I just got back from an amazing trip to Morocco and wanted to share it with everyone.
Some background I booked the whole Morocco part of our trip with a random tour company that I found online and they were amazing!! For 550 euro a person we had a driver in a luxurious new van who was on call and available 24/7, 4 nights of luxury accommodations, and most of the activities included.
Just to get the boring part out of the way, we started our trip flying from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam on Wednesday where we spent a really fun day and a half. On Friday morning we drove an hour and a half to Antwerp for Shabbos and on Motzei Shabbos we drove back to the Netherlands to sleep in an airport hotel next to Rotterdam airport in preparation for our early morning flight to Morocco.
Now starts the exciting part!!!
Sunday morning we flew with Transavia at 7:30 am from RTM to FEZ. The cost of this flight was 68$ and due to Morocco having changed the clock that morning even with the 3 hour flight we landed at 9:30. We proceeded through immigration, and even though there weren’t many people in line it took about an hour to get through, our driver Youssef was waiting for us and told us that it’s normal for people to wait for a few hours so I guess we got lucky.
We left the airport and headed in to Fes and straight to the Jewish area which in Morocco is called a Mellah. We first went to the cemetery where we visited many kevarim, such as the kever of Sulika, a 17 year old girl who was killed for refusing to convert to Islam and marry a Musilim, we then walked across the street to the kings palace in Fes (he has one in every big city in Morocco) and took pictures in the front as you are not allowed to go inside.
We then checked in to our first riad Palais Houyam which was pretty nice, service was amazing with more tea offered then you can imagine and the rooms were really cool, extremely Moroccan, and very different from what we were used to. On the downside the rooms were clearly a little old and could use a refresh and the mattresses were very hard which seems to be the norm in Morocco.
After around a hour and a half of rest we were picked up by our local guide for a tour of the Medina (old city) which was amazing, it’s the largest urban car free area in the world and you can spend hours just walking through it, donkeys, tons of people, food stalls, craftsman practicing their trade on the ground, old men playing card games, full goats available for purchase, and chickens that you can choose on the spot to be killed and cut up, the smells and sounds really blend together to make a crazy experience. We walked around for about 2 hours and then visited a shop where they weave thread into clothes, the tannery where they dye animal skin, and a famous Islamic school, we ended our tour with the Rambams house where he officially lived for a few years while studying in Fes.
When walking through the Medina you have to be prepared to be harassed for money and for everyone begging you to buy stuff, this can get pretty annoying but if you just say thank you but no and keep walking you should be fine, we also walked around the whole time with our yarmulkes on and with our tzitis out and felt extremely comfortable. Most Moroccans are extremely nice and respectful people and from our experience treat you way better then the average tourist if you are visibly Jewish, I felt more comfortable as a Jew in Morocco then I’ve felt in the 10+ European countries I’ve visited.
After around 4 hours in total of touring we headed over to Dragon kosher restaurant for supper, the food was a mix of Moroccan and Israeli cuisine and was very good, We also picked up 15 bags of food for the next 2 days when we would be in the desert and not have access to kosher food, we returned to our riad and went down to the riads spa for our Moroccan hamman and massage treatment, this is a really cool experience as it’s pretty much like getting a bath, from shampooing your hair to cleaning in between your toes they also have a hard comb that removes the top layer of your skin, its quite different from any massage I’ve gotten before but it’s an amazing experience and pretty much a must do.
That’s all for day one.
Hopefully I will post the rest soon.
The tannery
Main entry gate to the Medina
Moroccan beef couscous at Dragon kosher restaurant
