Morocco: The Sahara, Ramadan, and the Blue City

Morocco was one of my favorite countries on my Semester at Sea voyage simply because it was a week’s worth of adventures and things I never dreamed of. This country was beautiful and the people were so very kind. One thing to take note of is Ramadan – Ramadan is a holy month in the Islam faith where all Muslims must abstain from eating and drinking from sunup to sundown. We just so happened to be there during this holy month which meant that many restaurants were closed (rightfully so). It also meant that we were the only people eating, so I did feel super guilty every single time we sat down for a meal. Just something to keep in mind as you plan travels!

TANGIER:

This was our port city and one that I just didn’t even know existed until SAS! Obviously the city was on the ocean, but we could actually see Spain in good weather off the coast. We were not allowed to leave the country we were in, but some professors took the 20 minute ferry over to Spain just for fun! We spent the first two days here just exploring and taking everything at our own pace. There was a decent mall, lots of fun restaurants, plenty of local vendors, stunning architecture, and so much beach. We obviously did a pretty jam-packed tour on the other days so it was so nice to just leisurely explore on the other days.

THE TOUR:

We booked this tour through Sahara Desert Excursions and it was so much fun! The tour included transportation everywhere, lodging, and a wonderful tour guide! I’ll go into detail of each stop below but the schedule was Chefchaoen (the blue city), a full two days in the Sahara desert, and so many beautiful stops along the way! One negative however was none of us realized the distance between all of these places, so sooo much time was spent in the car. Just be sure to bring a book or some kind of roadtrip game!

CHEFCHAOUEN:

The blue city! This was a part of our tour and was so touristy yet so much fun. Every building is painted in shades of blue and there are restaurants (with both authentic and no-so authentic foods) and shops galore. We got so many fun gifts for ourselves and our families, bookmarks, postcards, jewelry, playing cards, and even bags! In addition to that, the architecture was just beautiful and I could have walked around for hours.

THE SAHARA:

WOW! This was just two days of bucket list items back to back. We arrived and were shown how to tie our scarves in the traditional way and then assigned to a camel for our ride. Each camel is tied in a line of 8 and led by a human guide. The “saddle” is a metal cage with a bean bag balanced in between the two humps. It was not the most comfortable to be honest and I definitely made it worse by holding on for dear life for an hour straight. We took a two hour ride, getting off halfway through for the sunset, and arrived to our desert camp in the pitch black. This camp was not your average camp for sure. These were luxury tents with beds and a shower and a wooden door secured by a deadbolt. We were fed a wonderful dinner and breakfast here!

In the morning, we were given time to sandboard down the dunes. I chose to just watch and laugh at my friends. We then rode in Jeeps back to the “roads” and arrived at the ATV spot. We each got our own and we rode around the Sahara for a few hours. I am such a nervous person when it comes to adventurous things like this but I had SO MUCH FUN. The only scary part was my friend Carly did flip hers (she was ok!).

This country was truly so beautiful and so much fun! These memories are still some I think of often even a year later. Morocco definitely needs to be added to your bucket list if it’s not already on there!

That’s all for me today! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon!