Month: May 2015

Trip Advisor Awards Travel Exploration 2015 Certificate of Excellence

TripAdvisor has awarded Travel Exploration Morocco Private Day Tours the 2015 Certificate of Excellence. This achievement is a direct result of Travel Exploration’s consistent great reviews from Morocco travelers who have shared their experiences on TripAdvisor’s website. The Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Award is a testament to Travel Exploration’s High Standards and Service provided for couples, family, and small groups tours who have visited Morocco with Travel Exploration. The Trip Advisor award is given annually to exceptional travel agents and Morocco tour operators. TripAdvisor places a spotlight on businesses that are focused on delivering great service to customers.

Hindi Zahra Rocks the Essaouira Gnaoua Festival

The 18th Annual Gnaoua Music Festival took place in Essaouira, on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast from May 14th -17th. Every year, the festival showcases the best of Moroccan Gnaoua musicians and a wide array of Gnaoua and world music. Gnaoua is a musical genre based in Sufi Islamic culture with its roots in sub-Saharan Africa. Moroccan and international artists are also invited to perform, often, in unique fusion concerts alongside Gnaoua groups. One of the most anticipated World Music acts at this year’s festival was Hindi Zahra, a Moroccan-born vocalist who played Essaouira for the first time.

Boutique & Luxury Garden Hotels Essaouira, Where to Stay

Essaouira is located on Morocco’s Atlantic Coast and offers a wide range of places to stay outside its charming medina. In the Essaouira countryside, just 15 minutes from the city center are several charming, boutique and luxury garden hotels that offer a calm respite for travelers who are looking for an Essaouira vacation. The medina is easily accessible for travelers who stay at boutique and luxury hotels in the rural region of Essaouira. Essaouira’s medina can be reached by private driver, “petit taxi” or by walking along the seafront promenade. Essaouira offers both adult and family activities such as horse back riding, cooking classes, biking, camel trekking by the sea, medina historical tours and golfing. Essaouira is also the perfect coastal town to visit on a Moroccan holiday and a great way to end a private Morocco Tour.

Art-Deco-Architecture-Casablanca-Morocco-Travel-Blog

Art Deco Casablanca: Must See Historic Buildings

Prior to the establishment of the French Protectorate in Morocco (1912-1956), Dar al Bayda, as Casablanca was then known, was a modest port of a population of around 12,000. A few years into the Protectorate, this had increased 10-fold and has hardly stopped growing since. Today, Casablanca is Morocco’s bustling economic hub, home to many international companies and Africa’s biggest port and its largest shopping mall, Morocco Mall. For visitors to this metropolis, the big draw is the stunning Hassan II Mosque. However, the French left a significant architectural legacy. As you walk the streets, look up and around you beyond the crowds, the traffic and the hubbub of city life to discover Art Deco Architecture in Casablanca.

Remembering Jewish Essaouira, Heritage Sites & Synagogues

Essaouira owes much of its past, present and future to its situation on a bay sheltered from the fierce trade winds of the Atlantic Ocean by an archipelago of small, rocky islands. Towards the end of the 18th century, Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdullah (Mohammed III) created a strategic role for Essaouira in his new trade policy oriented towards the Atlantic. He instructed the construction of the Kasbah (King’s Quarters) and the Skala fortifications which became the basis for the medina (old city) we see today. He ordered the closure of Agadir harbor, further south, and effectively routed a large amount of trade between Europe and West and Central Africa through his new port. The Sultan was the first Head of State to recognize US Independence in 1776, thereby creating a strategic linkage in support of his trade objectives in Morocco.

Mohammed Choukri, A Post War Moroccan Writer

Few Moroccan authors have achieved international recognition beyond the Francophone world because of the lack of translations of their works. The international acclaim of writer Mohammed Choukri and the fact that not only his works, but his remarkable life story, are known beyond the Arabic and French-speaking worlds is largely due to the support he received from globally acclaimed authors Paul Bowles and Tahar Ben Jelloun along with his own, incredible determination.

10 Best Things To Do in Morocco, Your Morocco Travel Guide

From the Atlas Mountains to the Atlantic Coast and from the Great Sahara Desert to Imperial Marrakech, Morocco offers a wide range of things to do. Adventure activities in Morocco offer travelers the opportunity experience another dimension of during a Morocco Private Tour. Travel Exploration has created partnerships with cooperatives and local experts for Morocco travelers to participate in that will enrich their private tour experience.

Morocco’s Great Deserts, Your Morocco Tour Guide

Although, compared to neighbouring Algeria, Morocco has only a fraction of the Great Sahara Desert within its territory, yet Morocco offers the safest and best-organized access to the Sahara of the whole of North Africa. Whether you want a quick glimpse of the magnificent dunes on camelback, the thrill of sand boarding down the dunes, an overnight experience under the vast starry skies in a nomad’s tent, or a longer excursion to explore the expanse of the dune complex and the people who inhabit it, Morocco has it all. There is nowhere else where you could be in some of Africa’s highest snow-tipped mountain ranges and in the depth of the sandy expanses of the desert in the same day. And your trip to Morocco’s Great Deserts will take you through centuries-old oases on route. Along the way, you will meet local nomads and villagers whose families have worked this land and survived its hardships for generations.