Travel Review: Luxury Moroccan Tour, Cassblanca, Marrakech, Fez, Blue City, Atlas Mountains Hike, Desert Tour

There was a large amount of time spent in the car which was unavoidable.  I would have maybe taken out the hiking day in the Atlas mountains and had more time time to explore in another place.  Also, I may tack that time on to the desert time because traveling all that way for less than twelve hours.  

I also felt like most of the stops along the way were not impressive enough based on the time.  I would have rather done a straight shot driving than spending them in places which did not have as much impact.  All of the hotels were fantastic along the trip except the hotel in Casablanca.  It smelled a bit of smoke and was underwhelming.  It took a long time for the driver to find.  Our guide told us to have dinner  there, but once there, it was a smoky Italian place.  Before dropping us off he said our hotel had some of the best food in Casablanca.  We ended up leaving the table and walking through the neighborhood, asking another hotel concierge, and going to the Hyatt for dinner.  The neighborhood was in the city center which didn't seem to have any cultural attractions and appeared a bit dodgy.  We would have preferred to stay closer to the airport for ease of travel the next day.  

I feel that everything Zicasso did was top-knotch!  I honestly would have preferred a different tour guide.  There were many times when we asked to stop and take pictures and he didn't respond.  He also gave off the impression that we were wasting his time or that are questions were silly when asking about the culture and customs.  He also did not organize dinner for us early enough in Casablanca so all of the restaurants were booked and he said to eat again in the hotel.  We were also not informed from him about the day light savings time change, so there was one day when we were waiting over an hour for him.  When I called, he said that there was a time change and he would be an hour later.  

The only other thing I would change is some of the cultural visits we went to.  Many of the sales people were very pushy and some of the products seemed inauthentic.  It may have been nice to go to some non-profit organizations or fair-trade organizations where we would be supporting a good cause.  

TRAVEL COMPANY COMMENTS:

Our Company is pleased that overall this client's trip to Morocco was “fantastic”. We do all we can to ensure that all of our clients have amazing trips by arming them with information beforehand and following up during their travels to ensure everything is going smoothly. 

Certainly the guides behavior, as described in the review, is not normal nor would be acceptable to us or Zicasso.  It is quite unfortunate that we were not informed of these during our periodic calls throughout their trip, as we could have addressed the issue immediately. Ordinarily, when issue like these come up and are reported, we act on them right away to ensure our guests satisfaction.

Due to the nature of Morocco’s topography and poor internal flight system some long transfer days are unavoidable in Morocco. All of our itineraries show the approximate driving time for each day and we discuss this issue with all of our clients in the planning stages. 

Casablanca leaves much to be desired as a destination, and therefore property selections can be poor. Most of our clients only stay there for reasons of travel convenience, we use the best available properties based on each clients budget. We will do our best at this point to turn this experience around for this unfortunate experience.  
 
We encourage our clients to keep us posted on any issues that might arise, and we check with them throughout the trip. We also issue all of our clients a cell phone so they can contact our service team in Morocco 24/7 to address any issues that come up, including changing properties or guides if the client is ever unhappy.