Travel Exploration Morocco today announced that it has received a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence award. The accolade, which honours hospitality excellence, is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveller reviews on TripAdvisor, and is extended to qualifying businesses worldwide. Establishments awarded the Certificate of Excellence are located all over the world and represent the upper echelon of businesses listed on the website.
TOURS & TRAVEL
Berber Life, Morocco Holiday Activities, Morocco Accommodations & Lodging, Morocco Travel Trips, Morocco Vacations & Tours, Sightseeing in Morocco, Jewish Heritage Sites
This May 15th – 17th, 2014, the foothills of Jajouka, Morocco and home of Bachir Attar will play host to the very first festival featuring the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Attendees of the festival will have the opportunity to experience the enchanting trance like sound and magical music of the Jajouka Maalimin accompanied by Bass player and producer extraordinaire, Bill Lawell. The rich diversity of the repertoire of the Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar boasts ancient and new renditions whereby Jazz, Dub and experimental improvisations by Bill Laswell on Bass merge merge together on the center stage.
The global inspired American chain Anthropologie boasts a March 2014 Lookbook and new collection inspired by Morocco. Anthropologies’ design team and models recently traveled to Tangier and the Blue washed city of Chefchaouen, nestled in the Riff Region, for a cultural and landscape photo shoot. This serves as an inspiration for those who wish to travel to Morocco or want to bring some Moroccan lifestyle pieces into their homes.
Travelers to Morocco are guaranteed a once in a lifetime experience as they head off in the Morocco’s Desert Dunes. Morocco’s Merzouga’s Erg Chebbi Dunes boasts a variety of unique flora and fauna to explore along with its Desert villages which can be explored by camel or 4×4 wheel drive. Morocco offers a wide range of desert camps however there are only a handful of Luxury Desert camps to be found. Each part of Morocco’s great Sahara desert has a few Luxury Desert camps that offer a worthwhile stay.
Morocco has plans to open the world’s largest photography museum in the Imperial City of Marrakech in 2016. This is a living testament to the importance as image and icon that Morocco has held for centuries as the leading artistic and cultural travel destination in North Africa.
Traveling to Morocco during one of its incredible festivals is a great way to explore Morocco, haven an up close experience with people and better understand Morocco’s varied traditions. Visiting a festival in Morocco as part of a private Morocco tour can done year round given Morocco offers a wide range of festivals and mousseums (traditional local celebrations). Many regions in Morocco from the seaside bastion El Jadida, the Portuguese Port and Berber City of Essaouira and the city of Fez all have celebratory festivals and mousseums. The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music which takes place each June is one of Morocco’s most popular festivals along with Mawazine of Rabat. Morocco’s Festivals have much to offer ranging from elaborate fantasia horse shows to exotic local music and are all held out doors in heart of of old Moroccan cities which make the experience of traveling to Morocco’s festivals all the more worthwhile.
The Tizi N’Test pass from Marrakech, Morocco to Taroudant leads you over the Middle Atlas, heartland of the Berber people, through hair raising hair pin bends at 2,092 meters overlooking valleys and gorges, small fields and mountain villages. It was here from Tin Mal, the site of the famous Berber mosque that the Almohads rose up and took Marrakech from the Almoravids in 1152.
Morocco is one of the ancient intersections of civilization. Boldly situated on the far northwestern corner of Africa, Morocco’s expansive shoreline stretches from the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Mediterranean. The cultural diversity of contemporary Morocco reflects its historic vantage point as a gateway to Europe and the world. Morocco’s heritage offers visitors an encounter with an exotic society and its customs, an incomparable cuisine, and a shopper’s paradise of magnificent markets.
Marrakech has seven patron saints who were Sufi mystics and Islamic scholars who are said to look after the city and each has a zaouia which is a mausoleum where pilgrims and those wishing for the help of the Saint or Sidi can pray at his tomb. The larger zaouias in Marrakech have mosques and they are charitable religious foundations who care for the sick, blind and crippled as well as orphans or the old and infirm. The spirit of charity is an important part of the role of the saints who were Sufi mystics and pilgrims give donations to the Zaouia. The concept of the Marrakech seven saints in Morocco predates Christianity and Islam and Cueta (or Sebta meaning seven),Jebel Hadid and Fez all have seven saints.
The famous Koutoubia Mosque dominates the skyline of Marrakech. Koutoubia Mosque is 77 meters high, including it’s majestic minaret, and was built in 1158 by the Almohad Caliph Abd al-Mu’min (1094–1163) then completed by his grandson the Almoravid Sultan Yacoub El Mansour in 1195. Caliph Abd al-Mu’min also built the Giralda Tower in Seville and the Hassan Tower in Rabat which was never completed. The towering square Koutoubia minaret in Marrakech is all the more striking because the limestone walls remain undecorated by modern restorers.