Hello and welcome to my vacation travelogue for Morocco 2009.

I had visited Africa in 2006 and had a wonderful time, so I was interested in seeing a different part of the African continent. I wasn't disappointed with my Morocco trip. It was quite different from any other country I had previously visited mainly because of the 100% Muslim culture. I enjoyed the good food, perfect weather, fairly cheap tourist prices and friendly people.

As an english-speaking person, I had a language barrier during this trip. The official language of Morocco is Arabic, which I didn’t know a single word. The second language is Berber, which is the language of the original inhabitants. The third language used is French, which I only knew a few words. Most of the tourists I saw on this trip were French-speakers. The English language is spoken much less than French, so I was limited to speaking to those people who knew English. But these people were always friendly and polite to me.

Morocco offers a lot of variety to tourists. On the Atlantic Ocean side of the country, there are ancient cities and former capitals as well as nice beaches. The Atlas Mountains run north-south through the middle of the country. On the east and south parts of Morocco are the rural areas and the Sahara desert. My trip was only to the western part of the country - the big cities and coastal towns.

I flew in and out of Casablanca, with connecting flights in Paris. From Casablanca, I took the "Marrakech Express" train to Marrakech. Then I got a bus to the Atlantic coastal town of Essquira and returned on the same bus route. I purchased a train ticket to Morocco’s old capital of Meknes. I had a day trip to the City of Fes and spent two days in Meknes. Another train north took me to the Atlantic coastal city of Asilah, which is just south of Tangiers. I found a bus to take me to the city of Tetouan where I explored the city’s famous medina. Another bus ride took me to the city of Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains. From Chefchaouen, I took a long bus ride back to Casablanca.  After a few days in Morocco's largest city, I was off to the airport for the US.

Arrival Information

I flew into Casablanca and took the train from the airport to the Casablanca Voyagers train station. I was set to check into the nearby IBIS hotel, but they were full. Instead I walked across the plaza to the Hotel Terminus, which had a single room for under $20 US.

I was able to visit most but not all of Morocco’s UNESCO  World Heritage Sites during my trip. The entire list for Morocco is below.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Morocco

• Medina of Fez
• Medina of Marrakesh
• Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou
• Historic City of Meknes
• Archaeological Site of Volubilis
• Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin)
• Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)
• Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida)

A bit of background

All of the cities I visited had a “medina” in the old part of the city in addition to the modern part of the city.  For a definition of the “medina” check this Wikipedia entry. Most guidebooks tell you to wander through the medina and don’t worry about getting lost, because you will get lost. Just continue walking until you reach one of the medina exterior walls and navigate from there.

Photographs

In my three weeks, I took over 500 photos. Unfortunately, because of my web storage limitations, I can't post this many photos, but many of the best ones are on this webpage. One of the most popular photos from my Africa trip was my old doors of Zanzibar, so I also composed a similar photo from the old doors of Morocco from this trip.

My first full day in Morocco started with my train ride on the Marrakech Express to (of course) Marrakech.