Moroccotabiartetours.com - Morocco tabiarte tours (5 of 5 points)

Best Tour Ever, Keep Up the Good Work, Moha!
This is probably one of the most memorable Christmas vacation we had as a family. We found out about Morocco Tabiarte Tours from a friend of ours who highly recommended Moha and his travel company. And we were impressed by his reviews on TripAdvisor.

Moha responded quickly to my inquiries, even with the time difference in Morocco, and he was polite and resourceful. We signed up part of our trip with Moha and part of the trip we decided to tour Marrakech on our own.

Our plan was to spend two nights in Marrakech and tour the city on our own first. Then we would have Moha pick us up and drive us to the Sahara Desert from Marrakech, spending one night at the luxury camp in the Sahara Desert, and drive from Sahara Desert to Fes the following day, spend the night at Fes, and depart from Fes to the US.

Upon arrival in Marrakesh, we were inundated by taxi drivers who were eager to provide a ride to our hotel. It was quite chaotic and frantically, a bit terrifying being transferred from one driver to the next and not understanding what was going on due to language barrier. We selected a US hotel chain ourselves. I probably would suggest staying at a Moroccan riad to experience the Moroccan traditional lodging and dining. Our hotel was outside of the city center, which makes commuting to the medina a bit difficult and finding traditional style dining was also sparse near our hotel. There was a mall across from our hotel and the food in the food court was mediocre, probably because we didn't know what to order or ask for. The next day we hopped on the City Tour Marrakech Hop on Hop off city bus, and was disappointed by the extended wait time, and we wasted valuable time between attractions. And I would probably suggest not adding the “camel rides” with the Hop on Hop Off buses since the camel treks in the Sahara is by far the best.

Moha picked us up from our hotel the next morning, still dark, planning to reach the Sahara’s by sunset. My first impression of him was that he appeared a lot younger than I expected but yet mature and serious. Our hotel prepared breakfast for us early in the morning, so we were able to pack some food for the trip. The ride to Sahara Desert was rough and long, but Moha made sure we had plenty of breaks in between to get breakfast, lunch and for bathroom breaks. He also stopped at a number of local attractions, and we enjoyed visiting the sites. We also liked the restaurants Moha selected for us, and kids had plenty of delicious spaghetti while the adults had Tagine. He made sure we kept up with the tour schedule, in order to arrive at Sahara desert on time to trek the camels into the sunset. Moha’s spoken English was definitely above average, communication was never a problem. We also felt safe with his driving, very smooth and conscientious. Even though Moha’s driving was smooth, I would suggest packing some snacks, water, or fruits in the car. Moha apparently is very disciplined on not eating or drinking much during the long drive; however, the tourists may not be able to sustain the rough terrain over the High Atlas Mountain without something to snack on, esp if younger children are in the car. And if you happen to be in the right season, I believe you can ask Moha to find you some really juicy oranges on the way. Once we arrived at the Sahara’s, Moha had us on the camels, one camel per person, and then he left with his vehicle to meet us at the Luxury Camp where we would spend the night.

The highlight was definitely being on the camels, we arrived promptly by nightfall, there was one camel per person, and the trek to our camp was definitely once in a lifetime experience. Our camel guide was hilarious, and he took us to awesome sand dunes to take incredible sunset pictures. Our family had so much fun enjoying the sunset while trekking with the camels, and when we arrived at the Luxury Camp, it was indeed luxurious and beautiful. We were completely mesmerized by the experience. Our tent was large enough for probably up to 6 people, and there was a nice shower and toilet area. However, I would suggest that once you arrive, start taking your hot shower, our hot water ran out later that night, and Sahara winter in a tent was not suited for cold showers!

The dinner was in a communal large tent, with warm delicious soup, Moroccan traditional salad, and Tagine. The dessert was also something to die for, we enjoyed every bit of it. By 9-10 pm, there was welcoming music, bonfire, and celebration of the tourists’ arrival. The traditional Berber music, dancing, and drumming under the stars was amazing. If you have a chance to see Moha drum, you should. He is an excellent drummer, enthusiastic and with much musical talent.

The next morning, we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrise, sand skied before breakfast and had a very lovely breakfast with hot mint tea. Around 9-10 a.m., we were in Moha’s car for our drive to Fes. We had also requested a visit to fossil factories on the way to Fes, definitely worth the stop if you are interested in fossils. The factory we visited can also ship to the US. Our children enjoyed the stop, it was almost like visiting a Natural Science Museum in the U.S, very interesting and informative.

We arrived at Fes by nighttime, and we checked in to another US chain hotel that night. Again, away from medina. I presume that staying near or inside the medina would have been more cost effective and should have a wider selection of local restaurants. The next morning, Moha took us shopping at the Medina in Fes, the tour guide Moha had hired for us was excellent and knew the medina well, we were able to communicate with her in English on what we wanted to shop for, and she found the shops for us effortlessly.

After a couple hours of shopping, Moha took us to the airport. I would suggest making sure that there was a 3 hour lead time to accommodate delays in checking in at the airport. We had souvenirs that were large and heavy, and the custom ended up wanting us to repack our souvenirs as check-in baggage. Also, there were multiple layers of security, and we barely made it on our flight with a 2 hour lead time. It was also time consuming to pay for extra check-in baggage with Ryan Air. Overall, I think we would have enjoyed our departure more if we had arrived earlier and take things easy; however, to no one’s fault, we just wanted more time to shop at the Fes Medina, and thus we were tight on time.

Overall, this was probably one of the best adventure we had ever had as a family. It was exotic and the experience was unparalleled. I would again recommend having the tour guide like Moha with you if you are traveling, especially from city to city. Our self-guided portion of the trip described above was confusing and at times frustrating, so if I were to do another trip in Morocco, I would definitely go with a tour. Moha’s guided tour was well-planned, thoughtful and organized, and most importantly, Moha was very personable and helpful. It was definitely a really fun trip, and thank you Moha for this unforgettable memory!

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