Casablanca Explorer Tours 2018/2019

“Very Good”

“Had one of the best tours of my life. The guide was great and the the tour is really rockin! Would highly recommend.”

“I did not write a review straight away as I had an issue to sort with exodus and I did not want that to cloud my review. I would agree with Tim ( Oct2015). when travelling leave your western attitudes at home and embrace the experience: the good,the bad and the ugly. We had all three. If this had just been the mountains and desert it would be five stars all the way. However the trip in the towns/villages made it feel more like a package tour holiday and there were just too many. I feel most of the group would have preferred an extra day in the desert or/and mountains. I did feel the transport could have been better. I have only Cuba via exodus to compare it with and that really was first class.”

“This trip covers a lot of ground. I have been to Morocco several times so knew what to expect to a degree and I took my partner along this time to see some of things I have enjoyed in the past. We booked the Premium departure as I wanted to ease my partner into travel in the African continent with as many comforts as possible and we were very glad we paid the little extra as the better desert riad is definitely worth it! It has been mentioned that this is quite a sanitised trip, where there is little interaction with locals and I would agree with this to an extent but you do have free days and we took ourselves off to visit a local (non tourist) hammam, where we had a blast with the locals. We knew that the better parts of the trip would be the desert and mountains so went with the flow in the cities. The city guides were very good and knowledgeable and spoke very good English. I would agree with other comments that the day in Fes does become frustrating as you are herded from one selected shop to another, Fes is a maze and without help you would get very lost. We did feel we learned a lot though and the shopkeepers were good fun. It's just a long and tiring day in the heat.
Many of the group were ill and I think this made it difficult for some of the group to enjoy much of the trip. One couple were quite rude about making sure they always had the best seats and their insensitivity extended to wildly inappropriate dress when visiting a local household. There was a fair bit of moaning and this spoilt the trip to an extent. I felt like a tourist at times and not in a good way but there were opportunities to make a break for it and do things on our own.”

“If you're looking to see a vast amount of Morocco this is a great trip. If you want to meet and interact with Moroccans and have in depth experiences and understanding of Morocco, this possibly won't deliver. There are several long days on the bus and we believe Essaouira could be deleted to spend more time in other interesting areas like Fes or the Todra or Dades Gorges.
Much of a trip's enjoyment comes as a result of the tour leader and also group dynamics. We felt the group of 15 generally bonded (with a few exceptions) but that the tour leader was very restrained and overly cautious. We believe we saw a lot of beautiful countryside but never really met or interacted with any Moroccans who weren't in retail or at a hotel.
The food was much more expensive and bland than we were expecting and seemed very generically "Moroccan" with unflavored couscous, limp vegetable tagines, and overcooked meat skewers. Bring some Tabasco if you like food with some flavor.
Hotels were generally of good quality but not always within walking distance of sights (in Fes it's in New Town and nowhere near the Medina or restaurants).
We do enjoy learning about different cultures and their history, socio-economic policies, and arts and crafts, but each time we stopped somewhere to learn about these it became a (sometimes high-pressure) sales job. The afternoon in Fes seemed completely devoted to going from craft shop to craft shop.
Generally we are happy with the trip and the fellow travelers we met. The hotels were very adequate (this IS Africa, after all) but the food uninspired. The shopping pressure turned us off and we felt our tour leader's over abundance of caution prevented us from really having contact with local Moroccans. It was disappointing due to heavy rain we weren't able to experience the Kasbah Oliver hammam. There wasn't very much physical activity. The long days in the van could have been made more enjoyable and interesting, but instead most of us spent the hours either reading, listening to music, or sleeping. On the days we had free time the trip notes mentioned optional activities but most were never presented to us, weren't possible, or were reatedly forgotten by our leader. The free morning & afternoon before the camel trek seemed a complete waste with no optional activities and only shopping possible. It seemed we spent a lot of time sitting around between meals and group meetings.”

“There is definitely no way I could have seen all of the things shown on the Highlights of Morocco tour on my own. The tour covered almost all of the famous landmarks and showcases Morocco's diversity. That being said, there is a lot of time spent on a bus and some limitations on your everyday freedom to choose activities. I definitely felt safe being part of the exodus group and I thought the accommodations were excellent.”

“It was excellent trip ,from the desert to the mountain to the west coast essaouira.”

“A very interesting tour. Lots of diversity. Great guide with us .”

“an excellent trip, plenty of diversity. Being Dec/Jan the weather was a lot colder than I expected and I did't pack enough warm clothes. I expected being in the desert and in the mountains would be cold but not in some of the cities we visited. However there was wall to wall sunshine and this made the 2 weeks very colourful. We found the local people very friendly and the shopping areas easy to walk around without too much hassle.”