Morocco
Hello Travelers, Has anyone been on the Magic of Morocco land journey? It’s a ten day trip starting in Rabat and ending in Marrakech. I’m looking into it for 2023. Traveling solo. Any tips or reviews would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Cathy B.
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Hi Cathy - I'm going on this trip in Oct 2023, also solo. Swipe right if you want to join me
Seriously, there's a good amount of info about this trip already posted. Check out the Morocco category Look on the right side of this page and it's the 11th category down.
We are going to Morocco from November 9 to November 18 2023. Also, going to Egypt and the Nile from October 29 to November 7, 2023. These will be back to back tours with Tauck. We like to do this to save on the airfare and insurance.
Mike Henderson has a fantastic blog on his trip to Morocco which I found extremely helpful and very informative. His website is: https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com Hope this helps!
@Noreen - Thank you for your kind words about our Morocco blog. Judy and I also did an Egypt tour with another company. While it's not the Tauck tour, all of the Egypt tours basically go to the same sites. I think Tauck's Egypt tour is better than the one we did, however.
You can see our Egypt tour at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2018EgyptAndTheNile-01.htm
October/November is likely to be hot.
Thanks for the advice. I'll look at the Mike and Judy blog and the Morocco tab. Very helpful.
Mike - I've looked at the temperature in Egypt and it looks like the highs are in the eighties and the low in the upper sixties. I live in Tucson so I am used to the heat but still don't care for our summers.
All your blogs are just extremely informative and thank you so much for taking the time to do this as it is very helpful. Just finished reading your blog on Egypt. Excellent!
@Noreen - I hope the forcasts prove correct. We were there a bit earlier in the year and it was hot. Our mistake. We put the Egypt tour back-to-back with a Tauck Sicily tour, which sort of forced us to go to Egypt a bit early.
Mike - We decided to do back to back trips as well and didn't want a lot of time between them. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of choices so we ended up doing the best we could. We are going on the Hidden Galapagos and Peru on the Silver Origin in May. Just finished reading your blog and now I am counting the months and days before we leave. I am so excited! However, I am not a good swimmer as growing up in Ireland we had no reason to learn due to our weather and lack of swimming pools. My TA mentioned this would not be a problem. What do you think? Any suggestions? Please send me a PM and thank you.
@Noreen - PM sent.
Noreen, you don't need to be a good swimmer. It certainly helps, but since the water temps vary almost daily due changes in dive locations and the shifting currents- three ocean currents converge there- the temps can vary from cool to downright chilly, so, everyone will be wearing provided shorty wetsuits which make you float like a cork. I wore my own "warm water" suit that has less buoyancy, but even so, I floated and needed to wear a weight belt so I could dive down to capture the photos I wanted. You can just float along at the surface in your wet suit. It is not hard to learn how to use a snorkel. The clarity of the water will be fine in most places to see what you want to see, at least in shallow (< 10') of water.
While I got some good photos in deeper water, I got this one of a hieroglyphic hog fish in less than 3' of water
You can see how shallow I was when I took this photo of a green see turtle in a rather turbid cove.
I didn't see any mention of one when checked out the Silver Origin, but the Isabela II used on the P&G tour has a small glass bottomed boat if you want to see the fish but not get wet.
Alan and Mike - Thank you so much! I feel so much better now about this trip as I must add I was very apprehensive about it when my husband said he would love to see Peru and the Galapagos.
I swim every day, I never learned to swim correctly so don’t put my head in the water. Personally, though I have done a lot of snorkeling in many different places and had a proper snorkeling lessons way back, I do think it is quite a nerve wracking thing to do for the first time in the middle of the ocean. It takes time to learn to slow down your breathing, otherwise you can feel light headed. And getting used to only being able to see directly ahead of you. Having said this, I’ve been to Galápagos twice and many of the dive sites can have very murky conditions. The water temperatures really do vary a lot from site to site. One time, the water was so cold, I jumped in and out in minutes because it was so cold it took my breath away. In that place though, the water was really clear and it was famous for turtles, so I got pretty good views from the boat. I’ve certainly snorkeled in far more impressive places with better water conditions. Don’t feel you miss out if you find your can’t manage it. But for me, Galapagos is what you see on land. I would go again in a heartbeat and hope tovdo in the future. Just my perspective.
First off, I apologize for diverging from the thread's topic and continuing the Galapagos discussion.
I respectfully disagree with British. For me what you see underwater/while you're in the water is an equally exciting part of the Galapagos experience.
When in the water the sea lions swim in amongst the snorkelers almost making it is a game with the snorkelers being their pylons. In addition, you are able to almost swim on top of the sea tortoises, and see fish, rays, and marine iguanas from a perspective that isn't possible on land.
Just a side comment on the Silver Origin - the Deluxe Veranda suites are very nice and recommended. Big, lots of storage space, a "Horizon Window" and an electrically opaqued window in the shower.
I was very impressed with that suite. The Silver Origin is a brand new ship and well designed for the Galapagos. All of the crew will be Ecuadorian (by law).
Our trip on the Silver Galapagos in 2018 was one of our favorites! Snorkeling with "junior" sea lions was one of the highlights - you don't always go into the water from the zodiacs - sometimes you go from the beach. So if you're not a strong swimmer and want to avoid deeper water, you can "walk" in from the shore. Ironically, I find it easier to jump in from the zodiac, because I'm really clumsy walking with fins! Enjoy!
Non swimmer;not a snorkeler;Glass bottom boats are a substitute to see under water ;almost always our glass bottom boats took us to the place divers and snorkeled were in the water.Experience is not the same but you do see all the sea creatures!