A Month in Morocco

After Italy we visited a very different place…different culturally, different foods, and even a different continent… Morocco! 

Morocco was one of my favorite countries we’ve been to so far. It had everything I love: cats, good food, and friendly people. The cats were so sweet and loving that I wanted to adopt every single one of them. We even fed some of the cats on the roof of our riad in Fez!

Fez was a great place to visit and our Airbnb was in the perfect location, the Medina (old town). The Fez medina is the largest in the world with over 9300 streets! Every day in Fez, we explored the medina and discovered something new. The narrow streets were filled with cats and stalls, selling everything from fresh fruits and spices, to pottery and rugs. The medina was like a maze, we got lost many times but it was still so much fun walking around petting all of the cats. The Airbnb we stayed in was really cool. It was a 400 year old, traditional Moroccan house called a Riad which had a tiny pool at the entrance and so many stairs. There were 5 floors and a roof top deck! One of the best parts was our daily dinner in the riad. We had a home cooked, traditional Moroccan meal each evening starting with a vegetable or lentil soup, mezzes (dips, salads and breads), and a tagine main course. My favorite was the lamb and cous cous with vegetables. The house and location was perfect except we stayed next to a mosque and their minaret which announced a call to prayer every day at 6 a.m. for 30 minutes. Even with the early wake up, Fez was definitely one of my top cities in Morocco.

After a great week in Fez, we needed to get to Marrakesh. We took a 5 day desert tour and drove from Fez all the way to Marrakesh. We went through the Merzouga desert dunes, stayed a night in a desert camp, hiked through the Dades gorge, passed the Atlas Mountains, visited an old Kasbah, and even toured a movie studio where many Hollywood movies have been filmed. Every night we and stayed in a differentI local riad, camp, or hotel. It was an amazing tour where we had so many unique experiences. We took camel rides, listened to live Berber music, had a desert ATV tour, and I had 2 delicious birthday cakes. I turned 12 on this desert tour which was pretty cool to spend my 12th birthday in the Sahara desert and the birthday cakes were delicious. The tour was 5 days long and after tons of driving and fun we finally arrived in Marrakesh.

Marrakesh was a very different city experience. While we didn’t see many things there, I loved the Majorelle Garden and the lively Jemaa el-Fnaa square. The garden was very peaceful and so beautiful with all the plants and flowers. It did feel a little bit short but it was worth it. On the other hand, the square was busy and filled with stalls and street performers. The square was nice and all but we were harassed by many people trying to get us to buy from their stall. Besides from that, Marrakesh was a beautiful city.


The last place we visited was Taghazout Bay on the northern coast of Morocco. The sandy beaches were beautiful and there were tons of surfers trying to catch the biggest waves.  The water was way too cold for me but the weather was great!


Overall, Morocco was a great country to visit and I would totally go back!