This episode is the audio replay of our Destination Morocco live Q&A session, on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
You can find the video version here.
In today's conversation with Azdean, Sam and podcast producer Ted, we'll focus on what's included in a typical Destination Morocco tour, how we go about building itineraries, and how we build from your preferences and priorities to shape a tour that works for you, and is specific to you.
This is a big part of what makes Destination Morocco an ideal travel partner: we don't force you to follow the tourist path, or insist on "must-see" sights that don't interest you. We'll give you advice, certainly, when you want ideas and recommendations. But you can always bring your list of sights and attractions, and we then use our connections and experience to craft a smooth, sensible itinerary that goes at your pace.
Ready to discover the hidden gems and must-see attractions of Morocco? We've got you covered.
If you're curious about when to book a tour, how long they last, how much flexibility you have while on a tour, what are any additional costs, how much driving is there, what do we eat and where: Azdean will have you covered.
Are the tours private, or with large groups? Do we offer day tours, and can you book a day trip or overnight if you are already in Morocco? How is the travel market in Morocco changing, especially post-covid?
These questions and more will help you learn about our offers and make an informed decision on finding the best tour for you.
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If you're a discerning traveler who values an immersive, curated adventure, visit www.destinationsmorocco.com, and let us bring your dream Moroccan vacation to life.
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Do you dream of exploring the enchanted land of Morocco? Discover the magic with Destination Morocco, the ultimate travel experience for those seeking luxury and adventure. We specialize in crafting bespoke itineraries tailored to your unique tastes and desires. If you are a discerning traveler who values an immersive, curated adventure, then visit DestinationsMoroccocom that's DestinationsWithinS Moroccocom and let us bring your dream Moroccan vacation to life.
TED:Well, I guess the main thing we want to focus on today in terms of a bit of a theme is the nature of your tours, what your tours are like, the options people have, how they're structured, the experience of it. You know all kinds of logistical things and what do people basically get? What are their options if they're interested in going, of course, with you guys? So why don't we focus on that for a while? What are your most popular tours and itineraries?
AZDEAN:I would say definitely. The north side of Morocco is definitely more popular than the south side of Morocco.
SAM:The north, plus the imperial cities, including Morocco as well.
TED:That's partly why we've been talking more about the south, just to kind of drum up the interest right and get people more aware.
AZDEAN:Yeah absolutely.
TED:Is there kind of an average length that people ask for? Does it really come down to person or do you see kind of a standard trend? People may be looking for seven days or ten days, something like that.
AZDEAN:I mean, we do recommend an average of eight days if they're going to do the north side, because you know, when you look at Morocco on the map it looks really small, so when you get there there's actually a lot of driving. And also, Google, whatever it tells you, it's not accurate. If it tells you two and a half hours, it's probably four hours because you need to keep in consideration the road conditions and also the speed limit. Sam, do you have anything to add?
SAM:Yeah, sure, yeah, what you just mentioned. In addition, if you drive, for example, from Chef Chaowen to Fes, there is always a mountain road, so you have to be careful when you are driving. So it takes a long as much as, for example, as expected. Same thing when you drive from Marrakech towards Azad Same things. It says, for example, only 200 kilometers, but it takes four hours and a half to get towards Azad.
TED:So do you find it's a surprise when people learn that when you talk to them, they expect it to be a lot faster?
AZDEAN:They do actually, yes, so we always try our best and we try to put the length of time that it's going to take from point A to point B, but also keep in consideration the stops. If a drive is four hours, it's probably going to take you longer than four hours because of the stops that we're going to make, whether it's bathroom break, whether it's stopping for taking pictures or quick break to eat or snack and stuff like that. So you always want to keep those in mind as well.
TED:So I know you guys talk a lot about booking your tour well ahead of time. What is the risk of leaving it to the last minute?
AZDEAN:The risks. I'll definitely leave that to Sam, then I can add some as well.
SAM:Sure, the main risk for booking the last minute is to find first the good accommodations, the place where to stay, finding local guides, maybe the people, for example, our local guides we will talk about destination Morocco, our local guides. For example, enjoying the experiences during your tour, at best time and in a good place. Maybe, for example, you are interested in, like the win cooking class. If you book last minute, you can find a place to do a cooking class. We have to look for alternatives and it's not sure. So this is why we recommend highly to book your tour in advance, at least two months before your travel date.
AZDEAN:I will even go further than two months. I mean you can do it four months, six months ahead. It's good the reason because everything should be taken care of and paid for 60 days prior to your trip or your tour taking place. So in the process that we have there's a little bit of back and forth. From the time when we do the first one-on-one virtual meeting until we build itinerary until the client approves the itinerary. That process takes depends couple of weeks, two to three. It can take even longer weeks to get that taken care of, especially if there's more people that are involved in the tour versus one person or two people. So you have six people or so and they only they have their own opinion, they want to do their own thing and stuff like that. So that takes really time for the itinerary to get completed and I do agree, at least I would say four to six months, just to be on a safe side, because when you do in last minute you have just the leftovers. I mean, let's just be honest, it's just people who are not booked. That means they're not booked for a reason, including the accommodations, including the tour guides and so forth. Then it puts us really on a bad situation, because we're still responsible for whatever experience you have or the outcome of that experience. If it's a bad experience, it's 100% still on us. That's the chance that we don't really want to take. We've had people looking for, you know, september 2024, october 2024. Already they're doing their homework. You know they're taking their time. And also, keep in mind, if you're going to go at the end of the year, especially December, especially the last two weeks Christmas, new Year's Eve book it at least nine months before. The reason is because those the accommodations they'll tell you they're booked but they're not actually booked, because they're looking to hold to the room and see if they can sell more than one room at a really higher rate. That's what they tell us. So they tell us they're booked. They're going to tell you the same thing they are booked, right.
TED:Are the rates better or maybe prices in general? If you book really far ahead of time, does that help with some of the prices?
AZDEAN:Yes, it does. And also you have options. You see, like Sam said, we have a network. Let's say we're working with 10 different 3 yards and we reach out to the first 3 yards, they say they're booked. Then we go to the second one, the third, and chances are we still get it, we'll still find a booking for the clients. But if you wait until the last minute then we can't really do much. And this goes the same thing for the local guides. You want to have a local guide in Kazablanca, robat, chevchev, fass, tangir, marquesh. It takes time. We have to book them ahead of time. Again, this is part of the process of building your itinerary. That's why we say, hey, it takes us about 3 to 4 days an average to build an itinerary for you, because we build it from scratch and we have to make sure you have your current driver available, you have your local guide available, you have a tour leader, if you like, a tour leader available In all the cities, then the accommodations, then the experiences, whatever experience you want to do. We just communicate to everybody and for us to get the response back it does take a little bit of time and also that's why we charge for building the itinerary, just in case.
TED:That's a lot of work it is. Conversely, then I mean, all that of course makes sense, but the worry I'm sure would be that someone they don't necessarily want to book 8, 10 months ahead of time, because what if something happens? What if they need to cancel, what if they need to change? So how easy is it to do that if you get, you've already made your bookings, but now you need to make some changes and the trip is still a couple months away.
AZDEAN:Our cancellation policy is 60 days, but I don't like to use the word policy because it's just. I don't want to hide behind anything. We are people. We are just a small family, small business, so we make whatever changes need to be made. I understand emergencies happen and we'll be lucky. We've never had any cancellation. So when it comes to it, we deal with it case by case, basically Because you have to understand our cancellation policy has to align with the accommodations cancellation policy, the other vendors that we use, and so forth and so forth. However, we've never had an issue with any cancellations or accommodating somebody or a client. So, sam, we have that please.
SAM:That's right. If a cancellation, for example, happened to you, for example an emergency, of course we arrange it. For example, if someone wants to update something on his tour or itinerary, of course we are open and we keep telling our clients this during our meetings. We say that this tour is customized to you so you can change it and change it, and change it anytime, for example, after you book. If you book, like nine months and after three months, for example, to say I want to remove fares, for example, from my itinerary, we can still do that.
TED:That's great. Yeah, I mean, that's the benefit One of the benefits, for sure, of you guys is just the fact that you can be so flexible and nimble. You're not a big operation, a big corporation or anything like that. You can really make those changes and a bit more last minute. You know the people that you're working with and it's such a personalized service, too, that you guys offer.
AZDEAN:Absolutely, absolutely.
TED:I was wondering then we've tried about this bit over the episodes but what is the most popular time or busiest season? Maybe that you guys have? Oh, that's a really good question.
AZDEAN:I'll go first, if you don't mind this one. You really have to be specific because there was before COVID, then after COVID. Before COVID they don't go during the summer. The busy season March, obviously, april, may, and then it gets a little bit slow during the summertime, then it starts to peak a little bit in September, october and stuff like that. But after COVID it's busy season all the time. I mean, even in last month we had the earthquake and we still had close to 1 million visitors to Morocco. So it's always busy. As we're speaking right now, there's a convention in Mahakash right now and it's one of the busiest conventions. World Bank, I believe it changed, everything changed. The other thing is the prices before COVID versus the prices now. So I would like for some, if you can, elaborate a little bit more when it comes to prices.
SAM:Sure, all the accommodations, restaurants and the clean tour guides as well, and the vendors. They increase their prices like 20% more after COVID. So the prices we have before COVID is not the same prices after COVID and Morocco hosting an international event because of that. So, as Dean said, morocco became like a busy destination. So there is no more low season or mid season or high season. So it's all the time, even during summertime it's hot in some places, but Morocco is still busy. If you remember, last summer time when we were in the north, we found all the accommodations fully booked. So, as I said, I agree with what he said there is no low season, no high season. And right now, because we will host like a 23 world cup, the prices are still just increasing more and more.
TED:Even in winter, even if it's a bit colder, you're still seeing a lot of business, a lot of traffic.
SAM:Yes, yes.
TED:Well, I mean, if someone did want to kind of strategize, if they had the flexibility, is there a season, the time of year you'd recommend, where it's not maybe quite as busy? They may have a few more options. It's just not quite as overrun by tourists.
AZDEAN:I mean throughout the year. There's options and again, this is when it really depends. Let's say, you're booking this on your own, you might find that you're going to get stuck somewhere somehow. You book it with us, with the tour company. You have a lot more options because this is what we do and we can maneuver and we can make changes and we can put you in places where it's not crowded, where it's not touristy. We know things that a lot of people don't know. You know just because sometimes people listen to the podcast and they do their homework. Until you go to Morocco, then you're going to realize exactly what's going on. And when you go to Morocco and you have been you know it's completely different. There's no system in Morocco. Even the economy is different. I mean, everywhere it could be bad, but in Morocco it just looks busy and everybody's, you know, moving around, so it's very unique in that term. So I would say stay the summertime, stay away from this. Time is good, the fall is really good because of temperature, the kids are back to school, everybody's back to school. Then obviously the best, really the best time to go in terms of fight scene, in terms of scenery, is definitely March, april and May, and I leave the rest to Simon C. Wey has to add.
SAM:Sure, absolutely what I would recommend in Morocco avoid the last two weeks of the year If you want to really enjoy your experience and your trip in Morocco. Just avoid the end of the year, honestly, because it's very crowded and all the accommodations including, for example, just you want to go to visit marjorail gardens, you have to wait. You have to wait like, yeah, there is like 300 or 400 people waiting, so you just lose two hours or three hours to get into the gardens. Yeah, this is yes, absolutely. You have been there and you see what's going on Also. I just want to add what Zin said September to October as well is a good time to visit Morocco. November is good because it's mid-season, it's not that high and it's not low season and the weather is still good in Morocco. It's not cold and it's warm. So it's good to visit Morocco during this time.
TED:What's the temperature like right now? We're talking here in October, so what's it like right now? It's hot.
SAM:It's like yeah, like 25. 25 degrees.
AZDEAN:Celsius. Yeah, that's good, it's very good, amazing weather.
TED:Yeah, it's comfortable. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, do you get humidity, at least at this time of year?
SAM:No, the weather in Marrakech is amazing. There is our office, the weather, is amazing for the whole year, not only except summertime. It's a little bit hot, but it's okay, it's fine.
TED:Because it's often a dry heat right.
SAM:Yes, that's right.
TED:Yeah, interesting. I'd like to chat a bit about kind of the nature of your tours. Now let's talk a bit Do you have just private tours? Do you do like small group tours, or do you do the type of tours as well, like you often see? Of course, where you know strangers, groups come together. They don't know each other before, but they've all signed up for this one tour. So what kind of offers do you have? That's a really good question.
AZDEAN:Ted, we do tours, all type of tours, but I would say 99% of the requests that we get are private tours and there's a big difference. You know private and group tours. We are going to be doing group tours starting March of 2024, but we're going to do them a little bit different because we've talked about this many times Group tours for a tour company like us obviously that's when they make the money and the benefit of it to the clients they are cheaper than the private tours, a lot cheaper than the private tours. So it's really a win-win situation. But for us to do it, we cannot do over 12 passengers. It's got to be between eight to 12 passengers because we still want them to have that private experience, that unique experience that you're not alone, even though you can travel as a solo traveler in a group tour, but you have that comfort of being in a group. You still have that intimate experience. So we're going to set it up on the website. In the next couple of weeks we're going to do an itinerary for the north and itinerary for the south and have the guests pick up which one they want to be part of. So just a matter of time for us to set it up, and also I would like to hear what Sam has to contribute as well, because we've been talking about this for quite some time.
SAM:Yeah, sure, and thank you very much, ted, for this question as well. For the small group tours you can still like if you are between eight and 12, you still stay in a riyadh, versus staying in a hotel. So you experience the authenticity. You stay in a riyadh, a beautiful riyadh, together with your friends or the group. For example, you can be like solo travelers, as they say to a couple or something. With the group, you still have experience in Morocco as we want you to do it. Do it the right way, versus staying like in a four star, five star hotels and just to have your room and some stuff, because riyadh is something very special in Morocco and we try hard that's our clients staying in a riyadh to enjoy their experience, as we want them to experience it in Morocco.
AZDEAN:You know what we're talking about. These are called escorted tours, which means that we have a tour, for example, set up let's say, march 1, 2024, and people they can book it on their own. It can be one person booking it with the group, it can be two people, it can be four people, but also we do group tours. Let's say you have a family of eight. That is considered a group tour. Then the discount of a group tour applies to you. It can be a school, it can be an office, it can be a church. It doesn't have to be different people coming from different parts of the world. One of the things also that we have seen in the past and we talked about it in the past in some cultures there's a lot of people that gift Morocco or a trip to Morocco or a tour to Morocco to a newlywed couple with their close friends. So there's many things we can do in a bachelor party. A bachelor party. They can book their own small group and go to Morocco and have a tour and have really, really good time and amazing experiences. So there's really no limit to how it can be classified or how it can be done. So it can be many, many things and it's still considered a group and it's better to do it that way versus a private tour in terms of saving money.
TED:Now what about the itinerary? So let's say, if I'm kind of part of one cohesive group eight people, wedding party or something like that but we're all traveling together, are you then able to still kind of build and shape an itinerary for them? Because they're all together, they're not strangers, right? So they have to agree amongst themselves maybe what they want to see and do, but you can still design that itinerary for them.
AZDEAN:That's a really, really good question. I'll go first, if it's okay. If it's a group, let's say, let's say somebody's doing a bachelor party in Morocco and it's the same group, we can build that itinerary for them, not an issue. But normally in the group we have a standard itinerary. Especially if you have people come from different parts. They cannot change it. That's how the itinerary is. Or if we meet all of us together, we can make some changes. Then we agree on it, then we can make it. But normally in the group the itinerary is set. It's just how it is. For example, if you go right now to the website, you'll see the northern side Morocco tour and you'll see the southern part of Morocco tour. Those itineraries are set. They cannot be changed and they're going to be the same thing for the year. It's the same itinerary is actually for the group tours, but the price is going to be a lot cheaper. Now if we have people coming from different parts of the US, canada, traveling from everywhere and going to that same group, the itinerary is set. It cannot be changed.
SAM:You are in a tour in Morocco, you book a small group tour with your friends. For example, we can stay like eight days northern tour in Morocco and you want to stay like four days later. We can organize another cover, another part of Morocco, like desert, like having day trips to Sawirat, to high Atlas mountains and around, and maybe you can come before, like two days or two days before you can enjoy other experiences before joining the group to start the tour.
TED:Yeah, that's nice. So essentially then, with like the fixed itineraries and tours, if I'm just by myself or maybe a couple and I just want to sign up for that kind of standard tour, the north of the south, that's what you see there on their website under that page there the north of the south, and that's kind of the standard basic thing. That's not so much a private tour, you're just joining whoever else happens to sign up for it.
AZDEAN:That is correct. Yes, and also just want to add when we start the group tours, the minimum for those tours to happen is two people. So even let's say our target is between eight and 12, let's say we just have two bookings, the tour will still take place.
TED:The tour will still take place.
AZDEAN:So it's guaranteed, the colleague guaranteed departure. So that way if it's just one person, we can't really do one person, but if it's just minimum of two, then we can still make it happen.
TED:That's really good yeah, I've booked things before, of course like minimum five people or something and they don't get it, and that's it, it's canceled.
AZDEAN:You got your money back, but still disappointed.
TED:I got the goods yeah.
AZDEAN:Okay well.
TED:I wasn't sure about some of the structures or anything. So I mean, all that being said, it's not like people will ever be on one of these big coach tours with you guys. You know, 45 plus people and just hordes of people getting off and shuffling into the next attraction. It's still even at the small group. It's still a lot more nimble, it's a lot more enjoyable.
AZDEAN:Yes, oh, absolutely 100%. Because you have to keep in mind you have group of eight or 10. Everything takes time just to get them together. Just, you know, just say, hey, we're taking five minute break or 10 minute break, then it's really 30 minute break. But us, we have to calculate everything and give it, you know, a little bit of a grace period and time and say, hey, you know it's, we say 30 minutes, we know it's going to be 30 minutes, but we tell them, hey, 10 minutes, because we know somebody's going to come back to the vehicle, somebody's going to take a little bit more time, and stuff like that. So we calculate all those things and also we make sure that the schedule is not condensed. The schedule is there's not too much things on the schedule. That way they don't feel rushed from one place to another place to another place. So that way they're really immersing themselves in the experience. Local experience, whether it's in it, it's in fast, over mile cash, so that's really, really important. So there's many different ways to do group tours, but we would love to do group tours with a flare of private tours as well.
SAM:So yeah, yeah, I just want to add something, for a group tour of 45 or 48 people is just a waste of time. That's it. Yeah, it's you wasting your time, you wasting your energy, because could you imagine, like having like a coach of 48 and they have two leader and each one? This one, you know, you don't want to eat. This one, you don't want to take pictures. This one, I want to use restroom and another one just taking pictures outside. No, yeah no, this is not a tour, but if you have eight with you in a call, in a small mini event, they will enjoy the experiences. If you take them, for example, as I said, as I mentioned before, in a cooking class, you have same place for them and they enjoy the experience. And they have listened carefully to what the instructor said about their experience going through visiting the media, for example, historical monuments, you will find as well a place for everybody to take his time, to take pictures, to listen to what the local guide said. Big group to this not working. Honestly, it's not recommended.
TED:Yeah, it's much different experience, for sure. Some people, that's maybe their only option to see places, but I wouldn't want to tour especially Morocco. There's so much to see and you want to have the time and flexibility to see me stay maybe a bit longer or do some different things. Well, that that reminds me of question, then. So Maybe either any type of your tours, but once the tour started, how much Flexibility is there? How much can people still change or modify, as once you start, you say two or three days in, right, well, can we stay an extra few hours here? Can we change very much once you've already started?
AZDEAN:That's a really good question and Sam actually mentioned it a little bit earlier. Everything we do is on your terms, on the clients terms. They can change whatever they want to change, perfectly fine. However, there's few things that we need a little bit of heads up. Maybe two days, maybe three days. And I'll give you an example. Let's say you book a mom experience and massage and we book it at a hotel. We'll book it at you know separate building entity. Business at that experience will take, on average, an hour and a half. So if you want to cancel it, it's absolutely fine, you can cancel it. We just need maybe two days, maybe three days, not the same day, or maybe two hours and stuff like that, because everybody's ready for you. The same thing for the Hannah experience. We need more time to cancel. I'm talking specifically Counseling experiences. You know a few other experiences. We definitely need more heads up the rest of it. If you want to stay a little bit longer on somewhere else here you can. Not an issue at all. Let's say, for example, we have you in fast with a local guide and we have you for half a day. You know the first half a day. Let's say you want to go take a lunch break and then come back and go with the local guide for for the afternoon and a little bit apart, the evening. You can absolutely do that, not an issue at all. And vice versa. Let's say we have you full day and you say, hey, you know what, I'm a little bit tired, I want to take the rest of the day off Just to relax at the rear, and stuff like that. We can do that as well. Those, there's no issue. It's just for the ones that we have a third party involved and there's a cancellation. We just we would like a little bit more time to cancel it Because you know it's it puts us in in kind of a tight situation with those Defenders.
SAM:Yeah, if you have, like an emergency, you are in in Marrakesh for example, and like maybe you don't feel good, like you have a bellyache or something, and you want to say if I may want to cancel it somewhere up tomorrow, we can do that in emergency, emergency cases, for example. Otherwise, as I didn't say, because we follow in the terms and conditions of the other party, if you did is a third party, we follow that, their terms and conditions. Basically, I would talk about cancellation policies, this, and say you have to cancel it two days before or three days before, we have to follow the and we have to pay them off.
TED:Yeah, yeah, that's fair. What decisions, then, do people need to make your clients once they're on the tour? How much do they need to decide and figure out where to eat or kind of where to go like? How much is left unscheduled, literally?
AZDEAN:I mean everything is really taken care of for them. I mean the breakfast is already included, we have lunch in fast, we have dinner in Marrakesh. So the lunches, the lunches, they don't really take a lot of efforts. Then, when you have a local guide, you have your driver, then you have us. We can make any recommendations. We can say, hey, if you want eat this type of food, this is the best place to go to. Or if you you know what I have seafood, you will have local cuisine. You want to have Mediterranean cuisine, italian cuisine, french cuisine will make those recommendations for you as well. But you still, you still have a lot of time on your own as well.
SAM:And we can do it. And we can do it in two different ways. For we can add it to your itinerary. We add like suggestions on your day, each day of your itinerary. For example, when you are in Morocco. We created a group for our clients and then you say tonight, sam, I want some suggestions for restaurants where I can have dinner. I send you a list of like three or four restaurants you chose from. And then you say the okay, can you book for us? Yeah, I can book for you. Or it just a send you like the informations of the restaurant that you can do it. You can do it yourself.
TED:Yeah, okay, you can just go in and make the reservation. Yeah, that's good. You find a lot of people ask for that kind of stuff, like, yeah, they, they want the itinerary, but they still want to have some of that freedom to maybe just wander and explore, you know. Or, of course, go and find a restaurant or something and make have a bit of that independence to well, it really depends.
AZDEAN:There's there's some, some people and there's a percentage. They want us to do everything for them, which is perfectly fine. That's, that's what we're here. But then, well, we have realized a lot of people that are solo travelers or people that have not worked Either with a travel agency or to operate like us. They want to have that flexibility and say, hey, schedule everything for me on the first day, keep me open on the second half of the day, because they want to feel like they're involved, they're doing something on their own. They don't like everything to be planned for them. They feel like, you know, maybe independence, maybe they want to explore because they have traveled alone, versus having car on the driver and local guide. So it just depends. So we're very flexible. Anything the guests want, we accommodate them.
TED:That was a big change for us when we went in February. I know, I mean, my wife and I and our two young kids, and we're used to traveling on our own and just kind of do our own thing. I'm making all the plans, finding transport, you know, doing everything. And of course we knew the nature of our experience. There was going to be a tour, which is fantastic, but it was quite an adjustment. Especially it took a couple days. It's like, well, it's nice, I don't have to decide where to go or how to get there. But you definitely want to have a bit of flexibility too, and there was that point, I think, maybe five days in. We were in Fez by then and I told Dris this was our guide that we we really just want a day to kind of chill, take a bit of time, and because we still had a few more days after that, right, because we kind of plan that into the itinerary to have three days in total in Fez. So we had the sightseeing, but not completely packed in, and we had some of that flexibility. So it's just great to have time, just to simply have the time and you're not squeezing in everything into like four or five days If you have. We had ten days, which is a perfect length really to see lots still have some of that flexibility. But of course he was very receptive to that. He's still got us set up for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant that night, but we had the day to just relax and wander around a bit and and enjoy the Riyadh too, because the Riyadhs are so beautiful, you want to do more than just kind of show up and go to sleep, you know. You want to even just relax, for you to book or just have a bit of that downtime. Obviously, they have beautiful meals there too, so it's nice to have some of that flexibility also, absolutely.
AZDEAN:Absolutely.
TED:Oh, now here's the thing. Now I know you guys get a lot of questions about this. What if I am already in Morocco? I've made my way there on my own. Probably I'm in Marrakesh. Let's say, can I call you up and say, hey, can you find me a local tour guide for this afternoon, or can I just hop on one of your tours to go to Mirzuga and back for a day or two? Are you guys receptive to that? Does that fit in with your structure, or is it really you have to plan much more ahead of time?
AZDEAN:It does not really fit in our structure. You have to plan for a really long time. It's a really, really good question. Thank you, ted, and I'm gonna elaborate a little bit and Sam can can can give us his opinion as well, because when we started we want to help everybody you know, even the people that are not traveling with us as much as we could. But we get to a certain point that we cannot make Recommendations for a local guy. We cannot book a local guide for you half a day in Marrakesh and half a day in FAS. It's just, it's not our business model. We book from A to Z, meaning we book the car and the driver for you. We book your local guide. We book transportation to be picked up from the airport to get dropped off at the airport. We book experiences. Any type of experience that you can think of. We can book it, whether it's quad, whether it's camera Right with that, it's hot air balloon, whether it's the Hanna tattoo, whether it's a man and spa dinner reservations, like Sam said. So everything we take care of it for you. You don't even have to lift a finger. Everything is done for you. We pamper you literally when you get to Morocco. So for us to do just part of it. We get these questions a lot and we say no. We get people say, hey, I booked everything, I just need a local guide here and there. We cannot do it. We did it in the past, we're not doing it anymore. No, we did it as a gesture just to help. But you know, because we recommend somebody, then something happens to the client, we are liable. It's, it's our reputation on the line. So that's the reason, one of the reasons why it's just it's. It's not worth it for us. We don't want to be liable for it. You know something that somebody else did and we have been in that situation and we don't want to take that chance, you know. So that's why, when we take a booking, building on itinerary or planning a trip for for a client, we do it from A to Z. All that work is done for you. That that's what we do. This is what we're here. You know Sam has now. They build itinerary. They do an amazing job. We we do meetings back and forth, back and forth, until everything is is done the way that the client wants it to be done. We cannot just do half of it. Oh. So, hey, you know I'm booking with points. We don't do points and points. By the way, in Morocco it's different system than the US. When they give you points in Morocco, it's chances are it's not a good place to stay, or a good room to stay anyways. So but that's a total different subject. So I also want to see what Sam's input as well, because Him and I we've seen the, you know the, the appointments come in with the same thing. You know time and again and time and again.
SAM:Yeah, that's absolutely right and agree hundred percent. Well, what I can add? If you start preparing an itinerary to Morocco on your own, just finish what you are doing and go to Morocco. We still can provide the help. When you are in Morocco, we can still help you. If you stuck somewhere, for example, you text us, message us I need to help there and there, we can help you with that. But to organize like an experience or a local guide or like two days or three days these are for you from Marrakech or from FES and back, we couldn't do it Because we send you, you go and throw a bad situation. It's on us, it's our reputation. Instead of that, we prefer to say sorry, we don't do that, instead of making this big mistake.
TED:And the truth is it's a different business model. It's a different type of business to kind of resell just smaller things, you know, a local tour guide or a quick overnight thing, which is the type of stuff I remember. You see that a lot when you're in Marrakech, people offering those things, and that's based on volume. They need lots and lots of traffic to make their commissions and that kind of thing. So it seems like you know, it's similar to what you guys do, but you're more, much more the longer tours and the full package, the full experience, which of course takes a lot more of that planning. It just takes time. So it's really you can't really do it last minute. You just don't even know what you're getting into, Not with your type of business model, you know just to add something really quick.
AZDEAN:You just said last minute. For us, last minute is four weeks Trying to book. Right now we are in October. Last minute is you're trying to go to Morocco in December, mid-december. Everything we do takes time and we plan ahead. I mean that's the best way to go.
TED:Well, it's good to know, it's good to clarify that, because I know you guys get a lot of questions about it. But it's just simply a different type of business model, you know and it parallels to lots of other things, lots of other experiences that you just can't really book it like that, or Alakar to kind of last second, like whether it's some big resort or a wedding, Imagine. I mean, you don't do these things last second if you want to do something that's substantial. So yeah, it's just the perspective on it. Really it's important, Absolutely I want to get. We did have some questions that came in on different topics. Here's one then. So it says I'll be driving from Ait Ben-Adu to Marrakesh. Do you suggest going via Teluet or via Aguim?
AZDEAN:I think it's called Aguim.
TED:So that's the best way to go.
AZDEAN:That's my echo of the words yes, yeah, yeah.
SAM:Yeah, via Teluet. The landscapes and the scenery is different from the other side of Teluet, through Onila Valley, and the other side of the road through Aguim, which means it's a big difference in terms of what you see. The landscapes, the scenery is just amazing on the other part of Onila, yeah, Is it a similar distance, or is one longer than the other? Shorter, like if you take Teluet it's shorter like 15 kilometers than the other one.
TED:Yeah, yeah, here's another question what is the best city to buy a Jalaba, and are they different in each city? And you guys should explain what that is to answer half of it, the other half to Sam. Yes.
AZDEAN:The Jalaba. That's where we say Jalaba is made differently in different parts of Morocco. Some areas are a little bit more popular than others. There's the Berber Jalaba that when you go, for example, to Shifshawen they have their own Jalaba and it's made completely different. And there's Jalaba that it's, you know, for winter, that it's heavy, for summer, that it's a little bit light for holidays and celebrations and stuff. So there's tons and tons and tons of Jalabas and styles. The best way to get it? I would let Sam answer that question.
SAM:Yeah, sure For the Jalaba. If you want to light Jalaba for occasions, for example light Jalaba for summer, buy it in Fez. If you want a heavy Jalaba the best quality you buy it in Shifshawen or you buy it in Benimlal. It's a small village called Bzu, bzou, bzou, near Benimlal. So this is your good, the best quality of the heavy Jalaba for winter time.
TED:And we should explain for people who don't know. It's the kind of long cloak, the hood right, it's the same one that you bought.
AZDEAN:The one that you got Ted is really really nice and I really love the color combination. You know, when you go to Morocco in the winter time, I would say Jalaba is a must. You really have to wear it because it looks kind of strange, but once you put it on it's really comfortable and it warms you up. So that's the difference between having pants and jacket you can have layers of clothes but you still don't feel as warm as when you have your Jalaba with you or wearing Jalaba.
TED:Yeah, it really keeps the dampness out, especially in the morning, so I remember that.
SAM:Yes, that's right especially in the mornings, especially when you drive from Fez to Mirzouga and you pass through Ifren and Dazro and you want to get out of the car for photos. It's a bit cold, so you have to wear your Jalaba to feel warm.
AZDEAN:That's too funny.
TED:Yeah, I got mine in Chef Chauhan, so that's a good place to get it.
AZDEAN:Yeah, Chef Chauhan is highly recommended because it's a little bit more fashionable, a little bit more stylish, really, really nice.
TED:There's another question I don't have in front of me, but there was. Do you have it there? There was something about Tangier.
AZDEAN:Yes, I think I forgot the person, but she asked some of the places to stay in Tangier in terms of accommodations. If you can make some recommendations, sam, in terms of hotels and also in terms of riyats?
SAM:Sure to stay in Tangier. For riyats, I recommend staying in Palizahia or Dar Shams, dar Tanja or Riyadh Muhtar four riyadhs in Tangier. If you want to stay in hotels, you can stay in Kinsi Solazar it's medium and you can stay in Hilton Hilton. They have three five stars hotels in Tangier Hilton Hawara and Hilton Tangier city center and Hilton Ocean. So these are recommended in Tangier.
TED:Thank you. You didn't make it to Tangier, unfortunately, but when you're there in the city is it very walkable? Is it easy to kind of see a lot in the city core?
AZDEAN:I'm not going to say anything, no.
SAM:OK.
AZDEAN:OK, that's what you asked. I lost 15 pounds in two days.
SAM:OK, by the way, for information, tangier, especially the meeting now, is built on the top of the hill, so to go down to the meeting now you have to walk like 30 minutes, and the point is when you want to go back to your accommodation on the top of the Casbah. It's challenging.
AZDEAN:Yeah, yes, just to give you an idea to get out of your way. You really have to think about it. The way we want to go outside, I'm just going to stay in it. The food is amazing, that's right. The culture in Tangier is incredible. The sightseeing, the downtown Medina, the coastal side, it is gorgeous. But to my knees, to my ankles, it was quite a bit. But we had a lot of fun.
TED:Is there a transport at all?
SAM:Yes.
TED:Taxis or something. They get you a hill.
AZDEAN:Yes, they do, yes, they do. But Tangier the thing that I really liked about Tangier is it's 3 in the morning and everyone is still packing busy. It felt so nice. And then the food. The food was very, very good and it was close to us, you know, at Royale, so it was very nice yeah.
SAM:Another thing to take into consideration in Tangier is it's very clean city.
AZDEAN:It is.
SAM:Very nice and it's expensive rather than other cities in Morocco.
TED:Yes.
SAM:It's totally different. The rates there is very high, including everything Restaurants, spas, like everything is slightly expensive, rather than other cities in Morocco.
TED:Is the cuisine there a lot different from the rest of Morocco?
AZDEAN:A little bit. Yes, yes.
SAM:It's more Mediterranean than Moroccan.
TED:yes, yeah, I'd love to get there, hopefully next time. But that's a good point though, you know, because this is it when you're trying to figure out where to go and how much you can fit in. I mean, you're generally starting in Casablanca. It's the airport's there, so you've got to get to Chef Chowen at least. But then how far is it from Chef Chowen to Tangier when you drive?
SAM:Two hours drive. Yeah, yes, two hours drive from Tangier, including one stop.
TED:Right, so I mean you'd have to stay overnight for sure. It just adds an extra day and a day and a half, if not even more time to really see it well. So, yeah, you've got to make your choices, but it's all part of this this is what you guys do is people can choose what their priorities are and see what they want. If they want to spend more time, drive up there, go for it.
SAM:Yeah, sure, and that's what there is an option to go through. If you want to go to Chef Chowen, you can go through like Tietuan. Then you go to Chef Chowen. The distance between Tangier and Tietuan is 45 minutes drive, so you can have like an hour or an hour and a half in Tietuan and then you go, you continue to Chef Chowen and you take your like yeah, another, like an hour and 20 minutes drive.
AZDEAN:By the way, a lot of people don't visit Tietuan, but Tietuan is beautiful. It is gorgeous. I love Tietuan. I love the seafood oh my God. The restaurants, the food, the culture. It's incredible. And you can see there's a lot of Spanish influence, a lot of Jewish influence. It's a very beautiful small town.
TED:We did an episode. I'm trying to remember who was it that you remember that went there. She went to Tangier and then went to Tietuan.
AZDEAN:I believe it was Max, max and Jamie. I believe Max went to Tietuan and Jamie stayed behind, or the other way around, but I know we did Tietuan for those two activities last year.
TED:Yes, yeah, I remember them talking about like kind of driving over the mountains yes, down the hill and like this yes, it's Max and Jamie.
SAM:They make a day trip from Chef Chowen to Tietuan and come back. Yes, yes, yeah.
AZDEAN:I also just want to say something about the reef mountains in the north side of Morocco. They're completely different than the Atlas Mountains. Oh my God, it does not even feel like you're in Morocco. You know we did that drive in the summer. I mean, the scenery is just, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. It's a lot more green than the Atlas Mountains. For sure. It's very unique and different. It does not really feel like you're in Morocco at all.
SAM:Yes, and the villages and the mountains is the way they build the houses. They're totally different from the high Atlas Mountains or the middle Atlas Mountains. It's amazing.
AZDEAN:Yeah, and then when you have FAS and FAS and they both meet, you know the reef mountains with the Atlas Mountains. That's why FAS is it's very unique, beautiful city mindfulness, yeah, yeah.
TED:Well, do you guys have anything else you want to go over this time? We just want to thank the listeners.
AZDEAN:You know the viewers. We're very grateful. We appreciate you. We're here to help, regardless of everything that we have said. We want you to go to Morocco. You will love it, and that's what we're here for. We are ambassadors to Morocco and we want you to go to Morocco. And Morocco is it's very different than a unique country. There's thousands and thousands of years, layers of history, culture. Then the people are different. You know there's a lot of tribes from the south moving to the north, to the middle, to the west, to the east, and the music even the music it's super rich when it comes to the music, when it comes to the culture, when it comes to the food, everything about it is really really fascinating. So keep those things in consideration when you go. And also, I want to mention something that you know a lot of the people, when they book their tours with us, the number one thing that they're really interested in is the MSR culture, and also the second one is the Jewish heritage, the Jewish culture, and rightfully so, because it's all mixed in. It's really really, really nice. You know, we're very grateful for everybody who has traveled with us. You cannot really thank you enough.
SAM:I want to add something which is making me laugh, because I get some feedback from our clients when they meet them in Marrakech. Here we don't have dinner. I ask them what's your opinion about Morocco as you are here? They said okay, honestly, before we come here, we think that Morocco is only Sahara and you don't have like big cities, you don't have like electricity or something. I said okay. So now Morocco just to clarify something is a diverse country in terms of landscapes. We have a huge desert Sahara, we have high Atlas mountains, we have middle Atlas mountains, we have anti Atlas mountains, and each one is different in terms of landscapes and and sinaries and views and so on. We have reef mountains, as we mentioned. Right now we have oceans we have 1,512 kilometers of ocean Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans and with beautiful, beautiful, beautiful beaches and and coasts. So I want to say welcome, come to Morocco, Come visit Morocco. We love you and we want you to visit Morocco and to enjoy your experience, to enjoy your trip and your tour in Morocco. This is the hard point.
TED:Yeah, that's great. And now you'll be hosting the the World Cup soon, so yes, I need electricity for that, that's exciting.
AZDEAN:We'll talk about that.
SAM:Yeah sure, yeah, we're more about it, plans and everything that's exciting. We will host African Cup before 2025. Then World Cup later and before it in 2029,.
AZDEAN:We have the the other event in Saqqa.
SAM:Yeah, yeah.
AZDEAN:So three major events, big sporting events, and it's predicted that Morocco, in terms of tourism, 2024 is going to be really, really good in terms of tourism for Morocco. So you know, and we're here to help to make it easy for you to travel to Morocco and have really amazing time and a great experience.
TED:Awesome, now's the time to go.
AZDEAN:Yes.
SAM:Yes.
TED:Cool. Well, thanks guys. We'll be back the second Wednesday of November, which is November 8th. Yes, We'll do another live session. We'll have a theme, a topic we'll kind of revolve around, but of course, any questions or any topics people are welcome to submit via the website. Send you an email, all the info is there and they can get those questions answered.
AZDEAN:Absolutely Thank you so? Much Thank you.
SAM:Thank you very much, aztein. Thank you very much. I appreciate it Great.
TED:Take care Bye.
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