it’s also a little further from the centre a 20 Dirham (£2) taxi ride from it...however for both the hotel price and the taxi fare who can complain?
Marrakech is a city full of colours and life and very easy to visit , especially if you are in a short trip...if you are fast and furious and you don’t have much time half a day visit is enough. We visited this city on our first day starting by "Djemaa el Fna", square and market place in Marrakesh's medina quarter. It is a large square with
lots of things going on from food stalls to snake charmers! Be aware of the latter, they will "force" themselves to take a picture with you and the snakes and try to charge you about 10 GBP for it.
Behind the square there is a souk in which it is really easy to get lost, they sell anything from leather jackets to sheep heads! We also took a tour bus showing around Marrakech's main sights, the ride lasted about 1 hr and a half. That day we even managed to book our desert trip, which was the main reason why I wanted to go to Morocco. We found a cheap, reliable desert tour agency just around the corner from Djemma el Fna, it was run by women, very friendly and efficient, and they charged us about 50GBP per person for a two days trip to the desert. They can arrange next day trips with a small group and everything is included: overnight stay in the desert and breakfast, but not lunch.
So the next day we woke up early and waited outside our hotel for the van to pick us up and take us to the Desert, the
trip to the town of Zagora ( just at the edge of the desert) lasted 8 hours, but we had many stops. The route from Marrakech to Zagora is filled by high mountains and if you are acrophobic it’s not the place to go!
Once there Berber men with camels were waiting for us and off we went for a camel ride lasting 1 hours and a half to the desert.
I have to say riding a camel it's harder than you think, especially while holding a child. I couldn't wait to get off, in the other hand Oliver loved it: it squealed all the way with delight! It's a great workout by the way, the next day all my muscles were aching.
The desert is breathtakingly beautiful, a part of it is very lush and has an amazing sunset and even better sunrise. However they didn't take us very far, you could still see road lights from where you were. We slept in a berber tent overnight sharing with the people from our tour group, Oliver absolutely loved the experience.. So, my advice for people with young children thinking of going to Morocco is go for it:
it's no fuss at all, even if you go to the desert. Moroccan people absolutely love children, and Oliver was entertained and kissed almost constantly by the people! Moroccan women would stop us to have a look at Oliver and the men would whisk him away to play with him (off course always under my supervision) .
At last I have to say that the experience was great and Morocco feels very safe, the only problem was that they often try to rip you off ( as in many parts of the world) and one advice I was given by local people was that if the charge you a price try to bargain for the 10% of it .
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