Read more about the article Meknes – Morocco
Meknes - Morocco

Meknes – Morocco

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City of a hundred Minarets

Next along this busy tour, right after visiting the city of Fez; and I say briefly since there is so much to see and do that less than a full day was definitely not enough, but we did not really have the time as we wanted to pack as much as we could in this trip; we made the move to Meknes. Another of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco, and the last one for us to visit after having been to Marrakesh 3 years ago, and Rabat and Fez in this trip. And what can I say! I cannot find any other words than another beautiful city, packed with history on every corner, yet again inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

Coming from Fez was straightforward. Not only both cities are very near each other, they are extremely well connected by frequent buses and trains. For us getting the train was the easiest option, as we’ve been doing everywhere in this trip to Morocco between the other cities we’ve visited, and furthermore knowing that the hotels we’ve selected in this trip were all really near the train stations.

Once there we knew this would be a quite rushy visit, even though we stayed for the night. Lucky for us the day light was extremely long. With summer time and so much south, it was great to count with that extra hours that came very handy. In any case, the city can easily be visited in less than a day. After all, what we really wanted at this point is covering as many of the important sights through the Medina and main squares, not the ones off-the-path. And after two large Medinas back in Fez and long walk, here in Meknes the Medina is very small in comparison, with only 20 minutes from the south to the north gates (if not stopping along the way).

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Read more about the article Fez – Morocco
Fez - Morocco

Fez – Morocco

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Athens of Africa

Continuing our busy trip after leaving Rabat the night before, today we spared for actually visiting 2 cities: Fez and Meknes. The remaining 2 of the 4 Imperial Cities of Morocco after Rabat, and Marrakesh that we visited 3 years back, and both UNESCO World Heritage listed with their astonishing Medina. With it, we complete what was once of our wishes to visit in Morocco, and definitely can openly say how beautiful and wonderful this country is and how much more it has to offer on every corner.

Fez has in fact two Medina! One of them believed to be the largest pedestrian urban zone in the world. Said that as you can imagine, expect plenty of sights all over. It is not only the Medina, but the many ancient riads, palaces and madrasas. And home to the oldest continuously functioning university in the world. With so much packed history, it is no wonder why it become added to the listing of UNESCO. Too much for sparing just a little over half a day since we had to leave to Meknes in the late afternoon to continue with our very busy tour. Luckily (for us), Fez is an easy city to fly into from London and many European cities, with many airlines serving the city, hence there is no doubt we will return and enjoy the city once more with a much better timing.

The city preserves pretty much intact majority of the buildings since its foundation in 789, many of them enlarged and further embellished through the pass of the centuries, to the point of having the best preserved old city in the whole of the Arab world.

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Read more about the article Rabat – Morocco
Rabat - Morocco

Rabat – Morocco

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One of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco

Following a nice visit to Casablanca the day before, we came to the next city on this short tour around few cities in the area, following the once known “Imperial Cities” of Morocco: Rabat, Marrakesh, Meknes and Fez, all of which, UNESCO World Heritage sites. Having visited Marrakesh some years back, the remaining three cities were part of this tour since all of them are located very near each other and extremely well connected with each other. With an incredible busy agenda and such a short time overall, we planned to came to Rabat the night before in order to have the most of today before leaving later in the evening towards Fez, the farthest destination on this tour.

Rabat was made the capital city of Morocco upon the French invasion in 1912, moving it from Fez, and still after the colonial rule ended, it was decided for Rabat to remain as such the capital because of its great location right by the Atlantic coast and because of it being a “new city”, with wide avenues created by the French, space, order and everything built and on place. But even though Rabat is considered a “new city”, it does have an amazing historic quarter with a greatly preserved ancient Medina; a complete fortress citadel, the enormous Royal Palace, the historic site of the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the ancient city of Chellah; all of it listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site under the name of: Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City.

With so much to do and see, a day was too short for us, yet just enough to visit all the major and important places I list below in the guide. I would recommend in any case at least 2 days to visit in full without rush; perfectly done in a weekend, or in combination with Casablanca. (more…)

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Read more about the article Casablanca – Morocco
Casablanca - Morocco

Casablanca – Morocco

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Berber Anfa

It is nice to be back in Morocco, specially since we’ve only been to Marrakesh 3 years ago and that city is probably the exception to the rest of the country, quite annoying in the sense of the hundreds of people trying to sell you anything or trying to make you go to their shop or restaurant. On and on and on! What a relieve to be honest not to experience such a hassle in Casablanca, nor the rest of the cities we would visit in this trip.

Although Casablanca is one of the cities with the “less sights” compared to most of the other large and medium size cities in Morocco, it is still a nice city very worth to visit. We’ve heard before from people and friends saying there is only the Great Mosque and nothing else, but as usual in these cases we prefer to rather trust more our experience and intuition and see for ourselves and boom!, we were right. It is in fact a modern city with many things to do and see. Already it is nice just to walk the wide avenues and admire the pretty French colonial buildings everywhere, most of which are in immaculate state of preservation with hundreds more being restored. A very clean and elegant city, nothing to compare with the rather messy and stuck in time Marrakesh of our previous experience.

The location of the city also makes a difference. Right by the Atlantic coast, although it does have in fact a very Mediterranean flair, even though this is the other coast! But the white colour of the buildings, the nice Corniche promenade by the coast and beach, and the very long daylight are all a great bonuses. (more…)

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Read more about the article Marrakesh – Morocco
Marrakesh - Morocco

Marrakesh – Morocco

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The Red City, The daughter of the desert

Another of our winter, low season trips take us this time to one of the most historical cities in Morocco, ancient Marrakesh; and what is best, for such a great air fare deal. I keep recalling on this, honestly, if you are the kind of person who loves culture and sights rather than relax and beach only, consider visiting countries such as Morocco during the low season, this is, during the European winter months, when everything is way cheaper and you get to enjoy the cities without the hordes of tourists. Yet also, it’s a nice treat escape the cold January days for some 25 degrees and sun.

On this occasion I will be quite honest and direct to the point. Marrakesh was not a city that will leave some legacy in my list of great destinations. Instead, I was quite surprised to find quite a dirty place but worst of all, the annoying people everywhere trying to sell you anything, pushing you, grabbing and touching you to drive attention to what they have to offer. Noticeable in the main market square, and towards the evening, if you are looking around for a restaurant, you will not have a second of peace and silence. You will be surrounded by one after another “restaurant waiters” trying to get you on to what they claim “the best ever restaurant”.

Learn to send them away, say no, don’t worry even if this means no eye contact, and have your time to check the menus by yourself. Don’t hesitate in needing to say no rudely to whoever comes from the restaurant nearby. You must be really tough and direct. This people don’t listen until you really use a stronger vocabulary. As opposed, everywhere else we’ve been in Morocco is the antipodes; so polite, so nice and so easy to communicate and immerse into their culture.

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