Day 1
NYC to Casablanca
Depart JFK on a non-stop flight
to Casablanca via Royal Air Maroc.
Day 2
Casablanca – Volubilis
Upon arrival, you will be greeted at the airport and escorted to the city of Volubilis – a drive with beautiful vistas
dotted with small Berber villages. Visible for miles, Volubilis was a Roman settlement built on what was most likely
a Carthaginian city dating from the 3rd century BC. Your hotel, Hotel Volubilis, has a magnificent view overlooking the valley
of the city’s ancient ruins. Here you will have some time to rest before meeting up with the group again in the
afternoon for a walk through Morocco’s first Islamic city, Moulay Idriss, named after the prominent Moroccan saint,
a direct descendant of Muhammad. Your guides will provide an initial introduction to Moroccan society and spirituality,
as you explore the city’s labyrinth-like streets and local markets. After dinner, you will have a brief introductory
session about Sufi music by Hamid Mernissi, co-founder of the Fez Sacred Music Festival, followed by a rhythmic mystic Hadra
dance.
Meals: Dinner
Overnight: Hotel
Volubilis
Day 3
Volubilis – Moulay Idriss
You will spend
your morning exploring Volubilis, complete with a meditation session at the Basilica. Walk back to your hotel through
an ancient olive tree grove (so beautiful that Martin Scorcese chose it as a filming location for the Last Temptation of Christ)
up the hill and to the caves that have served as shelter for many stoics and Sufi masters who have shaped the spiritual backbone
of the Moroccan society. At the hotel, enjoy a Kebab lunch in the gardens, overlooking the Roman ruins. Later, you are
treated to an hour-long drumming workshop including an introduction to the local trance dancers and Hmadsha Sufi drummers.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Overnight:
Hotel Volubilis
Day 4
Volubilis – Fez
In the
morning depart for Fez, where you will check into your hotel, a Moorish Riad (walled home) in the Medina (ancient walled city)
in time for lunch. The afternoon is devoted to an historic tour of Fez. Stops will include the Mellah (the
Jewish quarter), the King’s palace, and the Bat’ha Museum of Moroccan Arts, then up the Merinides hill to see
the best panoramic view of the Medina with its multi-colored rooftops and countless 12th century minarets. Then head
into the ancient world of the Medina on foot (no vehicles; only donkeys, mules and horses are allowed inside), which remains
as it has been for centuries. You are immersed in the sights, scents, and sounds of craftsmen, market places, and vendors.
You’ll watch cobblers, saddlers and blacksmiths who have provided leathers goods for centuries to caravansaries and
tribesmen who come from the surrounding areas to trade as they ply their trades. Wind through the squares as you take in the
bustle of the marketplaces, watching the rhythmic tapping of metalworkers working with copper and brass, bookbinders creating
with local leather, and the ebb and flow of trading happening all around you. After a break for lunch, continue exploring
the labyrinth of the Fez Medina, as you admire silk dyers and yarn spinners, souks selling spices, Foundouk Tetouani a medieval
trader’s warehouse, the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Tijani, then on to Foundouk Lihoudi where a family will host you to traditional
mint tea in their home.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Riad el Yacout
Day 5
Fez – Zallagh
Your morning
is free to do as you please. In the afternoon, you will attend an introduction to Jajouka rhythm followed by an excursion
to Mount Zallagh in the Rif Mountains. You will meet a mule caravan, which will accompany as you explore the mountains,
escorted by the Jajouka musicians and dancers. Afterward, you will enjoy a mint-tea party at the shrine of Sidi Ahmed
Al Barnoussi, a sanctuary for Sufis from all over Morocco, as you watch the sun set over the rooftops of Fez.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Riad el Yacout
Day 6
Fez
This
morning is devoted to shopping in the Medina, where you will find a variety of wares from carpets to leather good, fabrics,
musical instruments and other artifacts. In the afternoon, you will attend a workshop about Issawa Drummers at the house
of Moulay Ahmed Drissi, followed by dinner and Sufi chants.
Meals: Breakfast &
Dinner
Overnight: Riad el Yacout
Day 7
Fez – Taza /Bab Boudir
Travel east to Bab Boudir and the town of Taza. Here you will check into
the hotel, visit a few of Taza’s highlights then on to Bab Boudir to meet the tribal chief and families with whom you’ll
be planting fruit trees. Five farming families with the smallest plots – and therefore the least income –
will be the recipients of the group donation. Our beneficiaries primarily will be families headed by women – widows
or single families. The afternoon will be devoted to meet with these families and get to know each other. Enjoy
dancing and celebrating with them and a few Tsouli Haiata drummers native to the area before returning to the hotel.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Hotel
Dauphine
Day 8
Bab Boudir
You’ll get an early morning start
to begin planting fruit trees in the coolest part of the day. Lunch will be with the families in the field very much the traditional
way called Twiza. The afternoon will be devoted to visiting the natural sites and hiking to Friouato cave. Later
on, we’ll participate in a Ghiata and Tbbala ceremony, where the haunting sounds of Oboes and drums fill the air and
welcome everyone to dance.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Overnight: Hotel Dauphine
Day
9
Bab Boudir
After breakfast, the morning again will be devoted to your project helping these families of small farmers. After
completion we will all pause for lunch in the last orchard. Scribes from the Sufi retreat of Sidi Abdellah will join us for
a universal prayer for all and meditation and Samaa singing will follow. Ladies will be offered a henna ceremony in
the fashion of the locals. A couscous offering will be our lunch for all as the tradition calls for and a fond farewell
to your new found friends.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Overnight: Hotel Dauphine
Day
10
Taza – Guercif – Midelt
– Erfoud
In the morning venture into the majestic Atlas Mountains. Your first experience with the
Atlases may surprise you, since the hills of the Middle Atlas seem oddly un-Moroccan. Passing by Imouzzer, with a stop at
the Swiss-like town of Ifran, you will soon come across the first real town of the Middle Atlas, Azrou, an important market
center for the region’s Berber tribes that is located at a major junction of mountain routes. Your driver will
take a little detour in the forest of cedar to introduce you one of the oldest inhabitants of this region: the Berbery ape.
Should we encounter a nomadic family, we may be invited into their tents for mint tea. At Midelt, the Middle Atlases
give way to the High Atlas Mountains, whose peaks are visible through the haze, soaring to over 12,000 feet. You’ll
stop for lunch taking in this dramatic sight before you. Continue on to Erfoud, one of Morocco’s most delightful
southern regions consisting of a dry, red belt of desert and a sudden drop into the lush valley of Ziz complete with copious
date palm groves and flowing streams.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Hotel Belere
Day 11
Merzouga Dunes – Rissani – Erfoud
You will have the morning at your leisure, followed
by an excursion to the holy city of Rissani after lunch. Your journey continues to Erg Chebbi where you will meet your
camel caravan. Ride your camels to the dunes where your tents are pitched watching the sun set behind the spectacular
Merzouga dunes of the Sahara, a sight so beautiful that words cannot describe it. Afterward, you will have dinner with
the Tuaregs, followed by the tribal Rokba Tagmount Dance. You will spend the night camping in the dunes.
Meals:
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Overnight: Camping in the Dunes
Day
12
Erfoud – Tinghir
Only fifteen kilometers from Tinghir, are the highest, narrowest gorges in the region: the Todras. Traveling through
the Dades valley, you will find thousands of rose bushes acting as hedgerows to divide plots of land used for local produce.
Along the Dades River, thousands of majestic Kasbahs appear, timeless in their beauty.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Hotel Kasbah Lamrani
Day 13
Tinghir – Ouarzazate
Depart Tinghir and journey
through El Kelaa De Mgouna and Boumalne, exploring the Dades Valley as you continue onward to Ouarzazate. Ouarzazate
is defined by one large Oasis that intercepts the flow of water between the Dades, the Draa valleys, and the majestic High
Atlases. In the afternoon you’ll take an easy hike in the Dades Valley.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Diwane Hotel
Day 14
Ouarzazate – Marrakech
In the morning depart for Marrakech, traveling via Taddart and
the Tizin’Tishka Pass. The Pass, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, divides the mountains into two totally different
aspects. The first side acts as a shield, protecting the hinterland from the Sahara’s harsh, dry climate.
The second side is soft and evergreen, collecting moisture brought by the Gherbi winds from the Atlantic Ocean. You
will arrive in Marrakech where Southern tribesmen and Berber villagers bring their goods, spend their money, and find entertainment.
For tourists, Marrakech is perpetually fascinating, sitting majestically before the soaring Atlas Mountains. Lunch is at your
hotel, followed by a visit to the bustling Jemaa El Fna Square.
Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
Overnight: Royal
Les Jardins de la Medina
Day 15
Marrakech
The morning is devoted to discovering the many historical sites
that Marrakech has to offer, followed by lunch at La Paix Restaurant, a French restaurant with an art deco theme. You
will have a farewell dinner at a Jewish restaurant in the Mellah, followed by festivities complete with Andalusian and Sepherdic
music.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Overnight: Royal Les Jardins de la Medina
Day 16
Marrakech to
Casablanca
In the morning, you will leave your hotel for Casablanca airport where you will board your plane
for the transatlantic flight back to New York’s JFK on Royal Air Maroc.
What’s included:
- Round trip airfare from New York (JFK) to Casablanca
via Royal Air Maroc
- 13 nights’ accommodations in hotels & 1 night camping.
- Half board (breakfast and dinner daily)
- 4 lunches as indicated
- Land transportation in an air-conditioned four wheel drive vehicle
- Services of English-speaking
guides and tour leaders
- Entrance fees to monuments and museums
- 10
fruit trees per traveler to donate to the farming families
- Hotel taxes and service charge
What’s not included: Meals not mentioned in the itinerary, personal
expenses such as laundry, phone calls, beverages; accident and health insurance; tips to the tour guide.
Package price: $3,995 (est.) per person based on two to a room.
Single supplement: If you’d prefer a room of your own, add $700
Itinerary & Price are subject to change
