After 6 months of my husband being away for work we desperately needed a sunny family getaway. Ok, I desperately needed it.  Mama needed a pool, some drinks, and sunshine. In Europe, there aren’t many warm places in October. With a full week to play with we decided to head further south to Marrakesh in Northern Africa. Morocco has been on my list for years but it’s not really a long weekend type getaway. I had been waiting for when we could go during a longer time period but also when the weather was still hot (yet mild).

Where we stayed 

For our first trip as a reunited family we wanted a good mix of adventure/culture and relaxation. We opted to stay in an all-inclusive hotel about 20 minutes drive from the city center. Be Live Experience Marrakech Palmeraie is pretty much in the middle of no where. There isn’t anywhere to walk around in the area, however; they do have a free shuttle to and from the city center which must be pre booked the day prior.

It is a smaller resort but fit all our needs. We booked a nice duplex style room which has a bath and living room downstairs with a bedroom and bath upstairs. The dining is pretty typical for an all-inclusive resort and there is a playground, kids club and fitness center. There is also a small area with animals which with boys enjoyed visiting every morning. Each night there is a children’s disco at 21:00 with the evening entertainment directly following.

There is one large main pool and a children’s area with splash pad and slides. The first couple of days we were there were very hot and we spent the entire days laying out, swimming, eating and drinking (exactly what I needed). Halfway into our stay a cold front came through and the temps dipped into the mid 60’s so the water was too cold for us. We decided to use these days on our excursions outside of the hotel. If returning to Marrakech I would definitely stay at this hotel again as long as it was during the swimming season. Being a smaller resort, there aren’t enough indoor amenities to keep one occupied during the winter and it would make more sense to stay in the city.

 

 

Majorelle Garden

We booked a viator trip which picked us up from our hotel and took us to the gardens and camel trek. The gardens are small and can be seen in about an hour (less if you don’t stop to take 500 pictures like us). This place is a photographers dream and I wish I had better skills to show its beauty. Mine didn’t turn out so great.

The gardens were designed by a French artist and was eventually sold to the famous designer Yves Saint Laurent. After his death in 2008 his ashes were scattered throughout the gardens.

 

Camel Trek

After the gardens the driver took us to the Palmeraie area outside the city for our camel trek. It’s essentially a 54 square mile area covered in thousands of palm trees. There are teams of people littered through the Palmeraie that give camel rides so I’m sure there are many different companies. They seemed to collectively use the same outfit for the tourists, bright blue tunics that look nice for pictures. We asked to wear our own clothes since I didn’t really know if someone else had been sweating in those tunes earlier that day. No thanks.

My boys loved our camel trek in Egypt and this was also a highlight for their Moroccan trip. The scenery wasn’t as grand as the pyramids but definitely a fun experience. Who doesn’t love camels? We stopped into a local home where we were served mint tea and bread similar to thin naan (I wished I’d caught the name because it was fabulous). We stayed here for about 20 minutes before making our way back to the starting point. All in all about an hour in length.

 

The Medina

Our hotel provided a shuttle to the city center and our first trip to the medina was with some friends we had made at the hotel. They come to Marrakech yearly and offered some great advise as to how to handle the locals. They advised to coach our children to say “no” to anyone that approaches them and never accept a toy from a stranger. Apparently this is common for someone to hand your children an item and then demand payment. This didn’t actually happen to us… possibly because I was expecting it and stayed very aware of my surroundings. Essentially when in the city its best to not look lost and always say a firm “no” when approached. Following this advise we had zero problems.

In the main square there are monkeys on leashes and snake charmers. I had read about the mistreatment of the animals so we made it a point to keep our distance from this area. For example, the cobras have their mouths sewn shut so they cannot bite- and as a result cannot eat, therefore; they die of starvation before being replaced with another snake. I don’t like snakes but that is just cruel and something I wont support just because I want a picture.  If you want to take a picture of the snakes they have people in the crowd that will approach you and demand money. Even taking a picture of the medina from pretty far away I was approached and demanded to pay simply because I was taking a picture in the direction of the snakes. I firmly said no and walked away not allowing him to argue with me.

Its pretty easy to get lost in the busy, narrow streets. Normally I would advise “getting lost” in a city but for us we made it a point to always have a sense of where we were. I wanted to shop non-stop! They say Marrakesh is a wonder to your senses and its very true. The colors, the smells, the noise can be very overwhelming at times but such a wonderful cultural experience. It can be very crowded with motorbikes zipping through the people. A few items we had to pick up were carpets, spices and argan oil.

Morrocco is a culture that enjoys bargaining. Whenever you want to purchase an item you always start at a price about 75 percent less than what they are asking and then you bargain from there. Haggling is an art form and one that Ben and I learned well when we visited places like southeast Asia and Egypt. We found a massive carpet shop and went in prepared for a very long session of bargaining as we had when we shopped for carpets in Egypt. Street haggling and expensive item haggling are very different. You can spend hours in a carpet shop drinking tea and bargaining over prices. Our lack of haggling experience on expensive items left us without a silk rug in Egypt and I was not going to let that happen again. Happy to say that we ended up with a couple beautiful carpets that we will keep in our home forever!

 

Meals in Marrakech

We ate most meals at our hotel since we had booked an all-inclusive and we wanted to save money while out. We did have one lunch out in the city along with ice cream and snacks here and there. Marrakech has many great hidden places that lead to quiet rooftop cafes. Our new friends come to the city just to sit and relax in the these cafes. We happened upon Max & Jan by chance and it was fabulous. Absolutely would have eaten there again had we not been trying to save money on food. I could not get enough of the mint tea in Morocco.

 

Henna Tatoos

I did a lot of reading on henna tattoos and saw that harmful chemicals (gasoline) can be found in the products used in the streets. I elected to use a tatoo cafe which is more expensive but safer. My oldest, Kellan, and I picked out our designs and were overall pleased and loved the experience. The owner of Henna Art Cafe is an American that came to Morocco many years ago and decided she didn’t want to leave. Our designs took about 30-40 minutes to apply and then 20 minutes to dry. Carter and Ben had snacks in the cafe area while they waited. I can tell you Kellan felt pretty cool having a tattoo.

After about a day the paste fell off my skin and left a light orange design. Within a couple of days the color deepened and then lasted about a week .

 

Morocco was a wonderful family getaway and we look forward to visiting our next country in Africa: South Africa!