WILD MOROCCO IN YOUR WORDS

Below are just some of the travel tales that our clients have kindly sent to us. For most of our clients, theirs is a first trip to Morocco. These stories represent a personal reflection on travelling here for the first time.

We have a large number of testimonials on our various landing pages throughout the site reflecting experiences from various tours and treks. If you’d like to contact any of our previous guests, please let us know.

Similarly, if you’d like to share your experience in the Guest Book, please send it to us. We’d love to see more stories here, please keep them coming!

Read some of the testimonials…

Charlotte & Phil about their honeymoon 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

We had an absolutely brilliant three day / two night trip with Wild Morocco down through the Atlas Mountains down to the Sahara desert. We were picked up at our Riad in Marrakech by Yahya, our driver, and we began our tour. We were on our honeymoon in Morocco and after spending 3 days in Marrakech we were ready for some less hectic and more wild scenery. After leaving Marrakech we were soon in the Atlas mountains, with breathtaking and ever changing scenery from the roads, our driver, Yahya’s, knowledge of the area was amazing. We stopped many a time to take lots of pictures and get refreshments all the time making our way to Ait Ben Haddou, which blew us away. We weren’t expecting such a large Kasbah, and it was so great to be able to walk around it and get the views from the top. From there we continued down to the Draa Valley and stayed the night at Kasbah Azul. It was my birthday, and having only briefly mentioned this to our driver, he arranged for a nice glass of bubbly for us at the guest house. Kasbah Azul was a real paradise.

The next day we set off, heading towards Erg Chigaga in the desert. We wound through more mountains and small villages, and then the off road driving started. It was quite incredible how Yahya navigated us through the sparse desert, knowing exactly where to turn despite there being no road and no signs. After a long day driving arriving at the Rustic Berber camp was a delight, we had a private tent with a little bathroom, and were greeted with fresh mint tea and nuts! Delicious. After a little rest we started our camel trek up to the highest dune. The silence of the desert is something that can only be experienced. it struck us both and was quite magical…but not quite as magical as when night fell and the stars came out! We spotted at least 10 shooting stars and lay just gazing at the sky for hours. Our Berber hosts were wonderful, cooking us the best lamb tagine we had throughout our whole 3 week trip of Morocco, and then they surprised us with a lovely bottle of Cava to celebrate our honeymoon. We felt very special and the camp, the hosts and our driver really made it a trip to remember.

Our third and last day, we started early, and drove out of the desert a different way to the way we came in, with again, more spectacular scenery. Miles of rocky desert, driving over dried up lakes and next to huge rocks, seeing hundreds of fossils and camels roaming free. We also bumped into a crazy motorcyclist who had fallen off his bike and was a bit lost, Yahya helped him find his way as he had no map or GPS and was just out riding in the desert…crazy man! The journey to our Kasbah in the Atlas Mountains was long, but with Yahya’s excellent driving and the scenery the time went by. We were sad it was over, but we had made some of the best memories.

We can highly recommend this tour, the quality, the service, the driver, the scenery and the route was all just perfect, if there’s one thing I would say is do the 3 night and 4 days tour, you’ll get more time to enjoy the areas and won’t have to drive too far each day. All in all, a wonderful trip as part of our honeymoon and my birthday celebrations. Something we will cherish forever. Thank you Emily and Yahya and the team at Wild Morocco.

Charlotte & Phil / Honeymoon – 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

Amy about her Bespoke Tour 10 Days with Fes, Deluxe Desert Camp, Southern Oases, Marrakech & Essaouira

I highly recommend Wild Morocco! From the moment I contacted them via email, I received prompt attention from Emily. I contacted a number of places with an idea in mind and ended up most impressed with how professionally Wild Morocco handled everything. We relied on their help to customize our 10 day adventure throughout Morocco with a private driver over the Easter break. I found Wild Morocco to be extremely flexible with our needs. I would definitely go through them again without thinking twice about it!

We flew into Casablanca where we were picked up by our driver and transferred to wonderful Fez for two nights. We explored the city on our own and had no problems. From there we were driven to Merzouga for a night in the desert. I can’t say enough about our time in the desert. I’m already thinking about the next time to spend longer! We took camels to our campsite, saw the sunset and sunrise and were wonderfully taken care of by Hassan, Mohammed and Mustafa. The food was delicious and abundant! Our next night was spent in Boumalne Dades in a wonderful, quiet place with excellent detail. The landscapes in this area (Tinghir) are unforgettable. The contrast of the red earth, the kasbahs and the green vegetation in the river beds and palm oases is amazing. We spent our fifth night in Tamdaght, which I highly recommend. It’s a quaint little town not far from Ait Benhaddou. Kasbah Ellouze, where we stayed, is beyond words! The staff treated us like family, the food was delicious and the setting of this guesthouse is very impressive! I would love to return and spend more time here. We even managed to have tea with a Berber woman in her house! I liked very much the drive to Marrakech from Tamdaght as we traveled through the Atlas Mountains and many rural towns. We spent two nights in beautiful Riad Berbere in Marrakech, again without any private guides, and everything went very smoothly. We ended our trip on the coast in Essaouira in a lovely Riad. From there we were driven back to Casablanca to the airport. Our driver, Mohammed, was always very punctual on pickups and took us to and from places without any problems. He never once used GPS or looked at a map and knew exactly where he needed to go. His soundtrack in the 4×4 was a great addition to our trip!

We traveled many kilometers, but things were spaced out just enough that everything was great. Every place we stayed was perfect and of great taste! I have to say that this trip, for me, has been one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. Thank you Emily and Yahya for putting together such a wonderful trip for us!

Amy / Bespoke Tour 10 Days with Fes, Deluxe Desert Camp, Southern Oases, Marrakech & Essaouira

Brian about his Remote Dunes 4 Days Trek with Wild Camping

Thanks to Wild Morocco for a truly unique trekking experience. I went on the 4 day trekking circuit to the Zahar dunes, but I have to say that the day’s travelling to and from the desert are a wonderful part of the experience too! Some amazing Atlas views are to be had on the winding mountain road from Marrakech. Equally spectacular is the road following the Dra river valley leading up to M’hamid.(even stopped off at a cool town to buy some gorgeous toffee – like dates on the way back). That’s before the trekking began. It was my first time trekking on the “flats”, and was completely different to anything I’d done before. There’s a wonderful feeling of space that comes with hiking in the desert – you’re not looking for the next peak, or ridge – in fact it’s quite difficult to make out where you’re heading and in what direction you’re travelling a lot of the time. I found this to be very peaceful, and almost a relaxing, whilst still challenging experience. The landscape on this hike is subtly, but constantly changing, which is something I also didn’t expect. The changing light as the day progresses is a pretty magic thing to behold too, impossible to fully describe, even the best photos won’t do justice to the magic of watching the sun slowly drop over the Zahar dune range. The guides on our hike (the 2 Yusuf’s) managed to work magic with the food, how they managed to chop such intricate salads, and cook such tasty bean stews in the middle of nowhere was beyond me. On the last last day of our hike we were hit by a pretty spectacular (and I’m told rare) sandstorm, which the guides navigated through effortlessly. I have to say that I really enjoyed this too – it was a powerful experience, and made for a real one off type of challenge that you won’t get elsewhere. My choice of footwear really enhanced this hike, and I would recommend taking a pair of trekking type sandals (lots of barefoot walking can be done too – or using vibram 5 fingers if the sand gets too hot!)

Another massive plus for me about this hike is that we came across pretty much nobody for the whole trek – we even had the whole Zahar dune range to ourselves for the day we spent there. Overall I would really recommend this hike with wild morocco to anybody – It really has to be done to be fully understood, Cheers Emily for a fantastic adventure.

Brian / Remote Dunes 4 Days with wild camping

Andy about his Remote Dunes 4 Days Trek with Wild Camping

Thank you Wild Morocco for my recent 4 day trek to the Zahar dunes. I am normally a hill walker so I was unsure what to expect of a desert trek to a sand dune. Our team consisted of 3 camels and two guides called Yusuf who arrived at our start point outside M’hamid El Ghezlane by coming over a ridge giving reminiscences of Lawrence of Arabia. The trek to the dune was a two day walk through very subtly changing terrain and beautiful views. The guides produced superb lunch and dinners that were very fresh with the Moroccan salad chopped finer than any other I have come across. Sunsets and sunrises have to be seen to be believed. On the second day we arrived at the Zahar dune that was a struggle for me to the top while the other two members of the group skipped up, however the top was quite an experience in the views and isolation sitting in a soft bed of sand. We also endured a sandstorm after the second day that indeed actually added to the experience amazingly.

The guides knew the way without any referring to maps or compasses, indeed we came to a well that could so easily be missed by those who didn’t know the area. Other highlights were the abandoned village that was formerly a busy market on the Saharan trading route, a remote abandoned army outpost and the Draa river bed and its flora. At the end of the trip the Hotel La Pacha was lovely. Cold beer, good food, swimming pool and a lovely room. Bliss! Thank you again Emily and Wild Morocco for showing me such a marvellous place and people. I felt peaceful, safe and happy. Is there anything more I could wish for?

Andy / Remote Dunes 4 Days with wild camping

Rosmarijn & Jenneke about their 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

We had a great time. Seen a lot in 3 days time and Yahya was really relaxed and took time for everything if we wanted to see something along the road. The guest-house Kasbah Ellouze was really a surprise, such a nice place in the middle of nowhere. Friendly people and good food. The camp in the dessert was great also, we were the only visitors but we didn’t mind. We had good weather a little wind. Seen the sunset so wonderful and it was so nice and quiet we really relaxed there in the middle of nothing more than sand. The camp was clean and beds good. Next morning seen the sunrise under great weather condition. Cold sand under needs our feet, with the warmth of the sun rising and no noise at all. We were impressed. Hassan the cook prepared a very nice dinner the day of arrival. That we eat at the big tent, made as restaurant. And breakfast we eat outside on the cushions in the middle of the camp. Because it was so nice outside. We wanted to stay that day at the camp but we had to go back 🙁

The way back was long and maybe less interesting but maybe because we were a little tired of driving after a while. Thanks Yahya again for his attention to us and you Emily for all your mail contact and information. Many greetings!

Rosmarijn & Jenneke / 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

Sjokean & Marieke about their 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

From the moment we were picked up at our Riad in Marrakech by a boy carrying our bags to the 4WD to the moment we were dropped of three amazing days later, our trip was more than we could have dreamt of. Yahya made us (two women friends on their annual week away together) feel very safe and looked after. He also is a very good driver, quite a feature in Morocco! The drive through the Atlas mountains was spectacular, every turn of the road offering new and unexpected vistas. We both appreciated greatly that we could stop anytime we wanted to take as many pictures as we wanted. Visits to a deserted Kasbah with intriguing stories about the incredible wealth of its owners, the rise and fall of pashas and their wives and concubines, Ait Ben Haddou where famous movies were filmed and where the view from the top is overwhelming, the list is endless. We stayed for the night in Kasbah Ellouze, owned by a French couple who take great pride in their charmingly restored Moroccan castle. We enjoyed a typical Moroccan dinner with – luckily they have a liquor license! – a bottle of wine.

As this is not a trip where time doesn’t matter, we had to get up early in order to start our trek to the desert. Initially it is still more or less mountain landscape but once in the Draa Valley the countryside changes gradually. All the stories about green oasis with palm trees become true, miles and miles of them with small villages alongside. Once in Mhamid, the tarmac road stops and off it is, into the desert on our way to the Erg Chigaga Dunes where the camp is situated. Simply astonishing, the desert has so many faces. Our destination, the Erg Chigaga Dunes, is a miracle come true. Photos are just not capable of capturing the intense and immense beauty. The camp was very comfortable, there was even electricity (solar plates) so we could charge our phones and cameras! And very much unexpected, there were showers too.

Once the evening falls, it gets dark very quickly and it becomes clear how eerie and silent the desert is. Later a table was set for us in the sand and we were served a freshly cooked dinner by candle light. At night the stars and the silence are indescribable.

The next morning yet another early start for the long drive back to Marrakech via Lake Iriqui. We really appreciated driving back to Marrakech via another route as this way offered even more spectacular vistas of rock formations and desert. All in all, a great trip with a great guide and Wild Morocco really delivers what they promise! We want to do another trip with them next year.

Sjokean & Marieke / 4×4 Tour 3 Days with Berber Desert Camp

Marek about his Dunes Discovery 6 Days Sahara Desert trek

f you’re looking for a proper adventure on Sahara, the Wild Morocco is the place to start. I organised my six day trek on the desert within three days and not only they managed meet this crazy deadline but they even found an English speaking guide with massive experience and the desert in his heart.

The entire trip was smooth and perfect despite many potential weak points as I needed to get to M’hamid (450 km from Marrakech) by bus, then find the guesthouse and then actually start the trek. Yahya (one of the organisers) personally delivered me the ticket in Marrakech bus station and then made sure that I made the return bus on time and have breakfast despite ungodly hour of 5am. And Emily (the second half of Wild Morocco) managed somehow to deliver a can of cold coke in the middle of the desert trek exactly when one strives for such luxuries. Massive thank you to you both guys! I definitely recommend them for any Moroccan adventures and I’m sure – given slightly more time than I did – they could make it even more amazing.

Marek / Sahara Desert Dunes Discovery 6 Days