PalmPilot versionQuestion: Where should I go?
Everywhere! However, the best parts include:
Hotel Prices
All prices are for a double room, and include taxes. Last applicable dates are supplied where known.
| Imperial Cities |
Fez
| "You say you are going to Fez. Now, if you say you are going to Fez, then that means you are not going to Fez. But I happen to know you are going to Fez. Why have you lied to me, you who are my friend?" |
| (Moroccan saying, quoted in Paul Bowles'The Spider's House) |
The classic North African city; like others in Morocco divided between a ville nouvelle and a medina (plus a new medina - new as in around 500 years old). The ville nouvelle is a pleasant but ordinary French-style town; the medina is like something out of a biblical epic. There are miles of dense, narrow, twisting passageways (Colossal Cave fans have been here before) negotiated by black-clad women, donkeys and camcordered tourists. The lanes are full of little shops selling carpets and videos, workshops producing tiles and souvenirs, and soukhs arranged according to produce. The most famous part is the tannery - donkeys bearing dead creatures enter, then there is a progression of workshops in various stages of the process and finally an enormous courtyard of Zhang-Yhimou-hued vats.
The whole thing doesn't seem to have changed much since the Middle Ages or before. The mosques inside the medina are massive, but are difficult to appreciate since they're hemmed in on all sides; the other major feature are the medersas - the old student accommodation for the mosques - these are full of delicate workmanship and are, like Roman buildings, centred around an atrium and pool.
While anyone with a nose to guide them can easily get round the medinas elsewhere in Morocco, the one in Fez really does need a guide, at least for an initial orientation. One big advantage of having a guide is that one is left alone by practically all the other guides - it can be great fun simply making one's way through a thronged soukh amongst all the strange faces and tent-clad women. On the other hand, you can be certain that your guide will make the trip via the carpet store, the clothes store (Mr Bouchta's being the touristically priced favourite), the trinket store, herbalist, leather goods store and the tourist restaurant.
Transport
N.B. The CTM station has recently moved to a well-organized modern complex above Place De L'Atlas (near Hotel Rex). The new station is more focussed on long-distance buses (e.g. Casa and Frankfurt) and there are no longer any buses leaving for the deep South - all CTM lines to Midelt, Errachdia etc now leave from Meknes. However, private buses (from the station behind the old CTM station, and remaining Hotel CTM) still run on these lines, and grand taxis (leaving from next to the new CTM) make regular trips (24DH each, 9/99) to Azrou, from where the buses from Meknes can be picked up.
Hotels
There's a clear choice here (unless one can afford the Hotel Palais Jamai in the centre of the medina, hub of events in The Spiders House): either a normal, tourist hotel in the ville nouvelle (such as the slightly out of centre Sheraton), where one may relax in western surroundings and sit about at a café or bar, or the basic medina hotels. Purists would suggest that only staying in the latter is the real Morocco; whilst it is true that living in the medina for a few days, in the middle of a medieval town, is a profound experience; most Moroccans live, not in a Fez-like past, but in cities and towns more akin to the ville nouvelle; spending the day in the medina and the evening in the new town, may be a better experience of the Magrhebi antisyzygy.
Hotel Olypmic is a spruce ville nouvelle establishment, albeit with occasionally erratic plumbing, a few yards from the main drag, and immediately opposite the city's liquor store (284DH, inc. breakfast; no credit cards - 9/99)
Restaurants
If you're being taken on a tour, you will very likely find yourself coincidentally in the vicinity of Dar El Jamai around lunchtime (120DH set meal; 9/99); setting is good, but food is mediocre. A better pit stop en tour are the little local hole in the wall food outlets, esp. around Bab Boujeloud; freshly fried slices of aubergine (eggplant) sizzling being the tell-tale sign. The ville nouvelle has a few pizzerias, cafés and tajine joints.
Links
Marrakesh
This is a large, prosperous and rapidly expanding town, with a medina of much less interest than Fez, but with palaces, tombs and mosques worthy of attention. Each summer, the El Baadi Palace is lit up in the manner of the Carcalla Baths in Rome and a Festival of Moroccan Folk Music held, complete with charging horses and acrobats - whilst this may appear to be an event for the Agadir-bound, it is also popular with Moroccans themselves - tribal loyalties are easily spotted amongst the audience as the many different folk styles are played. The Djemaa El Fna is at first sight, disappointingly, a large piece of tarmac - it comes alive however at dusk, when the story tellers, dancers, food stalls and magic retailers are packed with Moroccans and foreigners. You can choose to watch from one of the cafés or restaurants surrounding it, and marvel at the myriad bikes, mopeds and cars darting about like moths around the candle and managing to weave their way through the melee, but miss the atmosphere that only participating on the ground can deliver.
Images of Marrakesh
Transport
For a taste of what the Djemma El Fnaa was like, in the days before the hustler-crackdown, visit the bus station. Younger hustlers work outside the station, and as soon as they have elicited your destination, will follow you into the station, run to the ticket booth, buy the tickets and demand a large fee. Inside the station, their older brethren stand around performing the same totally unnecessary and unpleasant function. If you intend to travel from the station, walk purposefully inside and ignore the hustle - the station is well organized and it's very easy to find the ticket booths and bus stands with no interference.
Buses run by ONCF also leave from the rail station, with a good service to Essaouria. (RoughGuiders should ignore the bus times given even in the pre 2001 editions). Current departures (Sept 99) are Essaouria at 1130 and 1950; Agadir at 0530, 1315, 1505, 1800, 2235; Dakhla (last staging post for Mauritania) at 1505; Laayoune at 1505 and 2245. Also from the ONCF station is a train to the airport at 0130, 0700, 0900, 1200, 1415 and 1630.
Hotels
The palatial La Mammounia, if within budget! (Tel (011-212) 4 448 981, Fax (011-212) 4 444 4660); if not, the Hotel de CTM (the old bus station, right on the Djemma El Fna, converted into cool, covered courtyards surrounded by rooms, and patrolled by a lazy set of cats. It's cheap, and has a rooftop café - order an orange juice from the waiter, and see him gesture to the orange-squeezers in the market and a young lad run up to deliver) or the Hotel Ali (poor security in some rooms, but with buffets on the roof, web café on the premises and a helpful front desk). Western-Type: Hotel Tropicana (Rec: Allen Banick), and the Hotel du Pacha. Details and booking for the Sheraton Marrakech may be made on-line.
Restaurants
There are a dozen places around the square; these divide between the tourist & better-off Moroccan restaurants and some ultra-cheap simple places. Beware of the musical tastes of the former - who really wants to sit at the historical market of the dead deafened by Jean-Michel Jarre or Celine Dion? The ville nouvelle now boasts a selection of international restaurants to relieve the tedium of couscous and tajine - however quality varies: the Le Dragon D'Or has a chef no more Chinese than any of the Djemaa El Fnaa, rice supplied by Uncle Ben and meals out of a can; Chinese as your mother would make, if she weren't Chinese. Anne Abbott recommends:-
- Yacout, 79 Sidi Ahmed Soussi (Tel 441903)
- Kassar (Moroccan)
- La Trattoria (Italian): 179, Rue Mohamed El Bequal, (Tel 43 26 41)
- La Jacaranda (French), 32 Blvd Mohammed Zerktouni (Tel 44 72 15)
- La Rotunda (Italian/Moroccan)
Shopping
Anne also recommends these stores:-
- L'Art Marocain (everything, antiques, home furnishings)
50, Kzadriya Bab Mellah near the Balais Badia - Amazonite (nice jewelry, silver, gold items, small ethnic pieces)
94 Bd El Mansour Eddahbi, Gueliz (in the French Quarter)
Links
Meknes
This is a little empty of tourists, despite being one of the Imperial cities and being close to the old Roman city of Volublis. A short train journey from Fez, or regular buses from Tangier lead here. Apart from the Roman remains, the city offers the only tourist-accessible mosque, a pristine Christian Slave Prison, and the remnants of a massive palace. ( Street Scene)
Hotels & Restaurants
The half dozen or so Western style hotels are concentrated in the Ville Nouvelle, all within a few hundred yards/metres of each other (and within a similar radius of a squatter camp). Hotel Transatlantique comes recommended. Few restaurants, some cafés around the hotels, a cholera epidemic in 1992; Fez is only an hour/dollar away...
Links
Rabat
Official royal residence of and administrative capital of the country - only an hour away by modern railway or highway from Casa, Morocco's commercial capital. Unlike Casa, it does have worthwhile historical sites - esp. the old Roman/ early Islamic Citadel, the tiny old medina with famous gate and café overlooking the bay, and the massive (now ruined) mosque next to the terribly tasteless Hassan mausoleum. There's also a large ville nouvelle with large stores, embassies and a splendidly friendly and disorganised tourist office. Salè is part of the Rabat conurbation, and site of the annual Wax Fair; the medina here is a delightful place to explore, with a medersa to match any in Fez, friendly children, and lovely views over Rabat and the Atlantic.
Hotels
Orin Hargreaves recommends Hotel Balima on Avenue Mohammed V (Tel:677-55) and Hotel Splendid on rue Ghaza (Tel:232-83). Hotel D'Orsay is ideally placed for the railway station, yet is quiet and well run (259DH, 9/99).
Restaurants
Rabat has the widest choice of world cuisine in Morocco, including such well established places as the Chinese Restaurant Hong Kong on Av Mohammed V, serving the capital for over 30 years. The Italian tradition is as long, with good pizza and pasta at the licensed La Mamma (behind Hotel Balima); nothing stronger than cola, but cheap and tasty pizzas in the modern American diner, not far from Napoli (which some guides still have as a pizerria, but is now a fish restaurant.)
For those with Mediterranean tastes east of the Adriatic, the star of Rabat is Restaurant Saidoune in a small mall diagonally across from the main train station - this could be your only hommous in Morocco, and there's decent falafel, tabouleh and divine babah ganoushj to accompany it.
Links
| Other Cities |
Agadir
After the original town was destroyed in an earthquake, this package tourist resort was created, in the mould of the Spanish Costa Brava on the Atlanic Coast. Of little interest, except Western cultural relief, for the independent traveller a little overoriented.
Links
Casablanca
The fact that Sam's bar is here but is a recent addition to a modern hotel sums this place up - more Marseilles than Marrakech. Being a largely industrial/commercial city it's attracted many thousands of migrants from the rest of the country, many of whom live in squatter camps, and some of whom engage in petty crime and prostitution. Connections are good to Rabat, Essaouria (overnight air-cond coach) and Marrakesh.
Transport
Petit taxis are easily hailed (Pl Mohammed V to Gare des Voyageurs, 30DH, 9/99). Airport taxis are expensive - at 9/99, standard rates were 200DH, with an extra 100DH demanded for journeys ending after 11pm.
Hotels
Anne Abbott & friends recommend the Riad Salam on the Corniche. (Tel (011) 212-2-391-313, Fax (011) 212-2-391-345). Very central, and good value is Hotel Lausanne, opposite Cinema Lutetia (not the Lusitania as the Rough Guide suggests) near Place Mohammed V (260DH, 9/99). On-line details and booking for the Royal Mansour and Sheraton
Restaurants
One of the country's few Indian restaurants, the Nasraj on Rue Chenier, has food that elsewhere would be mediocre, but in Morocco, is a welcome relief. Real beer, and sometimes real Indians in the clientele. The nearby Maharajah offers nothing more subcontinental than mutton or lamb tajine.
Links
Tangier
| "O Tingis! Tingis! O dementa Tingis, illusa civitas..." |
| St Francis |
Most people come here from the Spanish ferry; there being no other very good reason to come: the only useful railway connection is the overnight sleeper to Marrakesh - all other trains stop at Sidi Kacem (Berber for The Middle Of Nowhere) and one must wait for hours for a connecting train to Fez or Rabat. Because so many day trippers come from Spain (to do Africa!), Tangier has more hustlers than anywhere else. A steady diet of naive tourists is guaranteed, and a reception committee is waiting at the port. The medina is large, interesting, esp. since it contains remnants of Moorish, French, Spanish & British control. The city is now a rather large building site, and has the appearance to the eye of Beirut, but no longer has that seedy international air when home to the Beats, espionage and other shady action.
Hotels
The Grand Hotel Villa de France (the one with the Matisse room) in the medina closed in 1992 for refurbishment, and is now no longer the faded bargain it once was. The ville nouvelle has dozens of vanilla 4-star hotels - typically about $25-$30 for a double (and for Olympic-sized swimming pool substitute rather cold little foot bath which we occasionally open). For 30s grandeur, the Hotel El Minzah, created by Lord Bute and refurbished in the early 90s, has it all.
Links
| Out of the Cities |
Azrou
Mountain town and winter ski centre. Much cooler and more laid back than the cities below. Only hustling likely to be mild but persistent shop invites, although some travellers encountered mountain guides touting their services and buying bus tickets at twice the usual price, withholding the change, and soliciting a tip. The fact that some actually work with some of the soft-adventurers - Exodus, Dragoman, etc. - is no guarantee that they don't scam in their spare time; 'pay your money and take your chances'. Azrou has an excellent weekly market and the tasteless DecliningBritishSeasideResort style coloured bulbs and crown all over the Azrou itself - a large rock outcrop. There's also a local Rug Co-operative. Great view down the valley and much improved by the huge new mosque and landscaping, although pool is usually closed. Bus connections are also hugely improved with the construction of a good bus station (Azrou to Midelt, 27DH pp + 3DH per bag, 9/99).
En route from Fez to Azrou is the Poche de France - Ifrane, a ski town and resort for the fashionable and wealthy - it's like a theme park in its fantastical relation to its surroundings.
Hotels
Orin Hargreaves suggests the Panorama hotel in Azrou; even better is Auberge Amrose ("quiet country setting, sumptuous food and cheap") on the road out to El Hajeb. Best cheap place in town is Hotel Des Cedres (103DH, with showers 10DH extra; 9/99).
Links
Cascades D'Ouzoud
Your experience of these falls (off the Beni Mellal-Marrakech road) will be one of expaseration at relentless hustlers, anxiety about crime, boredom of club 18-30ers, or a wonderfully relaxing high point of your whole trip - depending on where you choose to stay. Avoid the packaged westerners by avoiding the hotel at the road, avoid the hustle by avoiding the main camping area and head to Tafnat Camp across the river - children will help you cross using planks as bridges for a few dirhams.
Chaouen
Also known as Cefchaouen, this is a small town of whitewashed houses in the Rif mountains, with good hiking and some recommendations from previous net.travellers.
Erfoud
Dusty desert town, renowned for its fossils. A number of 4 star hotels here; Allen Banick recommends the Hotel Salem. The editor recommends Hotel Tafilalet, with pool, western satellite TV, bar and grand salon (415DH, 9/99)- a worthwhile splurge after a few days in the spareness of Merzouga. For reasonably-priced luxury, the Kenzi Chain is a 4* hotel with bungalows. Unfortunately, the Moroccan/Spanish Restaurant Erg Chebbi, has closed down since late 1999; Youseff and Angelina who ran it having returned to Spain.
Haggle for LandRover rides to Merzouga - Majdoubi (Tel: 57 67 93) will do the run for 600DH return (9/99); cheaper again is to be found just by wandering in the streets - they will come to you! Sahara Holidays can arrange LandRover charter for 1000Dh per day. None of them, however, will beat the cost of a bus ride to Rissani (4DH, 9/99) and berber taxi (16-20DH, 9/99) to the dunes.
Erfoud is the biggest tourist draw for many miles, with both backpackers and tour groups making the long trip here. Consequently, you will receive some hustling, for curio shops, fossils and trips to Merzouga. Unless you have plenty of money to throw around, don't take the trip to the dunes from Erfoud, but take the short trip to Rissani by bus and arrange a taxi from there.
El Jadida
Another old Portugese fortified coastal town, with its own piece of Orson Welles lore - the old vaulted cistern was used in his Othello. Despite tourism promoters (and the Rough Guide!) endeavouring to make this town sound stylish and comfortable, in reality the air is one of dilapidation, relieved only by its northern seafront and the bright town square, complete with colonial-era theatre. The old Portguese ramparts are desolate, the cannon rusting away and the old churches crumbling (as elsewhere, the government claims of chuches being preserved and converted to cultural centres, are as empty as the pews). The easy transport links to Casablanca (regular grand taxi and buses every 20 minutes) make it a worthwhile stop in the journey from Essaouria to Casablanca, if only to see the famous cistern.
Errachadia
Modern desert town, military out-post, and bus interchange. Placed on the cross-roads from Fez, Oujda, Ouarzazate to Merzouga and Figiug, it's an inevitable point of call on any journey south of the Atlas. Unremarkable, but tidy and relatively prosperous.
Essaouria
Fascinating old Portuguese walled town and one-time Hendrix hang-out. Relaxed, orderly town, ideal for lazy days sipping coffee, and nibbling large quantities of almond confections, occasionally exploring the warren of streets and alleys. As seen in Welles' Othello. Large jewelry arcade, and many shops selling the 2 local specialities - exquisitely crafted marquetry, including such traditional subjects as windsurfers and MichaelJacksons; and madly coloured patchwork trousers and jackets - de rigueur for strolling about town. Until this century, Essaouria had a large Jewish population, and some remants of those days remain, e.g. the old synagogue mentioned below.
Hotels
Hotel des Ramparts. Faded glory, damp and dingy rooms, but superb rooftop views, now with changed management and a basic rooftop café. Minute's walk from main street and less from the IagoHanging walls, as is its classier neighbour, Hotel Cap Sim.
Much more upmarket are the Hotel Villa Maroc on Rue Abdellah Ben Yassin [Tel: 4 473 147. Fax (011-212) 4 472 806], an old mansion with a collection of folk art and the splendid new Hotel Riad Al Medina (664DH, 9/99). Out of the old town, near the beach is the Villa Quieta.
Restaurants
For olde-worlde setting, Restaurant L'Horloge in an old synagogue by the clock tower. Best value Moroccan food is at Café-Restaurant Essalam on the corner of the Plaza and Main St, which has good value set menus and an ideal vantage point to people-watch in the main square. If you want to drink at either of these places, bring your own bottle (or two) from one of the two stores selling alcohol (beyond the North gate, turn right and then left for one or right for the other) - but if so, remember that you'll have to sit inside whilst imbibing the devillish brew.
Unless you're an easily led package tourist, avoid Restaurant El Khaima, but do try the excellent pizzeria next door, Les Chandeliers, which also has good wine, decent pasta and fine decor.
High Atlas - Djebel Toukhal
The most common trip for backpackers and softies alike from Marrakesh is the conquest by the East Face of Djebel Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa at 13 and something thousand feet [4163 m]. Buses and taxis run here (not from the bus station, but from one of the old gates about a mile/km south of the new bus station) as far as Asni. From there it's a pickup truck ride to Imlil at 4000 feet [1200 m]. Asni has its share of hustlers: one reported scam involved the local teacher at Imlil, who had the practice of jumping into taxis with his friend as they approach Asni claiming personal knowledge of every mountaineer from Noah to Bonnington via Herzog inviting people back for a meal to his hut and then quelle surprise bringing out a selection of trinkets and demanding beaucoup de dirhams for the meal (there's also the sub-plot: leave your baggage here while my friend takes you on a tour of the village); this is accompanied by the common trick of giving the next taxi time as two hours hence. To really help the school, bring some pens or atlases. Watch out for the pickup trucks - they'll try to squeeze far too many people onto the back - watch them screech into cover when the police show up.
Imilchil
Small village in the middle of the High Atlas. Famous for its spectaular views (there's a poster of Imilchil in every tourist and airline office) and the marriage festival . Reachable by Land-Rover or Berber camions. Note that the Imilchilis now have a tourist marriage festival in addition to the real one; it may be expected that the marriage festival will eventually become fortnightly.
Imlil
A cool, tiny, almost Himalayan style hamlet. There's a French Alpine Club hut (discounts to Youth Hostellers) which has bunks, no electricity, few candles, and a young warden who'll invent taxes on leaving. (The old warden is a friendly soul, he lives in an old station-wagon next to the hostel). It's a long walk (6000 feet [1.8 km]) up a steep valley past old terraced fields to the next Alpine Club hut at 10000 ft [3000m] - at this height it's very cold outside; the hut itself has no heating, but is always very warm inside due to the concentration of bodies - there are at least 5 wardens, asst-wardens, deputy-asst-wardens and every nation in the backpacking world represented. Meals can be provided (at a fairly steep price) but cooking facilities are available - and most people seem to sit forever at the table, eating and exchanging trekking and interrail tales. Accommodation is in two enormous beds upstairs, and a bunk bed downstairs that can sleep about six across. It's worth coming here for the hostel itself, even if the mountain is not attempted. Discovery Travel and Sussex University have a study centre here.
The mountain
In winter this is a serious challenge; in summer it's simply a fairly long walk. The most difficult part is climbing the scree above the hut - there is a path through this to the left hand side. There's also another way down, which leads to a second cirque (which contains the remains of a passenger aircraft scattered over the rocks) and to the path about a kilometre below the hut. This way down has the advantage of being covered in vast amounts of small loose rocks and super for linked-parallel scree running.
Kenitra
Seaside town north of Rabat and onetime US Navy depot. Surfers are recommended to head south to Media Beach where there are great breaks and a long jeepable jetty out into the bay (drive out, surf back!). More info at arab.net.
Merzouga
This is the place for La bapteme de solatudeor however the French said it. There's a long bus-ride from Errachidia along an oasis gorge which goes way out into the desert - ends (to quote the Bertolucci team) at the sordid patios of Rissani and then there's a two-hour Land Rover or Transit van ride over desert tracks to the tiny collection of huts that is Merzouga, at an oasis on the edge of the erg.
Hotels
There are a string of auberges from Merzouga village back along the piste to Erfoud. Further from Merzouga, nearest the largest of the dunes, is Auberge Lahmada with very basic facilities, but a fridge, decent food, camel rides and a few rooms (30DH pp, 9/99). Auberges will also let you sleep on the roof (with a good sleeping bag, it gets very cold at night) for a couple of $, and in higher season often have large nomad tents. Make sure you climb the dunes - at midnight or before sun-rise for a magnificent experience.
Update:A couple of travellers had an unpleasant experience at Yasmina, paying $50 for the night plus a camel trip which lasted half the time promised. The owner and friends were indulging in much liquor and drugs, and they found the atmosphere intimidating (Sept 2000)
Restaurants
Hey, this is the desert!
Midelt
Far out into the plains, a mining and apple town (more than you'll wish to see in September and October), and frequent stopping off point in the journey to the Deep South. Basic bus station, with early buses running onto Tinnehir, good connections to Errachida, and buses making the thru journey to Erfoud (46DH pp, tip per bag, 9/99).
Ouarzazate
Major cross-roads and film studio location south of the Atlas mountains. From here roads lead out to Marrakesh, Agadir, Zagora and Errachidia. The tourist hotels which have sprung up here are present for the latter reason and not anything especial about Ouarzazate itself. Anyone travelling in the South is bound to spend at least a night here; the local people are friendly and there's little hustling apart from the overgenial shopkeepers. It is also important in being the only liquor store for several hundred miles/kilometres, and the best food for several hundred more - Chez Dimitri has a wide range of European food, excellent pasta, let down by some very dodgy local wines; check carefully the age of the wine served, and don't be afraid to send it back if it's turned to cold tea.
Transport
Grand taxis now operate from the new western part of town, in the suburbs north of the Banque Credit du Maroc; most guidebooks still list Place Mouhadine. Grand taxi to Inzegane (the main Southern travel hub, near Agadir) is 20Dh plus 5Dh per bag (9/99).
Hotels & Restaurants
These can fill up very fast; there are some hotels near the old bus station which will put people up on the roof if nowhere else; there is also a campsite on the edge of town. Hotel Atlas is basic but clean, central and well run (92DH for shower, no WC; 9/99).
Links
Ouirgane
High Atlas village with an old French hunting lodge, the Residence de la Roseraie, now converted into an hotel. Gardens, pool and many walks. (Tel (011-212) 4 432 094, Fax (011-212) 4 432 095)
Rissani
Stopping off point for trips to Merzouga, but with a great deal of history and sights to make a stay worthwhile. Still hustly, but with much improved hotels recently. Also useful is the Expresse Todra bus services which alternates daily over two new routes - West to Zagora and north-west to Tinnehir via El Jorf and Tinejdad. These are welcome new options both for the landscapes (especially on the El Jorf route) and the ability to travel without doubling-back on the same route. The Tinnehir bus leaves Rissani at 11am, stopping at 1130 in Erfoud and reaching its destination at 1500.
Tarazoute
A town north of Agadir famous for its surf, especially in the winter months. The main break is at Anchor Point and there's also a surf camp (supposed to have a access to a secret beach). Another recommended surf-spot is Boilers, 8 miles north of Anchor Point near an old graveyard (it takes its name from an old ship's boiler left behind in the rocks.) Surf contact is Laurent Miramon (Tel: 00 212 226 5054).
Tazmamert
Not a good place to end up. Location of Morocco's secret detention centre, where various trade unionists, Sahrawis and other irritants to the State, have 'disappeared' in the best South American tradition.
Tetuan
Capital of Northern Morocco in the fertile Martil valley.
Tafraoute
Tafraoute makes a great centre for touring around the Anti-Atlas, hiking, mountain biking and geological exploits. And - if you can overlook the daily bus from Agadir - remarkably free of tourists, who usually stick to the Fez-Marrakech-Erfoud-Ourarzazate circuit. The people and landscapes are distinctly different from the rest of Morocco, although unfortunately this does not extend to the food (yes, more identikit tajines!). The other thing that you can expect in an out of the way resort is the hustle that used to be a feature of the big Northern cities before the crackdown - the culprits here are the pseudo-blue-men who will constantly pester you to visit Maison Berbere and Maison Touareg - let them know hastle doesn't work by avoiding the shops in question.
Trekking
The information in the main guides has fallen out of date. Guide Mohammed Ouakrim, who was at Hotel Les Amandiers and recommended in the Rough Guide, has married a German girl and moved there. Aheddaj Abed has taken over his treks, and also hires out bikes for 40Dh per day; he's on the telephone on 80 10 28. (N.B. as of Sept 99, there are still no mountain bikes for hire here) Mohammed Ouahammou, likewise in the Rough Guide, is no longer trekking, but his cousin, Laroussi Houssine, is still around and taking treks to Ait Mansour, Palmerie, Ameln Valley and the nature carvings 45km out of town. He also has good trekking maps, and can be contacted by telephone at 80 04 47, or at the small shop Meeting Place of Nomads (Post Code 85450) close to the dates market in the Soukh. Best trekking is Feb to March.
Transport
Buses run from here to Tiznit, but you can also take a night bus to Marrakech (100Dh,9/99), or indeed all the way to Tangier. A grand taxi to Tiznit is 35Dh per place (9/99). There's a choice of buses, including CTM and the local San Balam. The full schedule, correct as of Sept 99, is:
| 6am | Tiznit |
| 7am | Tata via Tiznit (CTM) |
| 8:30am | Casablanca via Tiznit |
| 2pm | Casablanca via Tiznit |
| 3pm | Casablanca via Tiznit |
| 5pm | Casablanca via Tiznit |
| 6pm | Rabat via Agadir (not the Tiznit road) |
| 7pm | Casablanca via Tiznit (CTM) |
Hotels
Hotel Tafraout (Tel: 80.00.60 or 80.01.21) on Place Moulay Rachid has a very friendly and helpful local owner, a roof to sunbathe and dry clothes on, and information on hiking. Rooms are 80dh for a double (9/99), paid in advance, with shared toilets and showers (plenty of hot water from the boiler). If you have more money to burn, Les Amandiers stands proud above the town and has the usual 4 star privileges.
Restaurants
You can do the sensible thing here and eat at Tanger (the medium tajine for 25Dh is huge) or do the silly tourist thing and go to Etoile du Sud, complete with multi-lingual menus (with different dishes for different tounges), tent, bad food and the contempt of any locals you meet.
Shopping
As mentioned above, the two big 'maisons' will have you hustled constantly - they also get large commissions from the daily tour buses which disgorge their passive charges each day, herded into the either of the two Maisons and not permitted anywhere else. Which is especially a pity given the quality of other, small, non-hustly shops in town - Artisant du Coin is one of the best; it's run by an old local with his daughters, has fixed prices, friendly unpressurized service and reasonable prices - which you may well find are 10 times less than your 'bargain' cost elsewhere in Morocco. Unfortunately, as with the other shops, the big tourist buses float past to their commissions; so it's up to independent souls like you to give them business, and keep small genuine traders around.
Taroundannt
Once a quieter, hustle free alternative to Marrakech. Still quiet, enjoyable but now more hustly than the more tightly-controlled big cities. Watch for the tout who hangs at the entrance to the main square by Hotel Taroundannt to follow you to your hotel for a commission. You'll also get multiple invites to be shown around the soukhs; the imprecations are not nearly as tiring as Tangier-quality guides, but then the soukhs are simple to walk around and appreciate.
Taroundannt now boasts a web café, on the main perimeter road near Hotel Tiout at the SE end of the city.
Hotels
Hotel Taroudannt has basic rooms for 100dh (9/99) with showers but shared toilets. Food is poor, but the wine is better than usual. The hotel has a lovely old atrium filled with large plants, and the bar by the atrium is a great place to meet local Moroccans.
Tiznit
A large walled city, but without the life and sights of Taroudannt. If you do have to stay, the hotel choice is limited, although a new 3-star hotel is very slowly being built. Budget hotels are very basic, with small dusty rooms and squat toilets only, and the current 3-falling-stars Hotel Tiznit (290Dh+16Dh tax, 9/99, credit cards accepted) has exasperatingly loud piped music during the day, loud and mediocre band at night, and functions as a pick-up zone for less than islamically dressed local girls. Hotel Soleil, across the road from the latter, has an English menu that is hilarious enough to warrant a visit. For eating, the unnamed cafeteria on the southern front of the Mechouar will serve you local rather than tourist food, albeit from an arabic menu (15Dh for 5 courses plus meat, 9/99).
Bus to Tafraoute leaves at 3pm from the Mechouar, cost 30dh (9/99). Pick up a grand taxi outside the square for Tafraoute.
Todra Gorge
Magnificent. Short taxi ride from Tinnehir (which is not quite the quiet hustle-free town that older guides suggest, although it does have some interesting kasbahs). An overnight stay in the gorge should be be a mandatory of any trip to the south. Transport is by grand taxis (6Dh per place, plus 2Dh per bag, 9/99) filling up on the main square, and berber taxis (vans or pickups, very cheap, but you must squeeze in amongst the livestock and locals) in the other square behind the main street. The gorge itself achieves sublimity in its combination of great height and narrow width.
Hotels
There are five auberges (despite what your guidebook may say!) - three at the mouth of the gorge - the original Hotel Mansour, joined in 1993 by the Etoile des Gorges, and 2 years ago by the bright and friendly La Vallee (70Dh room without shower or wc, 120Dh demi-pension, 9/99), and two within the gorge itself - Les Roches (150DH, wc+shower 9/99) and Yasmina - which have rooms and roofs. The latter is in the style of a French fort and has the best formal meals, served outside in a Berber tent, often to the accompaniment of the staff and several dozen inebriated packaged adventure types with well-organised bottles of wine. If not so lucky the hotel will be full with a stray package tour (yes, they get this far sometimes) of middle aged tourists occasionally daring to sneak away from their courier. On good days it'll be full of backpackers and young Moroccans, drumming and chanting away around a campfire into the wee hours. The gorge is also a good starting point for walks and camion rides further into the Atlas. Best food (and the best couscous for a long way) is at La Vallee, at the mouth of the gorge.
Zagora
Desert town at the end of the long and spectacular Draa valley, and at the edge of the sandy ("real") Sahara. More accessible, and hence more heavily touristed than the Ziz valley, which also has a better dunes experience. There is a new bus service on alternate days from Rissani. Image of Zagora.
Hotels
Anne Abbott & friends recommend the Riad Salam, with its gardens and large pool. The hotel manager's wife also does a mean packed meal. (Tel (011-212)4 847 400, Fax (011-212) 4 847 551). Further out into the desert is the Porte au Sahara.
