Morocco Day 1

What an amazing trip to Morocco it was. Spent 4 and a half days exploring Fez and Chefchaouen.  I’ll add a few notes and travel tips here about going to Morocco and the places we stayed at. 

Day 1

Landed in Casablanca late at night and had to run around the airport looking for the Hertz rental car. There was a small kiosk that was at terminal 2 before you exit into the outside terminal (non secure area) that was closed. When we asked where the people were nobody knew. I told Hertz what time we would be landing and wanted to make sure someone was there. I asked at information about Hertz and they sent us to terminal 1 but there was no hertz office there. Then as we getting ready to leave and come back tomorrow to go to get the car some worker for Hertz over heard us talking and said their was an office at the far end of Terminal 2. Walked over their and finally got the car. Be aware they far end of each terminal is where the rental car offices are. There are no signs so you will have to just walk it.

Spent the night at Eurostars Sidi Maarouf about 25 minutes from the airport. Nice enough hotel for the night, a little bit on the pricey side, but just outside of the city so we could get on the road early to get to Fez. 

On the road to Fez we went just a little bit our of our way (25 minutes) to go to the Roman ruins at Volubilis. I had almost skipped this side trip, thinking it’s Roman ruins and it’s Morocco we should be looking at Moorish Architecture instead but this was a great side trip. Spent about 2 hours walking around the ruins, and what is amazing is you can walk right up to the ruins.

For as many tourists that were there, the space was large enough you did not feel crowded. There was lots of areas to walk around and see all the sites, There were also some great mosaics that you could see as well. This was well worth the stop and the $5 you had to pay as an entrance fee. 

After this we went straight to our hotel in Fez, Riad Fes Baraka. I can’t say enough good things about this place. As soon as we got there, we were brought mint tea and our host Samir came and sat with us to talk a little bit about the Riad and the city.  He walked back with me to where I parked the car to make sure it was safe and told the guys that watch the cars to make sure it was fine and he was at the Riad. He then helped me with the luggage and took me back to the Riad. 

The Riad was decorated in typical Moroccan style and had a small pool that in the middle courtyard to help keep the courtyard cool. It was a truly great pick for the city, and very economical. The Room was beautiful and each morning we would have breakfast at the little table outside our room in the courtyard. 

Samir gave us a map of the city too and told us how to get to the blue gate, the nearest attraction since it was already about  5pm. After that we took a quick cab up to the Tomb of the Merenids that overlooks the whole city. We were there for sunset and it was great to see the whole city below from this hilltop.

Lastly this day was a light night Moroccan diner at a restaurant overlooking the Blue Arch. It was a great way to end the day and get ready for a full day of seeing Fez the next day.