rec.travel Morocco FAQ

Question:How do I get there from elsewhere?

There are three main ways to get to Morocco, other than the ferries from Spain:

Fly direct - by Royal Air Maroc from London or New York, by Iberia from Madrid, Air France from Paris, BA from London or Sabena from Belgium. BA have the best choice of internal arrival points. Otherwise, Casablanca is the most frequent, and cheapest, of the destination cities.

Fly via a hub - Air France and Sabena will fly from most European regional airports via their hubs of Paris and Brussels, respectively.

Fly charter to south of Spain or Gibraltar. See the question on How to get there from Spain? for information on travelling on to Morocco. Note that charter flights are now more restrictive than in the past, and it is harder both to get a flight on its own, and more so, to travel for longer than 2 weeks.

Caveats

Unless you are particularly excited by the prospect of your luggage departing in a totally different direction from your person, think twice about flying Air France - they have an especially bad, and earned, reputation for losing baggage, and are not very helpful to those whom they thus deprive.
Be careful about very early and late departures. Public transport to Casablanca has recently been extended with an early train, with the first trains arriving at around 6am and departing at 10:30pm. The only other alternative is an expensive grand taxi ride - as of Sept 99 this was 200Dh to Casablanca (rising to 300Dh for arrivals after 11pm) and 500Dh to Rabat.

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Berber	Original inhabitants of Maghreb. Never quite conquered by the Romans, and neither by Arabs or Islam. Most Moroccans are Berber by birth, many of the festivals and more colourful aspects of Morocco are Berber in origin, and Berber clothing (much less restrictive for woman than orthodox Muslim), dialects, holy men (remnants of pre-Islamic cults), shrines, rugs and jewellry are common throughout the country. Individual Berber tribes have their own distinct identity, language and designs.
Camion	French for lorry. Provide the main, albeit erratic, transport infrastructure for the Atlas villages.
Couscous	Pre-cooked cracked grain and staple food. Frequently accompanied in an invitation to lunch by gratuitous quacking motion of the hand.
Djellaba	Traditional North African robe.
Erg	Sandy desert in general, and a dune in particular.
Gnaoua	Traditional and ritual music, accompanied by ecstatic dance, one of the traditional music brotherhoods.
Hammada	Stony desert. Most of the Moroccan Sahara is composed of such.
Hammam	Public steam baths
Jajouka	A village in the Jibala hills near Tangiers, site of an annual moussem believed by some to be a continuation of the ancient Roman fertility rites of Lupercalia, and location of the musical Ecstatic Brotherhood.
Jilala	Religious music, with Sufi origins, played on ceremonial and ritual occasions. Dancers, entering a trance, are able to slash themselves with daggers or touch glowing coals without pain or injury.
Kif	Cannabis, grown in the Rif mountains, to the east of Tangier.
Maghreb	Literally, the west. The Arab term for the north-west African states, the furthest western edge of the Arab world.
Medina	The old non-European part of a city. Equivalent to a 'cantonment' in an English colonial city.
Medersa	Old student buildings associated with large mosques. Usually built in the old Roman style around a pool-filled atrium with elaborately carved wood.
Moussem	Berber festival, typically in honour of a local holy man (although it's believed that one of the "local" holy men is the Jewish John the Baptist). Stamp of hooves, crack of rifles, auto-winds of a thousand cameras...
Rugbuyer	You!
Souk	Market for specific produce in the medina.
Tajine	Dome shaped terracotta cooking pot which lends its name to the classic North African dish. The ubquity of tajine cookery is responsible for the local song and traveller's saying 'tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine'
Ville Nouvelle	The separate French or Spanish town built near or adjacent to the medina.
Words Not Defined Here

Berber

Original inhabitants of Maghreb. Never quite conquered by the Romans, and neither by Arabs or Islam. Most Moroccans are Berber by birth, many of the festivals and more colourful aspects of Morocco are Berber in origin, and Berber clothing (much less restrictive for woman than orthodox Muslim), dialects, holy men (remnants of pre-Islamic cults), shrines, rugs and jewellry are common throughout the country. Individual Berber tribes have their own distinct identity, language and designs.

Camion

French for lorry. Provide the main, albeit erratic, transport infrastructure for the Atlas villages.

Couscous

Pre-cooked cracked grain and staple food. Frequently accompanied in an invitation to lunch by gratuitous quacking motion of the hand.

Djellaba

Traditional North African robe.

Erg

Sandy desert in general, and a dune in particular.

Gnaoua

Traditional and ritual music, accompanied by ecstatic dance, one of the traditional music brotherhoods.

Hammada

Stony desert. Most of the Moroccan Sahara is composed of such.

Hammam

Public steam baths

Jajouka

A village in the Jibala hills near Tangiers, site of an annual moussem believed by some to be a continuation of the ancient Roman fertility rites of Lupercalia, and location of the musical Ecstatic Brotherhood.

Jilala

Religious music, with Sufi origins, played on ceremonial and ritual occasions. Dancers, entering a trance, are able to slash themselves with daggers or touch glowing coals without pain or injury.

Kif

Cannabis, grown in the Rif mountains, to the east of Tangier.

Maghreb

Literally, the west. The Arab term for the north-west African states, the furthest western edge of the Arab world.

Medina

The old non-European part of a city. Equivalent to a 'cantonment' in an English colonial city.

Medersa

Old student buildings associated with large mosques. Usually built in the old Roman style around a pool-filled atrium with elaborately carved wood.

Moussem

Berber festival, typically in honour of a local holy man (although it's believed that one of the "local" holy men is the Jewish John the Baptist). Stamp of hooves, crack of rifles, auto-winds of a thousand cameras...

Rugbuyer

You!

Souk

Market for specific produce in the medina.

Tajine

Dome shaped terracotta cooking pot which lends its name to the classic North African dish. The ubquity of tajine cookery is responsible for the local song and traveller's saying 'tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine, tajine'

Ville Nouvelle

The separate French or Spanish town built near or adjacent to the medina.

Words Not Defined Here

rec.travel Morocco FAQ

Question:How do I get there from elsewhere?

Caveats

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Other References

Other References

Other References

Other References

Other References