Travel Review: Luxury Vacation in Morocco, Fes, Marrakech, Chefchaouen, Sahara Desert

My sister and I used this travel agency, via Zicasso, for an eight day trip around Morocco in December. We didn't have an enormous amount of time to spend there but wanted to see several cities as well as the Sahara and our agent worked with us to create an itinerary that was inclusive of everything we wanted to do, in a way that worked for us. Our agent was incredibly responsive throughout the planning process and helped create a very special trip for us. She arranged local guides for us in Chefchaouen, Fes, and Marrakech, which was wonderful. We especially enjoyed the guides in Fes and Marrakech and ended up adding a day with our guide in Marrakech which I'm happy we did. It was very easy to make changes to the schedule and itinerary while we were in Morocco, which was important to us. All the hotels were very nice and the entire trip felt like a luxury treat for my sister and I.

During the planning process my sister and I had explained that we did not want to have the entire trip be with a tour guide, but preferred to have a combination of local guides and time to explore on our own. We settled on having a driver for the entire trip, who our agent explained would not speak fluent English. While the driver was very sweet and accommodating, the fact that he did not speak English was difficult and trying at times and this is the one thing I would change. It is really important that your driver, especially if you are spending a week traveling such an expansive part of the country with him, speak English. We understood he was not a tour guide but we still feel like we missed out on learning anything about the landscapes we were driving through and information about places we would stop for photos or brief tours en route to our next destination. He would also get frustrated with the language barrier. There were several miscommunications throughout the trip regarding minor logistics that caused small inconveniences, from understanding whether our luggage should be packed and ready to asking for a menu at meals. Throughout the trip, at lunch stops on the road and in the Sahara we would see other travel groups with their drivers that they were able to have conversations with and I realized we were missing out on that.  Our agent was reachable throughout the trip and tried to alleviate this and help with communications.