Essential Fodor’s Travel Guide Morocco
The Essential Fodor’s Travel Guide Morocco is an ideal guidebook for savvy travelers seeking to pair their own knowledge with an inspired collection of information that offers a fascinating take of this North African country. Written by locals the Fodor’s Essential Morocco Guide offers an insiders view and some of the best travel tips for visiting the country. Complete with detailed maps, trip planning tools, illustrated photos and recommendations for Morocco’s best tour companies, the description of this guide being “essential” could not hold more true. The writers of Fodor’s Essential Morocco are have delivered a 464 page guide to the best new hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops, sights and private guided tour offerings.
Discovering Morocco Through Fodor’s Eyes
Some of the 18 Morocco Experiences Recommended by Fodor’s Travel Guide are: Camel trekking, sip mint tea and watch the world go by, koranic scholarship at the Ben Youssef Medersa, Moorish history at Kasbah Oudayas, visit a Berber village, spot goats in trees, attend a Moroccan Music festival, get pampered in a hammam and learn how to make a Moroccan tagine.
18 Morocco Experiences Recommended by Fodor’s Travel Guide Morocco
From vibrant and bustling medinas, UNESCO World Heritage sites and the world’s best cuisine, to shopping in souks and trekking the grand Sahara desert, to rural regions in the Atlas, dotted by Berber villages and magnificent landscapes, Morocco will dazzle any traveler. For centuries, Morocco has been an inspiration to writers, artists and explorers who want more out of travel and to go off the beaten path. Whether it is a private, Jewish tour of ancient synagogues, a souk tasting tour of Fes, a balloon ride over the Atlas, hiking through mountain ranges, trekking the Dades Valley’s gorge or wind surfing on some of the most prized beaches of the Atlantic coast, Morocco offers something for everyone.
Historically speaking, Morocco’s stability as one of the best countries to visit originates from it’s framework whereby the monarchy who rules, has been socially and politically progressive while open to innovation. Also of consideration is Morocco’s heterogeneous populous that embrace the diversity of it’s past protectorate with France, Portugal and Spain. The Kingdom of Morocco’s independence in 1956 and the triumphal return of Mohammed V from France led the way for a new era of growth and prosperity. The 1960’s saw an increase in privatization of hotels and tourism projects in Morocco. The contest between convention and counter-culture that shaped this iconic decade also brought the expansion of tourism to the region.
From Medina Marvels to Sahara Adventures
Fodor’s has an 80 year history and its founder, Eugene Fodor, often feted as “the spy who loved travel.” began writing for American travelers with his first guidebook published in 1937. The first printing of the 1937 Fodor’s Europe guide sold out in only three days. Fodor found old-fashion travel guidebooks out of date and boring which served as an inspiration for him to go beyond the general reporting on sights and include information about culture, people and other practical travel details. Fodor’s commitment to publishing guides on travel extended beyond World War II. He became a U.S citizen in 1942 and joined the U.S. military for a special assignment which led to him leading an OSS team aiding General Patton to help liberate Czechoslovakia from the Nazi’s.
Morocco: A Blend of Tradition and Modernity
After the war Fodor returning to publishing with the start of modern guidebooks in Paris filling the role as printer, photographer and designer. During the time Fodor was based overseas he was recruited by counter intelligence to manage CIA operatives posing as Fodor’s travel writers. Later revelations in mainstream media outlined how Eugene Fodor accepted funds from the CIA to underwrite his guidebooks.
The story of Eugene Fodor and his travel guide books coincide with global changes in American travel from the 1950’s when 80% of of the population traveled by car to the 1970’s and 80’s when high speed trains and air travel became more attractive as a means of transportation.
Later in the 1990’s came the surge of the global internet as a key resource for travel information. In 1996, Fodor’s launched their brand of travel online at fodors.com. With more then 440 guides and and 700 + locally based writers the guidebook can certainly coin themselves as an “essential” read.