Info in Agadir, please

[moroccanguy.]

I heard they are no longer operating. Things with having no operating licence and stuff.

[lambs2]

YIKES!:eek:

 

A couple of Cruise Critic Roll Calls have been planning trips from Agadir to Taroudant using them. I was wondering why I had heard nothing back from the Grahams lately. Guess I was right to ask questions here concerning their government licences.

[moroccanguy.]

The alternative you have is either book the ship's tour or a private taxi. It depends on how many people there are in your party.

[moroccanguy.]

Two tour companies can't merge to be one tour company if one of them has no operating licence! A tour company has to be registered with the government first before it can co-operate with any other tour companies.

[hinkley]

We were THE Gem in Nov & booked a tour with Morrocan Discovery Graham is the owner he is from England ,we had a great tour to Tourendant with him & found him very reasonable & flexible.

 

Jean

[lambs2]

Thanks for the info, Hinkley. I have had a couple emails from the Grahams since this thread began and am glad to read your personal endorcement.

 

Did you feel comforatble that the tour guide provided was licenced by the government or were you not concerned?

 

Thanks,

Marguerite

[hinkley]

Thanks for the info, Hinkley. I have had a couple emails from the Grahams since this thread began and am glad to read your personal endorcement.

 

Did you feel comforatble that the tour guide provided was licenced by the government or were you not concerned?

 

Thanks,

Marguerite

We were very comfortable with Graham the problem is he does the tours personally & gets quickley booked.

Jean.

[lambs2]

We were very comfortable with Graham the problem is he does the tours personally & gets quickley booked.

Jean.

 

Thanks, Jean. Glad we already have him booked! :)

[moroccanguy.]

We were very comfortable with Graham the problem is he does the tours personally & gets quickley booked.

Jean.

You mean he does personally drive and show people around?

[willy paul]

two words of advice - stay away! one of the worst ports of call on any of our 28 cruises.

[JoanieBlon]

two words of advice - stay away! one of the worst ports of call on any of our 28 cruises.

Casablanca or Agadir? What made you feel this way? Did you go on any tours that took you away from the port cities? :confused:

[willy paul]

Yes, we went to Tourandant. We thought that was a long ride in the desert ( no novelty for us living in the desert) for very little return. The tour thru the shops was awful, nothing much to offer except junk or some cosmetics made from god knows what. We also made two other stops for a drink and more sales pitches, there were about 20 of us on the tour and no one had a good word for the trip. It was a long bus ride for a few good pictures. The best shots were the goats in the trees and the entrance to Tourandant, those were the highlights of the trip, Celebrity substituted this port for Casablanca. I guess they felt they had to stop somewhere, a day at sea would have been much better. It was the biggest waste of time on the transatlantic trip. I understand that it is a third world country and I didn't expect it to be spotless, but I didn't expect it to be so dirty. We have been to Tangiers, Cairo, etc but this was the dirtiest stop on any cruise we have been on. Hope your experience is better.

[moroccanguy.]

Yes, we went to Tourandant. We thought that was a long ride in the desert ( no novelty for us living in the desert) for very little return. The tour thru the shops was awful, nothing much to offer except junk or some cosmetics made from god knows what. We also made two other stops for a drink and more sales pitches, there were about 20 of us on the tour and no one had a good word for the trip.

Junk is too much of an offensive word to describe what the shops offer. We don't buy junk or live on junk.

And it's your guide's fault if you did not know what the cosmetics were made of as that's what he should do: clarify and explain things. But on the other hand and as you stated it was a group of 20 so I bet not everyone's questions can be answered.

I am sorry to hear about your experience but don't blame the city. You should rather blame your guide and the ship's tours.

[willy paul]

I know you are looking at it from a personal/business point of view. I looked at it from a tourist point of view. We are each entitled to our opionion and we really do differ. It's up to other passengers to make their decisions based on the information members on this site provide. In my case I would not return, if the ship stopped at the same port in the future I would just treat it as a sea day and others may go ashore and have a wonderful time. Everyone should take them for what they are - opinions - like many other threads are.

[lambs2]

Interested in your opinions, willy paul. Were you on a ship's tour or a private tour to Taroudant? If private what tour company did you use? Did you get to Marrakesh? If so, what did you think? Thanks you for any more information.

[willy paul]

We were on a ship's tour. The guide was pleasant but was more in the sales business than the guide business. I just thought the drive back and forth to Tourandant was not worth the time and money. Tourandant is beautiful from the outside and filthy on the inside. Could I recommend a long ride for a little return - NO. As I said before I should have treated as a sea day and stayed on the ship. I am not difficult to please, I like to see new things, go to places I have not visited and I like to meet locals and try to talk to them. Tourandant was none of these. Just my opinion. No I have not been to Marakeesh.

[lambs2]

Thanks willy paul. You are definitely entitled to your opinion, but that IS the real way the people live in that part of the world. It is their day-to-day reality. Just that alone is fascinating to me. If you have ever been to other parts of Africa, you know things are far worse in many places than what you described.

 

You were on a ship' tour that I am sure cost much more than it was worth. Right?? We found a tour with an Englishman who lives over there and conducts tours personally. Six of us are only going to pay less than $50. pp for our full day tour. No down payment required, either. I see that is half the cost of our ship's excursion and there will only be six of us so we are going to go see what we think and learn a bit about Moroccon history and culture. I just can't resist what may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see something there besides just the seaside resort and port area of Agadir.

[freddie]

Willy Paul - Clearly, everyone has different reactions to travel experiences and places. However, I would respectfully suggest that your reaction to Taroudant is not typical and is emphatically contrary to our experience visiting that charming city.

 

First, if your guide was more of a salesman than a good guide, that is not the fault of the town you were visiting. Rather, it's the fault of the tour company engaged by Celebrity. You would likely have had a much better experience if you'd arranged a smaller private tour, as we did and as Lambs2 has done. As many of us have commented on the CC boards, as soon as one has more than three or four people on a private tour, it is usually quite comparable in cost to a ship's bus tour and always enormously more flexible and enjoyable.

 

Second, was it a surprise to you that the trip from Agadir to Taroudant was across a desert? The goats in the argan trees are delightful. We got to hold some babies.

 

Third, the souk in Taroudant has much more to offer than "junk" and cosmetics made from goat droppings (in fact, the famous cosmetics are not made from goat droppings, but rather from argan nuts which have passed through the goats' digestive system). We loved the souk because it was a genuine "people's souk", with everything from oranges to wonderful spices to rubber flip-flops to beautiful argan wood boxes.

 

Finally, although Taroudant is a dusty desert city, it is not by any means "filthy", in our judgment. It's a very interesting walled city, vastly more charming than Casablanca, and a fascinating glimpse into Moroccan life.

 

Lambs2 - When you take your private tour to Taroudant, you should consider having lunch at the lovely Palais Salaam Hotel. It is the former palace of the Pasha (or whatever he was called) and has beautiful private gardens and fountains. We ate our delicious tagines on the patio serenaded by the fountains and inhaling the sweet perfume of the flowering vines covering the walls. A great travel memory, indeed.

 

Cheers, Fred

[willy paul]

Just a last reply. I have travelled to other African cities for business and pleasure and do know the difference between dust and filth. I live on the edge of the desert so I am used to dealing with dust. As for the person who mentions that I thought cosmetics were made of donkey dung, sorry but what I said was " god knows what," donkey dung was your term. If it was possible you may want to ask the woman who sat our table ND bought some sort of cream and used on her hands and legs then had to see the ship's doctor for the rash, when you add the cost of the dr. visit and cosmetics it would have been much cheaper buying something of better quality back home. I was relating the genral feeling of the dinner table about tourandant and Agadir. there is not much historic in Agadir becasue an earthquake leveled most of the town some time ago.

 

Why we stopped there? Celebrity cancelled Casablanca and added Agadir at the last minute and there wasn't much time to get a reliable tour guide.

 

Just remember that this site is to give opinions and let others make up their mind about what they would like to do. Some people will loved the stop others will disliked the stop. Opinion is just what it is - opinion. My wife loves vanilla ice cream and I love ice cream and would pass on vanilla - it's just an opinion.

 

One thought to remember - there are some people who show up on these boards who are in business in a particular port and are always selling their country to build up possible customers. Be sure you are not talking to one of them when your questions are being answered.

 

Cruising is usually better than sitting home doing nothing and there are always some things that do not meet your expectations and there are others that exceed your expectations and we have seen both.

[IDKaren]

To those of you who have been...how long a road trip is it from the port to Taradount? We too have a private tour booked- just wondering what my "sitting" time will be :) Thanks!!

[willy paul]

with a stop to take pictures of the goats in the trees and a stop for a drink. If I remember it was 90+ minutes.

[moroccanguy.]

A bus takes an hour and a half each way. A car can make in an hour or an hour and 15 minutes, including a stop to see the "flying goats".

And Willy Paul, when you said that "there are some people who show up on these boards who are in business in a particular port and are always selling their country to build up possible customers", I hope you were trying to refer to me by such claims.

I am here to help and that's what these boards are all about. Moroccans are known to be are one of the most hospitable and friendliest people you could ever meet and we don't need to have a "motive" to offer help.

You said Taroudant was filthy and shops offered junk and the whole trip was not worth it, etc (and you're free to express your opinion) but if I had said the same about your town or city, and which was not true according to you, you would most likely reply to defend your hometown.

And God bless Morocco.:)

[IDKaren]

A bus takes an hour and a half each way. A car can make in an hour or an hour and 15 minutes, including a stop to see the "flying goats".

And Willy Paul, when you said that "there are some people who show up on these boards who are in business in a particular port and are always selling their country to build up possible customers", I hope you were trying to refer to me by such claims.

I am here to help and that's what these boards are all about. Moroccans are known to be are one of the most hospitable and friendliest people you could ever meet and we don't need to have a "motive" to offer help.

You said Taroudant was filthy and shops offered junk and the whole trip was not worth it, etc (and you're free to express your opinion) but if I had said the same about your town or city, and which was not true according to you, you would most likely reply to defend your hometown.

And God bless Morocco.:)

 

Thank you for your help on these boards! Can you give me any thoughts on what we might want to do in CasaBlanca when we are there? Good to have a local perspective! Thanks!

[willy paul]

I would be happy to compare where I live and Tourandant. I understand that you are on the edge of the desert and dust is everywhere, that is my wife's constant complaint here, too. But we do pick up after ourselves, I can guarantee that when I walk out my front door there will not be paper and other inwanteds everywhere and the streets have been swept at least once a month.

 

As for promoting your country, I think you should do that. I promote mine and think others should so.

 

All I was saying is that there are some people who come on this board only to promote their business and not to supply information.

 

I have used this board to find tour guides in Nice, Marsailles, Rome, Athens, Florence, Istandul, Ephasis, Crete, Mexico, etc with much success. You need to pay attention to what people say about a port and take all the information and decide if it meets your needs.

 

End of my debate. Everyone has their opinions and that is what they are - opinions only.

[moroccanguy.]

Thank you for your help on these boards! Can you give me any thoughts on what we might want to do in CasaBlanca when we are there? Good to have a local perspective! Thanks!

 

One thing to keep mind, Casablanca is nothing like the Movie! It is the largest city in Morocco, expensive, industriel, polluted, and there's not much to see other than the Hassan II mosque. You would be disappointed if you wanted to get a real feeling of Morocco in Casablanca.

On the other hand, Rabat -the capital of Morocco- is not tourist oriented but is more authentic than Casablanca with a few historical monuments to visit. It is about a one hour drive north of Casablanca.

El Jadida, a more relaxed city south of Casablanca (also a 1 hour away) offers a nice beach. The drive to this city will take you along the coastline of the Atlantic which is enjoyable.

But I most of the time see that cruisers end up either choosing a Casablanca city tour or a day trip to Rabat. The latter is a better choice, that's what I personally think.