My trip to Morocco was magical and a bucket list destination for me. I had planned this trip in my mind for years, and after several cancellations due to timing & coronavirus, I finally got to visit! I always imagined traveling solo like I usually do, but I realized Morocco would be different. Booking a group tour for my trip to Morocco was the best decision! If you’re in the planning stages of your journey and want to know if you should book a group tour or go solo to Morocco, keep reading!
Is Morocco Safe ?
Whether you want to visit just one city in Morocco or go on an expedition, I recommend booking a group tour. Why, you ask? Because Morocco has so much to offer, and you won’t be able to absorb it all while doing it alone. If you’re visiting Marrakech, especially as a solo woman like me, a lot of your time walking around will be spent dodging the countless shop owners in the medina. Because I went on a group tour, I had built-in security and could relax and enjoy the experience. I took pictures at my leisure without worrying about pickpocketers, catcalling, or typical things that happen when traveling solo. However, I did visit Marrakech three days before the group trip on my own and did not have such freedom. Whenever I walked around the medina, I had to be on guard and rarely took pictures unless I found a quiet corner.
Learn The History Of Morocco
Morocco has such a rich and beautiful history that it’s impossible to learn all about it in one visit, but having a knowledgeable tour guide helps. Several guides led us through our journey during my tour with Travel Talk Tours. Abdou was extremely helpful in explaining the culture of Morocco on topics such as marriage, politics, religion, and more. Abdou’s family is of Berber heritage, and he had a unique perspective I couldn’t have gotten with anyone else. If I had booked my trip outside of a group tour, it would’ve been hard to connect with my guide and ask personal questions. I appreciated that Travel Talk Tours highly vets their guides so you can have an optimal experience.
Transportation In Morocco
It’s not easy getting around Morocco if you don’t know what you’re doing. The Exotic Morocco tour visited five cities in ten days, and I couldn’t have planned all the transfers alone. This isn’t just about the cost; it’s about efficiency. If you plan to see all the sights like I did, you need to book a group tour like Travel Talk Tours. Public transportation can be lengthy when traveling around the country, especially in places like Chefchaouen, Essaouira, and Rabat. I noticed many other tours did not include these towns, which ended up being some of my favorites. A group tour is your best bet if you want a comprehensive look into what Morocco has to offer.
Efficiency
Booking with a group tour means you can be hands-off with the planning aspect of your trip. When I started posting my content to social media, I got a lot of comments about how I was able to fit so many activities into ten days. My secret was joining a group tour! In ten days, I saw so much of Morocco and visited historical monuments such as Hassan Mosque, Bahia Palace, argan oil making, goats in trees, and much more. When I had planned my trips previously, I never had several of these things on my list because they seemed out of the way and costly for one person. Booking with Travel Talk helped me see more of Morocco. I’m all about traveling efficiently because time is our most precious resource. I can’t tell you how nice it was to wake up and not worry about hotel reservations, activity planning, anything! All you have to do is wake up on time and show up to the van; the rest is taken care of. This tour allowed me the luxury of having downtime to think about life, talk with other people, and ask questions about Morocco!
The Downsides of a Group Tour
A group tour isn’t for everybody. If you have difficulty sharing space, this won’t be for you. I fortunately upgraded to the single supplement, so I had my own room in every city (I highly recommend it). You don’t want to come home to a stranger after a long day of excursions. But you will have to share a van with people you’ve never met. It’s not as scary as you think; it enriches the trip. Hearing others’ points of view on topics like religion, politics, and culture helped me understand Morocco even more. My group had fourteen other people, including my tour guide, and each person had a unique perspective that I could learn from. I thoroughly enjoyed having dinner with my new tour mates and discussing life in their cities. The group had people of all ages, so the stories were fun to hear!
Another downside is that there are no alternatives or upgrades. Travel Talk does not have an option (at least for the tour I was on ) to upgrade your room from whatever is presented. What you see is what you get. The tour states that the hotels are “3 & 4 Star”. However, they are more of a US 2-3 Star experience. I wouldn’t choose any of the hotels we had on my own, but I understand they were chosen due to them having free breakfast options for a large group of people.
For example, the tent I stayed in Merzouga during the Sahara Desert excursion was not up to my standard. I tried looking up pictures of the hotel beforehand, but it was minimal. When I arrived, I was shocked at how different the tent looked from what was advertised. Nevertheless, I was there for only two days, so I sucked it up. I rewarded myself with a flight home to Marrakech instead of the twelve-hour van ride from the desert. I arranged transportation with Abdou to Errachidia, booked a two-hour flight, and relaxed at my riad in Marrakech until my departure the next day.
Overall
If you’re planning on visiting Morocco, I recommend booking a group tour for the reasons I mentioned above. Travel Talk Tours is a great place to start for an efficiently planned trip. Let me know if you have any questions below!
While this tour was complimentary from Travel Talk Tours, all opinions are my own
