Morocco in a Minute

2:53:00 PM Out And About Global 8 Comments

I am so excited to debut our first video--my daughter put it together. It's our first attempt and we are still learning, so be kind, but I wanted to put together a snap shot of our trip and what you can look forward to in upcoming posts.

We flew Ryan Air from Memmingen. Tickets cost us about €67/person round trip, flight time is about 3 hours.

Morocco is really as you would expect it to be... busy, chaotic, dirty, bright, and colorful. The air is full of spices and other smells not so nice, but having been in Europe the last three years, it was exactly the adventure we were looking for. I'd be lying though if I didn't tell you I had a couple of nervous minutes, like when we had to find our hotel deep within the souks at 10:30pm. It was dark, the alleys were narrow, dank and maze like. Even our guide had to stop and ask for directions, so my first bit of advice is this; if you stay inside the Medina or Souks have the hotel or Riad send someone to meet you, preferably at the airport. The alleyways do not have intelligible addresses and in the dark we NEVER would have found our way.

The entrance into our riad was very short, we all had to duck our heads to get inside.

As we wound our way through the alleys I kept thinking, "where in the world has my husband booked our guest house," but once we arrived I calmed down. Hossain, the hotel manager, made us feel very welcome and gave us good advice for our stay in Marrakech.

Riad Al Mamoune
140 Derb Aarjane-Rahba Kedima 40000 Marrakech-Medina
+212 (0) 524 39 19 58

There are plenty of European/American standard hotels outside the Medina to choose from, but we opted for a more authentic or local experience by staying in the small Riad. Our Moroccan styled room was very comfortable with two bedrooms separated by a large sitting room. The domed ceiling was beautifully painted. The only quirky thing about our room was the toilet is on the balcony. It has a door so it is private, it was just a little strange to go out onto the open air balcony when you needed the facilities.

Breakfast was included in our room rate. They serve mostly a selection of breads including a delicious pancake type goody, but you can also order eggs if you prefer. You can also choose to have a traditional home cooked dinner prepared in the evening as well. We only ate dinner at the Riad once, but we could have eaten there every night. The food was excellent, fresh and flavorful. We choose the meat and they prepared the rest. I can give two thumbs up for the guest house, its cooks and manager!