Sometimes, ex-Marine (husband, Steve) is positive I have a few screws loose and am certifiably insane. Especially when a brainstorm struck of traveling around Morocco by public bus and taxis. Huh? Public bus, yes. Taxis? Where this stroke of brilliance (at least I thought it was brilliant) came from, who knows. We were very short of money (sound familiar?), none of the group tours were cheap enough and independent travel is always our druthers. To us, there are big pluses to independent travel:

- If something bores you, leave.

- If you don’t want to see a site, don’t.

- Eat what you want, when you want without any time, restaurant or cuisine constraints

Morocco map
Frantically reading and investigating as much travel information on Morocco as possible (not easy since this was before widespread Internet use), I decided that a 16-day independent Winter trip to Morocco was competely do-able using a combination of local buses and taxis, hiring local guides and visiting Agadir, Tiznit, Trafoute, Touradant, Ouazazarte and Marrakech. Fes and Casablanca were eliminated because of distance, money and both cities are cooler in the winter. The southern regions of Morocco are milder. Perhaps not hot but certainly warm enough to walk around in light weight clothing with a wrap for the cooler nights.
A major difficulty would be my poor command of the French language but with a French phrasebook, paper and pen, I decided that somehow we’d get the gist of what we were needed across to the locals.

There is a wealth of easy information and tour operators on the Internet now to plan your trip. Visit Adventure Center (on the side bar) with 42 different Morocco choices and ranging in price from $600-$2,800 per person. Camel trekking, cultural, bicycling, trekking and combinations of all the above. Again, we’ve used Adventure Center to 15 different destinations and heartily recommend them. Others? G.A.P. (Small Group Adventures on all 7 Continents and Beyond), Wilderness Travel, Mountain Travel Sobek and Sherpa Expeditions.

In the “olden days,” I actually had to write letters to Morocco! Easy planning now…

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