You Can't See The Desert, You Have to Feel It
Here’s the text from a quick review I did on TripAdvisor today, since I’ve been on the Clubhouse app for the past 48 hours straight and haven’t written [insert face palm].
Must-Have Experience in Morocco
If you ever visit the country of Morocco, on the continent of Africa, you have to visit “le Sud du Maroc”, the Southern part of the kingdom. Here is the review I wrote about Camel Trekking Merzouga on TripAdvisor:
I flew from Los Angeles into Morocco’s largest city, Casablanca, and my first week in Morocco was amazing, but my last-minute decision to travel to le Sud du Maroc (the South of Morocco) took my visit to this deeply cultured country to the NEXT LEVEL!
I had already paid in full for my hotel stay in Casablanca and only planned to take day trips to nearby cities, but when I told a hotel associate I wanted to ride a camel, he told me that I needed to go to Merzouga for that. Technically, you don’t “need” to go to Merzouga to ride a camel; you can ride a camel around a neighborhood block in Marrakech, but it’ll be NOTHING like trekking across the sands of the Sahara atop a camel!
Working in Beverly Hills & Hollywood, I see “stars” (celebrities) all of the time, but under our polluted skies I forgot that actual stars (balls of fire in outer space?) exist! Oh my heavens, my jaw literally hung open when I initially gazed into the night sky, as I enjoyed the cool desert night’s breeze.
Though it was definitely worth paying for two places simultaneously (3, if you count my place in L.A.), I recommend you plan your trip to Merzouga in advance so you’re not paying for a hotel in another city while you’re staying in a tent in the desert.
You have to go, and you have to go with the right people — the guides! A young guy named Mohammed was my “camel boy/man” that guided the camel as I rode. And a man named Hassan took care of me at the campsite. They made me feel so welcomed and really gave me a peek into their world, one completely different from my own. It was beyond beautiful.
In the words of the tour guide/host, Hassan,
“you can’t see the desert, you have to feel it.”
GO!!
I booked with a guy named Mustapha and he put me in all the right places.
read more about more solo female travel to Morocco on my blog : www.aroundLAwithTK.com/travel-diary
some pictures from my desert visit
before trekking out into the desert — breakfast at my riad (hotel), Les Roches, in Merzouga, a small town in the south of Morocco
to feel it, to really sink in, I took my shoes off and ran thru the sands of the Sahara — South of Morocco, Merzouga, Morocco
wearing traditional Berber (indigenous Moroccan) garb, a jelaba, as we make music around a campfire at our campsite in the desert . my eyes are red because I was crying after being surprised with a birthday cake
back “in town” , enjoying the perfect weather atop another restaurant + riad , the part of Merzouga with paved roads and shops
Details about booking
company: Camel Trekking Merzouga
website: https://cameltrekking-in-merzouga.com/
TripAdvisor: click here to browse thru over a hundred reviews by other travelers
Instagram: CamelTreksMerzouga
specific options I chose
length of stay: 3 nights in Merzouga, Morocco
booking agent: Mustapha
camel guide: Mohammed
campsite host: Hassan
tour option: camel trek + one night in desert — click here to go directly to that option’s page
(I spent the night before & the night after “in town” at a riad, which is basically a Moroccan version of a hotel)
Hopefully, Google won’t be upset with me for posting exact text and punish my website, but TripAdvisor hasn’t posted my review yet and I want to share it here too. Shoot, I need more content. (Google, if it’s a problem, I’ll take out that text after TripAdvisor publishes my review.) Maybe I’ll take my best guy friend’s suggestion and write about what’s been distracting me this time, Clubhouse, since it’s apparently so entertaining. Haha, see you all on the next post!
