To Tour or Not to Tour

On our trip to Morocco we went with a tour group for international students and such, called WeLoveSpain. We chose this avenue because neither of us had been to Morocco before and, of course, people were telling us silly things like we could be sold into white slavery...SO, we opted for the safe route.

For our first time in Morocco I am glad we did it this way. It was a stress free trip where we were basically hearded like sheep from place to place. We ate when they told us to eat, we shopped when they told us to shop, we got on and off the bus when we were told, and unfortunately we had to wait until they told us we could pee before we could pee. That ended up being my only real problem with the whole thing. I am a thirsty person and consequently have to pee A LOT. We would wait long bus rides and then get off the bus hours later to be told that we could use "los servicios" after we listen to a long sshpeel about carpet weaving or something like this. Its like they tried to avoid letting us use the bathroom too often.

Other downfalls to going with this tour were that we would have very little free time to explore or shop. 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there....just not nearly enough time especially in a country where prices are not fixed and you are expected to dicker over prices before you settle on something. With such little time, I spent more than I would have if I would have been on my own and had to time to negotiate. I felt like I had to get in and get out and really didn't have time to shop around. Also, at times we had some awful food. For breakfast they would serve us a variety of dry bread loafs, cold wannabe crepes with butter that tasted more like cheese, and olives. Or for lunch one time we got sandwhiches with only cheese or only chicken...no mayo, mustard, NOTHIN.. just DRY. Pretty sweet some of those meals were..especially when you're smelling and thinking of all those fragrant Moroccan spices. And lastly, we just spent A LOT of time riding the bus down whindy roads that made you carsick.

Just as there were downfalls, there were also great benefits to being with a tour group. Everything was arranged FOR US. We never had to figure out how to catch public transportation or worry about getting lost or navigating a map in Arabic. We DID have some cool restaurant experiences arranged for us for 2 of our meals that came with excellent service and live traditional Moroccan music. Also, the couscous and saffron chicken were THE BOMB. And lastly, we got to see a lot in a little bit of time. They kept us on a tight schedule and were able to see 5 cities, monkeys, camels, markets, caves, the Rock of Gibraltar and lots of little interesting cultural experiences in only 3 days.