A Taste of Morocco - the destination on everybody's lips!

I’m pretty sure that you would have caught the drool-worthy content from Morocco on our Instagram account by now. And I’m sure it’s got you thinking about planning your very own sensory-overloaded trip to the beautiful and diverse landscapes of Morocco.

First things first, this trip was absolutely not for the faint-hearted, and personally, I’d only recommend this destination (the way that WE did it) for an experienced traveller or as part of a group. It can get overwhelming quite quickly, and there were a number of clunky issues that required a bit of resilience (and a lot of patience) to be able to iron out the creases.

One of the girls messaged me saying this:

“Thank you for hosting us here. I’m glad that I went with you and the girls. I wouldn’t have coped there on my own! I’m sure I’ll be on one of your trips again. You’re not getting rid of me any time soon!”

With that said…

It was a true trip of a LIFETIME; Full of bright colours, historical culture, adventure around every corner, a bunch of stunning and vibrant landscapes, unique experiences, a whole lot of laughter and so many new friendships!

This was the second ever group trip hosted by Travel Addicts UK and it was a big, bold leap from the relaxing chilled vibes of our 2022 Cappadocia trip girls trip. But you know what they say, go big or go home!! (or in this case, stay home 😉)

I started planning this trip a year ago and pulled out all of the stops when it came to the itinerary, the accommodation and the activities I had up my sleeve. I just knew that Morocco would be a bucket list destination for the girls within the Travel Addicts community and I wanted to make that it was a trip to remember for not only me, but for the 11 guests who joined me on this unique trip.

Marrakech

Our first stop was the vibrant and chaotic city of Marrakech. Hidden amongst the crumbling side streets of the medina you’ll find beautiful doorways that conceal some of the most stunning and unassuming Riads (traditional Moroccan accommodation), restaurants and rooftop hotspots.

I took it upon myself to hire out an entire riad for this part of the trip. The stunning Riad Paradis Blanc is where we had our giant two-day sleepover, a pyjama party with shisha and wine, a private welcome dinner, a group cooking class, a bunch of photoshoots, some splashing about in the pool and the most indulgent breakfasts on the rooftop.

Our days were filled with exploring the busy side streets of the medina, eating delicious street food, finding the best rooftop views, doing our best to avoid the snake-charmers and the monkey handlers, dodging donkeys and carts in the most narrow walkways, shopping for spices and cosmetics and giggling our way through the travel mishaps and chaotic moments. We would then sidle off into our secret hidden gem of a riad in the medina to kick back and relax…

Highlights:

Visiting La Jardin Majorelle was brilliant. I expected it to be a bit of a tourist trap, but the lushness and contrast of colours between the Moroccan blues and the bright and colourful greenery was truly breathtaking. Be sure to also check out the Berber Museum while you’re there - the jewellery will blow your mind!

Essaouira

I visited Essaouira back in 2021 and I knew that this gorgeous port town needed to make an appearance on the itinerary. It’s such a beautiful part of Morocco that often gets overlooked and overshadowed by Marrakech and Chefchaouen. Trust me, add this to your Morocco trip - it turned out to be the unexpected highlight for most girls on the trip!

I booked to stay in one of my favourite hotels in the world - Salut Maroc. It’s in the heart of the Essaouira medina and is a traditional riad with the most colourful and explosive twist. It’s filled with bright colours and the design is filled with an extreme modern-classic contradictions. The bath tub in my suite overlooked the Atlantic Ocean and the Portuguese canons on the outside of the fort. For breakfast we had the most breathtaking views, and the amount and the quality of food that we ate has me still thinking about it now! By far one of the BEST hotel breakfasts I’ve ever had!

Our days here were spent surfing, wandering through the chilled and relaxing medina, making friends with the many teeny tiny kittens that trotted around our ankles, visiting the wood workshops, jewellery makers, art galleries and watching the most talented people work on their crafts right in front of us. We also went to listen to live music and danced the night away which still makes me break out into involuntary laughter even now.

Highlights:

The surf lesson was SO much fun! Once we learned the technique on sand, we then took the sea and spent two intense hours splashing about in the salty water whilst trying (and many times failing) to stand up on our surf boards and ride those waves. Essaouira offers the best of both worlds, with the stunning 360 views paired with the shops in the medina without the crazy chaos and hustle and bustle of Marrakech - plus with the added bonus of sun, sand and salty air.

Agafay Desert

This luxury desert escape was the highly anticipated finale of our Taste of Morocco girls trip. From Essaouira, we were whisked away deep into the rocky, dusty Agafay desert where we checked into Agafay Luxury Camp. The word ‘glamping’ doesn’t quite describe the level of the accommodation we checked into. Our tents were luxurious and huge, we had an indoor shower with a window that overlooked the desert, a terrace area that had an outdoor bathtub, beautiful and modern-chic interior design, huge windows in the room that faced out to the camels in the desert - it was incredible.

While we were there, a few of the girls did a sunrise hot air balloon, we did camel rides, ATV’s through the desert, hammam spa experiences, an impromptu pool party, stargazing whilst wrapped up in blankets at the fire pits, danced with locals to traditional Berber music. So many magical and special moments it’s actually hard to believe that they were even real!

Highlights:

Doing absolutely NOTHING!! I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to spend the days sitting by the infinity pool overlooking the sand dunes, or playing with the family of baby kittens, or sitting on the swing and having a million “pinch me” moments rolled into one, staring up at the stars, relaxing by the bonfire, dancing with the locals… it was all so magical.

A couple of notes about Morocco…

• Timekeeping

There were more than a few instances (particularly in Marrakech) that timings went out of the window. When organising a group, I know the importance of things running on a clear schedule, and it felt like no matter how much I tried, my requests to get people checked into their rooms, get drinks on the table, have dinner served, have coffee and juice with breakfast were constantly dismissed. The worst experience of ALL was the group cooking class (which was organised eight months in advance!) - To cut a long story short, we started the class at 6:30pm, and the group didn’t eat until after 10pm. It was a disaster - trust me, a ‘hangry’ group of girls is NOT what you want on a trip 😂 Thankfully, we can laugh about it now.

• Objectification of women

This is a serious one. I know that Morocco has a bad reputation for this, but I want to point out that overall, I felt very safe on the trip, especially when we were out and about as a group. The locals were friendly, welcoming and polite. Unfortunately we had an incident in the desert where an activity guide inappropriately touched two of my guests in the chest area when they were on a private trip. Of course, I handled this immediately - my main issue was that nobody seemed to take this seriously at first and it took many heated conversations and three back-to-back calls between the receptionist and the manager before anything reasonable was done. I did not like the flippant attitude towards this, and it made me quite concerned about tolerance levels. I don’t want to deter anyone from visiting, but it’s made me more aware that being in a group, or having a male travel with you is likely to minimise the opportunity for this type of interaction.

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It’s crazy to think that one single week has imprinted more memories than I have the capacity to even think about right now. The ‘Morocco group chat’ is still rolling and I’m blown away at the photos that keep surfacing that I had no idea were taken, or little memories and moments that the girls are reflecting on that had completely slipped my mind.

This is what I LOVE about group travel, you can all have the same experience, yet have a completely different perspective and that’s been such a pleasure to see as the group have shared their reels and their stories online.

If you’re curious about what it’s like to travel with our community - whether it’s a day out in London or an international girls trip to the other side of the world, take this as your sign to jump in!

Would you join us on a Travel Addicts Adventure?

• Abso-freaking-lutely!!
• I'm not sure it's for me...

Next up, we’ve got our Staycation Weekender in Kent in July and this is your invitation to join us! There will be a pizza party, movie night, pool party, games tournament and plenty of opportunities to get to know your new travel buddies. This is the perfect way to dip your toe in the water and see first-hand what it’s like to be a Travel Addict!

Bring your friends, and let’s go!!