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POLL: If you've done the Morocco trip, which airports did you use?
As I understand it, for the start of the tour, you can fly into either Rabat (20 minutes from the hotel) or Casablanca (1 hour 20 minutes from the hotel) airport. At the end of the tour, you can leave from Marakech (20 minutes from the hotel) or Casablanca (3 hours from the hotel) airport.
I'm looking at air options for this trip. Using Casablanca airport, it's a pretty easy and reasonably priced one-stop for me. Using the closer, but smaller airports, it would add an extra leg to each flight and probably more expensive.
What did you choose and what was your thought process for choosing which airports to use? How painful was that 3 hour shuttle from Marrakech to Casablanca airport?
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We are flying Delta to CDG and Air France to Rabat. On the return trip, we are flying on TAP Portugal from Marrakech to spend a few days in Lisbon. When we leave Lisbon, we have a direct Delta flight home to IAD. The 3 hour shuttle from Marrakech did not appeal to us, so we extended our trip by flying to Lisbon for a few days. It was a difficult trip to arrange flights for, but including an extra stopover solved that problem! We were able to get a great price on business flights on Delta and the TAP Portugal flight was also very reasonable. We booked our flights on our own...not through Tauck.
We flew into and out of Casablanca because we could get the best flights that way. We had to depart and return to JFK, which was not the best, but it worked. I would recommend avoiding American Airlines, if at all possible.
Tauck picked us up in Casablanca and drove us to Rabat, and at the end of the tour, drove us from Marrakesh to Casablanca. The drive from Marrakesh to Casablanca was not bad - along the way, we stopped for coffee, which broke up the drive.
My problem with a routing into Europe, somewhere, and then a flight to any airport in Morocco is that you get lie-flat seats across the Atlantic but the "First Class" seat from Europe to Morocco is a regular 3-across tourist seat with the middle seat blocked off. If you fly from the US to Morocco you have lie-flat seats all the way to whatever city you're going to in Morocco. When I made the arrangements, I could only find flights to Casablanca from the US. Same on the return. It's been a little while, but that's what I remember.
March of 2019 trip. We flew into Rabat and out of Marrakech. Air France with change at De Gaulle (surprisingly very smooth transfer) from JFK. The people who flew from Casablanca home had top leave the hotel very early (pre breakfast) while we stayed and enjoyed the facilities until late morning. Also those who flew Royal Air Morocco had horror stories about the flight. Note that at the time Tauck told me they do not use Royal Air Morocco for their arrangements. It was a wonderful trip Have fun!
November 2021 we flew JFK to Rabat. Coming home, we went Marrakesh to CDG and then did an overnight in Paris before heading back to JFK. Wanted to see the illumination exhibit of Gaudi and Dali - we're suckers for crazy art installations! In hindsight, we should have spent another day or two in Paris, just to eat and shop and hit up a few more galleries. Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold the 24 hrs we were there, and I only had the leather coat I bought in Morocco for warmth.
Being a fairly new Tauckie at the time (Tauckette?), I didn't realize that they would drive you from Marrakesh to Casablanca (or Rabat?) to catch a direct flight home. We book our own air and are pretty independent travelers, so it never occurred to me that Tauck would provide that service. Anyway, the people who did not fly from Marrakesh had to leave at the crack of dawn for their long drive, while we got to enjoy the hotel and final breakfast before our quick trip to the airport. I guess it depends on your final destination and your time constraints.
Heck, if I had the time, I might choose to pop over to Madrid for a few days. I mean, you're in the neighborhood...
SGF - Our Tauck Forum Guru, AlanS, coined the word Taucktourians that covers both sexes.
That’s why you are called Smiling Sam you make us smile😀
Thanks for the replies, gang. I still have a while before I need (or can) book air.
After doing a middle eastern tour, where the only option was a 1 AM flight, an early departure doesn't bother me. After all, my day is going to be screwed up anyway, due to time changes and jet lag on the flight home.
BKMD - my husband just reminded me that we flew JFK➡️ CDG➡️ Rabat on the front end. I wad a little bleary-eyed since it was an overnight flight.
I DO remember getting teary-eyed while sitting in the Air France lounge before our trip. It was our first trip out of the country since Feb. 2020, and I was overwhelmed with joy. At the welcome dinner the first night in Morocco, our TD asked us why this trip? Why Morocco? I remember gushing - "it works with our schedule...I just wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, new, safe from Covid, and different!"
Ahhh...the days before the Omicron variant. We were so naive then!
While I would love to take credit for "Taucktourian," it was a "Treasures of the Aegean" local guide who came up with the term sometime before 2014 as far as I know. It was first used on the forum in 2014 by former forum member Joyce Welch who sadly passed away in 2020. You can read her story here: https://forums.tauck.com/discussion/comment/17408/#Comment_17408
Yes, we were on Treasures of the Aegean in 2011. Muhammad would gather us together saying “Taucktourians Unite!” Great guide and great trip.
Thanks Dottie. Were Joyce and Ed on your tour?
After an exhaustive search of flights, thinking about current crazy airport delays and cancellations (domestic and abroad) we booked direct to Casablanca from Washington DC, and direct back to Washington DC from Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc. We took an extra day on either end, and the flight back is at 4pm so we won't have to leave the hotel too early to get to Casablanca.
Alan, I don’t believe Joyce and Ed were on our tour. I wish I could have known her. I recall her many helpful contributions to this forum.