“Spring Break : Morocco”, floated into and out of my dreams for a full month until the day I bought the airfare. The very next minute, I started to research like anyone who’s just bought airfare to a continent where they don’t speak a word of the language. After hours of research I peered bleary eyed at my computer, I realized I had found it. I had found the tour of our trip. We were going to ride camels into the Sahara dessert and sleep in a Bedouin tent under the stars. I was in that moment 2001% sure things didn’t get any better than that in Morocco.
To get from Marrakesh to Merzouga was going to be one very long car ride. So I broke it down into day trips of hidden cities and bed and breakfasts. We would stay in hotels that seemed more to resemble a distant relatives home with countless bedrooms with shear fabrics hanging everywhere and eat vegetables prepared in ways we had never imagined. I felt very lucky to find a guide’s itinerary we loosely followed to our destination. I thought, “What kind of fool guide puts their itinerary on line where anyone could follow it? Got that one figured out—we are going to save a fortune on that one.” Only I realized later we kinda didn’t.
It was exhilarating crossing the High Atlas Mountains in our little car. We felt so brave and adventurous as we held our breath every time a huge van loaded 5 times higher than its height came from the opposite direction. We would watch the load teeter back and forth in the 80 degree weather. No one else seemed bothered. So we tried to pretend it wasn’t insanely dangerous as we hair pinned around them coming from the opposite direction. But I found myself thinking, “Is no one else seeing this?!” As we journeyed I realized my google maps (though usually impeccable) was kinda off in Morocco. The 2 hour drives actually took 4 and some of the 4 hours drives took 6. So…there was no real understanding of what was going on…and no going back…and we missed a lot we’d hoped to see. Still the whole thing was very exciting—we felt like quite the explorers.
But what I will never forget is, how the journey changed when we met our guide Haakim on the edge of the Sahara. He was generous and kind. He spoke excellent English and explained a little of their traditions as he wrapped my and my children’s heads in a turban. He spent a lot of time making us feel accepted and comfortable. The dessert hospitality could never have been explained in the same way it was shown. Astounding. Haakim loaded us onto our camels and sent us with our camel driver as he went ahead and prepared the camp. Plenty of the best photo opts. The feel of a real camel trodding along. The sounds of the dessert. It was more amazing than I could have imagined. In 10 minutes we’d made enough memories for a lifetime. It was like being reborn into another life. And then seeing the way these desert people had expertly nestled the tents in the hillside, the locally prepared foods, the blazing fire, the singing, him teaching the kids the syncopated rhythms of Africa on his drum: the introduction to Morocco was breath taking, and nothing we could have done for ourselves. I suddenly realized that our first 5 days in Morocco although fabulous had been a bit shallow. We had experienced much but as foreigners. Things had had no explanation or reason. In one sense, the experience had been lost on us.
Overall, the trip was lovely. And I learned a valuable lesson about traveling: it takes a local to introduce you to their culture. Each time we were in the hands of a multiple day excursion guide, like Haakim, or with a local tour guides, our eyes were opened to things and a way of life we could not understand on our own. It was their way of life and being.
Now all this to say. I get wanting to travel independently. That’s usually more my style. But I also get that without hiring some native or local guide at some point, while you might save money…you also might miss out on what your destination has to offer. How long you want to be guided or how much you can afford to be guided may not always match up. But if I have one pearl of wisdom to offer when traveling from thousands of hours and dollars: at some point during your travels, treat yourself to a good local guide that speaks your language well. This may be a travel guide (meaning for a longer duration of your trip) or a tour guide (just for a few hours to a day). This guide may or may not work for a travel guide company. The important thing is that they have good reviews. What do I mean by good reviews? That the reviews you read mean something to you. If you don’t like a lot of details but reviews say, they are a wealth of information…you might be happier with a different guide that talks less.
Recently in Tahiti we hired a couple local tour guides for a day boat trip. They were fabulous. The information they gave us at the beginning of the trip made the whole island make sense for the rest of our trip. The were expert tour guides and expert advice givers. They represented their culture well and it was just long enough that we felt we had experienced Tahiti in a way we could not have on our own.
Those early days in Morocco, I realize now I under estimated the value and importance of a tour guide to make an experience deeper and richer. There is no magic formula for hiring someone to spend your precious vacation with. No company. No degrees. Nothing. Except your own criteria. What do you want to come away from a tour or travel guide saying? And from reviews or their background, can you imagine being able to say that?