Enjoy the best of Morocco on foot

Enjoy the best of Morocco on foot

Morocco is a place that can be visited throughout the year. One of the most exotic and exciting countries in the world, this spectacular North African country has much to offer - adventure holiday experiences bustling rural town. A good way to discover the country on foot. Morocco has many exotic places that otherwise might be lost.

See and do

Arriving in Marrakech , you will be dazzled by this town , dating from the 11th century - that continues to arouse curiosity and interest of travelers . The skyline is dominated by the charm of the architecture of the Koutoubia Minaret .

Your first day may be taken for a city tour on foot. Morocco is synonymous with souks and your first point of contact should be a visit to a souk , or market. Walk in the maze of alleys and sharpen your negotiating skills - you need them, because you will be tempted to pick up everything in sight! Jewelers , shoemakers , potters and weavers all line the streets with their best products. With thousands of exotic things for sale , you need to be strong !

Then walk to the Djemaa el- Fna , where you can experience the atmosphere of a medieval fair . It is an open square where you can see snake charmers, jugglers and other performers who compete for your attention . Buy some local dishes and satiate your appetite whet by the multitude of aromas of vendor offerings . After lunch or dinner , relax in one of the outdoor cafes and enjoy a traditional herbal tea .

After the hustle and bustle of Marrakech may be eager to escape the Atlas Mountains. A one hour drive from Marrakech Ourika City sets where you can enjoy breath-taking views and mountain air . From here , you can begin to continue in the mountains on foot . Morocco has a spectacularly beautiful mountain scenery, it may come as a surprise to many .

After you have had your fill of fresh mountain air , make your way back to shore. A four-hour trip will be given to the lovely town of Essaouira . The rocky coast of this former pirate den is nothing short of spectacular . As you explore the city you will find Portuguese, Berber and French battlements in the maze of narrow streets , and countless small cafes in the squares. Two enormous strengths govern the city and even a castle on a neighboring island .

Essaouira is vibrant and full of color. The port was once the haunt of pirates who used to steal ships sail rich that happened this sea route . The fishermen still work the seas around and you can see every morning dragging his capture and fixation of their networks . Various influences have created a cosmopolitan atmosphere of the area, with visual ' wows ' at each corner. You can visit the workshops that specialize in working adorned with inlaid jewelry , fascinating stroll the streets or just spend a few days relaxing on the beach.

When you're at a party tour involves walking , Morocco will open many hidden secrets by running through bus tour groups or larger . Discover the magic of this wonderful country walk .

Tony Maniscalco is the director of marketing for Ramblers Worldwide Holidays. Join us on a walking trip to Morocco to see the most picturesque places and the best value prices . We offer over 140 guided group walking in over 60 countries.


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Dining In the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco

Morocco is a country known for the variety and quality of its food and there are many excellent restaurants in Morocco in Marrakech ( and especially ) that would be absurd if someone wants to know what is best . In a year or a month, that would depend heavily on their own particular tastes and the cooks were having a good season in particular. And Morocco is full of specialized culinary artists .

On the outskirts of Marrakech is a particular restaurant made ​​famous by Sir Richard Branson that is so unique that I think are worth a special visit , a leak in the countryside just outside of Marrakech , heading south towards the big mountains Atlas to a very special hill where Sir Richard has managed Kasbah Tamadot since buying a dozen years ago when I first laid eyes on the complex that looks like a castle above the earth in one of his famous balloon trips through North Africa .

That was in 1998 . The resort reopened Kasbah Tamadot five or six years later as part of the franchise Branson Virgin Airlines. Sir Richard , obviously loves this place , as it seems to get better and better every year , clearly the recipient of your personal attention and affection , and their ability to invest.

The Kasbah Tamadot has one of the world's most unusual restaurants , called Kanoun , which serves delicious local and international cuisine either indoors or outdoors , with a cozy bar with fireplace or on the terrace views , take your pick . Because Tamadot Kasbah has its own extensive garden , most of the vegetables and herbs that you can enjoy here were collected a few meters from your table. As always, just makes a difference.

I went there for lunch on my last trip to Morocco , served to me and my guests on the terrace , from which view you could see for miles in the clear air of the Atlas mountain . I started with a light contemporary dish , mild red pepper gazpacho , accompanied by a timbale of fresh crab and avocado. For dessert , I chose a mango carpaccio , very sour , lime sorbet .

On a previous visit a year or two ago I remember (because I kept a travel journal , as I always do ! ) We had a lunch rather more importantly, a cauliflower puree topped with feathers pickled cauliflower cold, followed by a pill Poussin (a very small chicken a bit like a Cornish game hen ) topped by two small chicken feet crossed and a pear cooked in wine. The fresh mountain air always Moroccan stimulates appetite !

The most famous dish is the Moroccan tagine , a kind of stew that takes its name from the traditional clay pot in which it is prepared. The Kanoun tagine is cooked very slowly over medium heat, giving it the unique flavor and tenderness of the meat . The chef likes a tagine is not as sweet as one more typically found in Morocco, and to me, this is more suited to my taste . Tagine is perhaps the best in the country.

As you can imagine , Kanoun Kasbah Tamadot and restaurants are very popular at all times of the year , so it is imperative to book a table before 45 minutes drive from Marrakech to its doors hill. You can call +212 (0) 524 36 82 00 for a table , or for more information contact the hotel website .

Comedor En las estribaciones de la cordillera del Atlas en Marruecos

Marruecos es un país conocido por la variedad y calidad de sus platos y hay muchos restaurantes excelentes en Marruecos en Marrakech (y sobre todo) que sería absurdo que alguien pretende saber cuál es el mejor . En un año o un mes, eso dependería en gran medida de los propios gustos particulares , y que los cocineros estaban teniendo una buena temporada en particular . Y Marruecos está lleno de artistas culinarios especializados.


En los alrededores de Marrakech hay un restaurante en particular se hizo famoso por Sir Richard Branson que es tan único que creo que vale la pena una visita especial , un escape en el campo a las afueras de Marrakech, en dirección sur hacia las grandes montañas del Atlas a un muy especial colina donde Sir Richard ha arreglado Kasbah Tamadot desde que compró hace una docena de años cuando por primera vez puso los ojos en el complejo que parece un castillo de encima de la tierra en uno de sus famosos viajes en globo a través de África del Norte.

Eso fue en 1998 . El complejo Kasbah Tamadot reabrió cinco o seis años más tarde como parte de la franquicia de Branson Virgin Airlines. Sir Richard , obviamente, le encanta este lugar , ya que parece que lo mejor y mejor cada año , claramente el destinatario de su atención personal y el afecto , y su capacidad de invertir en él.

La Kasbah Tamadot tiene uno de los restaurantes más extraordinarios del mundo , llamado Kanoun , que sirve deliciosos platos locales e internacionales , ya sea en interiores o exteriores , con un acogedor bar con chimenea o vistas en la terraza , tomar su selección. Debido a Kasbah Tamadot tiene su propia y extensa huerta , la mayoría de las verduras y las hierbas que usted podrá disfrutar aquí fueron recogidos a pocos metros de su mesa. Como siempre , recién hace una diferencia.

Fui allí para el almuerzo en mi último viaje a Marruecos , que se sirve a mí y mis invitados en la terraza, desde la que vista que podía ver por millas en el aire claro de montaña del Atlas. Empecé con un plato contemporáneo luz, una leve pimiento rojo gazpacho, acompañado de un timbal de cangrejo fresco y aguacate . Para el postre, elegí un carpaccio de mango, muy agrio, con sorbete de lima .

En una visita anterior de un año o dos atrás recuerdo (porque llevé un diario del viaje, como siempre lo hago !) Que tenía un almuerzo bastante más importante , un puré de coliflor plumas coronado por la coliflor en escabeche frío, seguido por una pastilla de Poussin ( una muy pequeña de pollo un poco como un juego de gallina Cornish ) coronado por dos pequeñas patas de gallina cruzó y una pera cocida en vino. El fresco aire de la montaña marroquí siempre estimula el apetito !

El plato más famoso es el tagine marroquí , una especie de guiso que toma su nombre de la olla de barro tradicional en la que se prepara. El tagine Kanoun está cocido muy lentamente a fuego medio, lo que le da el extraordinario sabor y terneza de la carne . El chef le gusta un tagine que no es tan dulce como la que uno más típicamente encontrar en Marruecos , y para mí , esto es más adecuado para mi paladar. Es quizás el mejor tagine en el país.

Como se puede imaginar , Kasbah Tamadot y su Kanoun restaurante son muy populares en todo momento del año, por lo que es imperativo que reservar una mesa antes de los 45 minutos en coche de Marrakech a sus puertas colina . Usted puede llamar al +212 ( 0 ) 524 36 82 00 para conseguir una mesa , o para obtener información de contacto de la página web del hotel .




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Discovering the Delights of Morocco on foot

Discovering the Delights of Morocco on foot


Exotic and colorful magic is a way of summarizing the image of Morocco - although this diverse country in North Africa lends itself to many vivid descriptions . So close to the UK and yet , seemingly a world away , is a fascinating place to visit. If it's a walking holiday in Morocco you are looking for you will not be disappointed , there are some wonderful itineraries on offer, which will take you directly to the center of the country and offers the perfect way to experience the culture and explore the history . To get the best experience , you should book with a travel agency using experienced guides and accommodates small groups only .

Walking in Morocco you will find walking through some of the country's most vibrant cities , trekking through the Sahara sands and hiking in the Atlas Mountains . Regardless of your level of fitness or ability to be a walking holiday in Morocco for you.

Discovering the magical heart

Most trips begin in Marrakech , which offers a wonderful introduction to the exotic culture and fascinating traditions of the country is famous . Beautiful architecture rises above the busy streets , vibrant cafes are dropped by the roadside , and the smell of spices, mint tea and the kitchen is around. Bright jewelry hanging in shop windows while the carpet sellers display their wares in luxury flat screens . The coffee is drunk from exquisite gold vessels and bags of nuts and fruits are sold on every corner.

The old part of the city is the Marrakech of the imagination , with small streets leading to beautiful souks , snake charming street entertainers and music playing and

delicious snacks are prepared in small stalls . Djemaa el Fna is the place to go in the old town and represents what the ancient city of Marrakech once was. Here the Koutoubia Mosque is proud of its splendor sober, ornamental and decorative arches windows look down on a beautiful garden with superb lighting and minaret of the mosque was the inspiration for the Giralda in Seville .

For a bit of peace and quiet , head to the Jardin Majorelle , which also houses the Museum of Islamic Art. Here are many cactus, lily ponds and other notable plant species . From Marrakech , some of the best hiking trails in Morocco is easily accessible . The High Atlas Mountains are close by and the Ourika Valley is just 45 minutes drive . Famous for the seven waterfalls at Setti Fatma , Ourika Valley the beautiful greenery with terraced fields and babbling river , offers a clear contrast with the rugged Atlas Mountains that rise above it . Throughout the Berber valley life thrives and there are plenty of opportunities to visit traditional villages and enjoy the local culture. Here you get a real feel for the typical country life that is still so prevalent in these parts .

Walking in Morocco is the best way to really see the country. With so many excellent hiking trails , wonderful accommodation and fantastic scenery to be a party to remember .

Tony Maniscalco is the director of marketing for Ramblers Worldwide Holidays. Join us on a walking holiday in Morocco to see the most spectacular places and the best value prices . We offer over 140 guided group walking in over 60 countries.



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Tarfaya Culture and History

Tarfaya is a city, previously also known as Villa Bens during the Spanish period, located in the Laâyoune Province of the Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra region of southwestern Morocco. It is a port town on the Atlantic coast, close to Cape Juby, which shares its name with the southern region of Morocco, and is located 890 km southwest of Rabat. According ot the 2004 census, Tarfaya has a population of 5,615, the smallest of the four municipalities of the region, but it is the only one outside of the disputed Western Sahara.

In the 1920s, the French commercial air carrier Aéropostale constructed an airfield here. A small monument now stands at that site to honour the air carrier, its pilots in general and the French aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in particular. He served as station manager here during his career as an airmail pilot.

Tarfaya was occupied by the British in 1882, when they built a trading post called Casa del Mar. The building is currently in a state of complete disrepair. The Sahrawi tribes[which?] then solicited the intervention of Sultan Hassan I who negotiated the withdrawal of the British in 1885 by acquiring their trading office[citation needed]. In 1912 the territory of Tarfaya, then named Cape Juby, was occupied by Spain as part of the Spanish Sahara. The greater Cape Juby region plus Tarfaya were unified with Morocco in 1958, at the end of the Ifni War.

The wreck of Assalama

In early 2008, a ferry service was established between Tarfaya and Puerto del Rosario[citation needed]. The car ferry Assalama, operated by the shipping company Naviera Armas made the trip three times a week[citation needed]. It was the first ferry service between the Canary Islands and the coast of Africa[citation needed]. The anticipated car traffic between the Canaries and Morocco provided a modest economic upturn for the town.

This ferry service was, however, halted due to an accident on 30 April 2008, during a botched maneuver in the port. The ferry struck a sandbar and later sank in shallow water near Tarfaya. The Panama registered passenger ferry Assalama was wrecked after leaving Tarfaya in poor weather. The vessel was about five miles offshore when high seas washed over its deck and it began to list and be carried back to shore. 

Passengers and crew were successfully evacuated by Tarfaya fishermen as the ferry only had 2 obsolete lifeboats for 113 passengers after the ship beached on a sandbank just off the port entrance. Approximately 80,000 litres of fuel oil were spilt, severely damaging the local fishing industry. No compensations have been given for the loss of belongings or vehicles in the incident.

Tarfaya's association with Aéropostale began in 1927. The airmail carrier, based in Toulouse, France, was founded by French industrialist Pierre-Georges Latécoère, who envisioned an air route connecting France to its French colonies in Africa. Latécoère firmly believed in the future of aviation as a means of commercial transportation and communication between people.

The nearby Cape Juby airfield was an important refueling and stopover station for Aéropostale. Author-aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was named its station manager in 1927. There he remained for 18 months, on occasion negotiating with the rebellious Moorish tribes to release his imprisoned pilots, as he wrote in his first novel, Southern Mail.

On 28 September 2004 a museum opened in honour of the memory of Aéropostale, Saint-Exupéry and its pilots, supported notably by the city of Toulouse and French aircraft maker Airbus. The museum was inaugurated by renowned aviation journalist Bernard Chabbert, whose father was also part of Aéropostale's history.

Tarfaya: the city that inspired The Little Prince

Tarfaya: the city that inspired The Little Prince

Throughout the world, The Little Prince is considered one of the most read books. It has been translated into more than two hundred languages, and has been considered by critics as the most read book after the Quran and the Bible.

Most readers know of the story and the writer, but they seldom know that the writer was inspired by Trafaya, the little city in the south of Morocco that stands on two oceans; the Atlantic Ocean and the ocean of the desert.

In 1927, Antoine de Saint-Exupery arrived to Tarfaya as a representative of the air postal company he worked for. Between 1927 and 1929, Exupery spent eighteen months in the heart of the Sahara. The time he spent in the desert inspired the French poet to write his famous literary work a year before his death in 1943.

During his stay in the desert of Tarfaya, Saint-Exupery built good relations with the people of the region and its natural elements. He received inspiration from the nights, the stars, the moon, the dunes, the weather and the beauty of the Sahara. The nature of the Sahara positively impacted the poetic mind and the literary imagination of the pilot and watered his creative skills to write.

“The Little Prince is a poetic tale, self-illustrated in watercolors, in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince that has fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. The story is philosophical and includes societal criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world.”

Philosophically speaking, The Little Prince stands for the little child and the little philosopher inside every human being who never stops asking questions about life, being and living, and who always chases answers and solutions to our existential dilemma on earth as humans.

We keep growing up, changing ages, stages, places on the road of living, but many of us seem to be unsatisfied with the answers we get from adults about the meaning of life. This is what pushes us continuously to enrich our experience and to build our knowledge, identities and personalities.

Saint-Exupery did not write his novel while he was in Tarfaya. He waited for nearly fourteen years for his memories and imagination to settle into his mind and flourish. Fourteen years was enough to produce a great piece of art and to attract a great number of readers all over the world and in all languages.

The desert, the stars, the dunes, the snakes and the search for the sheep and a well inside the desert are elements that are well exploited, literarily and poetically, by the writer in The Little Prince.

On page forty-eight, the snake declares, “this is the desert. There are no people in the desert. The earth is large”. Then the the Little Prince clearly claims his love of the desert in page sixty-two when he said, “I have always loved the desert. One sits on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, and hears nothing. Yet, through the silence something throbs, and gleams”.

Of course, this is the context of inspiration and creativity that poets search and strive for. Many poets long to be in the middle of nowhere, where they hear nothing and have the opportunity to listen to their inner voices of writing and creating.

“All men love the stars”, The Little Prince answered, “but they are not the same thing for different people. For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others, they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For businessman, they were wealth. But all these stars are silent.”

According to Mr Mrabih Rabo Sadat Chbahto, president of Tarfaya’s Friends Association, “Saint-Exupery has been inspired by Trafaya and by the period of time he spent in our city. For us, The Little Prince would never be written if Saint-Exupery hadn’t been here. The desert, the stars, the ocean, the sand dunes and the wisdom of the people of the desert have inspired the writer and this can be seen by the readers of the Little Prince”.

Tarfaya has not forgotten its writer and every year the city organizes the festival of The Little Prince on the ocean. It is an opportunity to meet the family of Saint-Exupery, and to converse with his national and international readers and famous literary critics who come to Tarfaya to celebrate Saint- Exupery. People come from all over the world to praise the pilot, poet, writer and man who wrote The Little Prince, and most importantly to discover the city that inspired this world renowned story.

Tamellalte, the Forgotten Town – Short Story

Tamellalte, the Forgotten Town – Short Story

That time, I woke up early. I had looked at the sky. And then I looked at the other side of the river through the window. I was looking at buses and cars that were interrupted by the bray of a donkey going by. It was a cold day but with breezy weather. It was still an hour and half left until breakfast time. My mother had already woken up and she managed, as usual, to go to the orchards to bring the herbs for the sheep and cows. My little brother was still sleeping. He was laughing at my face even though he was asleep. He never looked at the window to the other world. Luckily, he was not tall enough to do so; but he would be able to very soon. I made no noise that might make him up. He was there until the sun burnt his face then he would wake up. As I had finished praying, my mother came out in her traditional dress, scythe in one hand and a piece of case in the other. It was a very nice morning. The vapor from amalal (the traditional kitchens) was scattered over the whole town; the smell of broth could be tested everywhere. People came out of their houses one by one like squirrels. Most of them, if not all, went to Igran (orchards); there life would be.

As I accompanied my mother to the orchards, a very deep attractive silence appealed to me to go ahead and goroaming across the orchards. But there was a furious sound of barking. It was of dogs. Dogs my mother feared too much. In fact our region was of countless dogs, but let them be. No way. I remembered her meticulous advice that she told me once. “Look my son; life is of difficulties; everybody has his raison d’être which he is made to fulfill but enemies and dogs are always barking at him. So never ever gaze at barking dogs; they are less mighty once you neglect them, however numerous they are.” I could not understand why she feared dogs and at the same time inspired me with encouragement and confidence.

Once my mother dispersed, got into the orchard, and hid behind the tall corn, I went to the river side. On my way to the river, I came across four girl-students but did not talk to them. They kept gazing at me. They were shivering from the cold. They were crossing the deep dark river, but they were happy. The school was six kilometres from their hometown. I could not control my anger after witnessing that scene of young girls crossing the lethal deep river of Draa. Abruptly I came back to the orchard. I sat under a date palm. I tried to contemplate the advice of my mother; I thought of it fastidiously and for a long time…. She was right. Dogs. She meant perhaps the ones with did not bark sound but that would bite at any occasion.

Tamellalte was bitten. I was really obsessed in my mind with many problems facing it. Tamellalte was really a forgotten town. I could not do more than confess that we had not yet been treated as human beings. WE WERE FORGOTTEN. I always asked some questions which drove me crazy; they should be answered however. What was the problem with those innocent students crossing the river? Why were we not able to have the infrastructure like those on the other side of which my little brother was not aware? Why the mitigating, undermining, neglecting, forgetting and dehumanising of us? Were those pregnant women who were in labour and were taken on mule-back doomed to death just because they were on the other side –the forgotten side- where technology and means of transportation were of negligible importance? I would never forget the woman who wanted to give birth to a child, was in labour, and went to the hospital on her feet; at the end, a nurse told her that she was not in labour and accordingly not about to give birth; she left the hospital, felt giddy and gave birth luckily in the house of a woman she had been acquainted with before.

Who was to blame? Of course, the one who was not a part of the problem could be a part of the solution. We wanted to feel that we were human. Who would change our status quo? Was it my mother who still believed that we were born to be so? Or was it the leader of the region who outsmarted and flattered people and described them as generous, benign, patient, and the like? I could not swallow at ease what I had been told that some girl-students on their way to the school were blackmailed and racially taunted as well as sexually harassed by the gangs. The other scapegoat was the one who came to celebrate the Eid (a religious holiday) with his family; he unfortunately was stoned and laid sick for three weeks. Circa 2000, Tamellalte did not have a concrete bridge; they had a bridge made of the logs of date palms. Once there was flood, the whole town would be isolated.

Out of the blue, my mother arrived from the orchard with a heavy load of herbs. She could read wrath in my face. She asked about what made me pale. I said “Dogs mom,” “Dogs mom,” “Dogs mom.” “But I did not hear their bark,” said my mother. You were made to hear them mom and because you were forgotten and in a forgotten town.