Casablanca Tour Guides

[gilew]

[According to other cruisers who visited, Agadir was boring, but we had booked a day trip to Taroudant with a Welsh guy and it was truly the best day on the cruise! Fantastic!:D:D

 

 

Hi...who did you book your day trip to Taroudant with?

[freddie]

Gilew - We booked our day trip to Taroudant through Tangier Tours: Abdelhamid Idrissi is the manager. Email is: tangiertour@yahoo.co.uk We had a bit of a problem when the guide he contracts with in Agadir tried to convince us to change our tour from 4 persons to 8 (combining us with another group whom we didn't even know) and tour Agadir rather than go to Taroudant. After I had a brief but very firm discussion in French with him, he declared "No problem" and we went on to have an excellent day. (We don't know what happened to the other foursome, as they weren't anywhere to be seen at the dock.) The lessons here are: 1. Be sure to reconfirm with Abdelhamid Idrissi or whomever you use the number of persons on your private tour and the fact that it is a day trip to Taroudant; and 2. Be courteous but firm with the guide if he tries to suggest any arrangements other than what you want to do. Our guide turned out to be very good, except that he wanted to steer us to a different restaurant in Taroudant. I told him we were going to Palais Salam and that there should be no further discussion of that matter. Good luck. Fred

[Parrot Mom]

DON'T COUNT ON IT!!! For financial and security reasons all the cruisers booked tours.. I can only tell you the guides were terrible...the people I know complained to Celebrity/Galaxy and received partial refunds.. Rushed through the souks, taken to "cheap rug and souvenier" shops where they got their cut.. The wonders of Islam and how women enjoy their lives at home.. Also if you go to the Canary Islands....be prepared to pay in Euros...that was a bummber

[freddie]

Parrot Mom - As both Daryleann and I have posted on this thread, one can have great experiences in Casablanca and Agadir (that is to say, Taroudant). I cannot speak to your bad group tour guides, as we, like Daryleann, booked private tours. When there are more than two or three people in a private tour, the total price is often comparable to or even lower than the ship's group bus tours. Thus, "financial" reasons should not deter one from using a private tour. Rather, financial considerations weight heavily in favor of private tours in many instances. Another luxury of a private tour is that you can tell the guide how long you wish to spend at each place and whether to skip some stops altogether. We felt no "security" qualms whatever, and, frankly, would have felt more exposed in a large tour bus with the ship's name on the placard than we felt in our anonymous but comfortable van.

 

As for the Canary Islands - since they are part of Spain, they must use the euro as their currency. The dollar-euro exchange rate now is indeed dreadful; but that is part of the reality of traveling to Europe right now.

 

I urge any cruiser to not write off Moroccan ports or Canary Island ports because of these challenges. On our recent cruise, those ports were amongst the highlights of the trip.

 

Cheers, Fred

[Parrot Mom]

When we originally booked our cruise I did write on boards looking for guides and did not receive many answers.. No,I would still go back to the Canary Islands and Morocco... Parrot Mom has no fear about terrorists or soldiers

[ianj]

just read these posts on casablanca.didnt know there are problems there! am on the costa serena in jan to the canaries. we are stopping in casablanca. should i get in touch with costa about this or just not get off the ship?

angelina46

 

We just returned from a TA visiting Agadir, whatever you do, don't take the ships tour to Taroudant, it's basically 1 1/2 hours bus trip through scrubland (you may see goats in trees) 1/2 hour walking through the Souk (no stopping to look or buy), a captive 1/2 hour in the fragrant oils factory and 1 1/2 hours back on the bus with a quick stop at an artisan market with little of interest.

I wish we had gone to the beach which we drove by on the way back, or better still if you can find one, a private tour would be better, providing more options. I probably woudn't make a point of going back but if I did I'd do things differently.

The attached pic shows the area where we docked (taken from the ship).

If you go, you'll enjoy it I'm sure. the people were all friendly, learn a few words of Arabic and try them out - Good Luck

[Parrot Mom]

Were you on the Galaxy? I had great difficulty trying to find a private guide...No matter what the cruise lines say..I doubt they will ever stop in Casa.

[ianj]

Were you on the Galaxy? I had great difficulty trying to find a private guide...No matter what the cruise lines say..I doubt they will ever stop in Casa.

 

No..... we were on the Century... we had made arrangements with Tangier Tours in Tangier and Casablanca but of course camcelled when the ports were removed from our itinerary. I had considered booking a private tour with Abdelhamid Idrissi in Agadir (he did offer one) but since we were only scheduled to be in Agadir for 5 hours, I didn't want to risk going off privately, so we booked the ship tour to Taroudant (big mistake). As it happened we ended up being in Agadir about 10 hours.

[Parrot Mom]

it seems the tour buses all came back late and the ship was held for the Galaxy if I remember right..In many ways I wish we had re-booked the Century, but the lure of a covered pool drew me to the Galaxy

[moroccanguy]

Ship's tours to Taroudant are not that good. They're slow on their way to Taroudant, and the guides only take you on a "shopping trip" instead of a cultural trip to an imperial city that represents real Morocco. They take their groups to a certain shop(s) and encourage them to buy rediculously inflated prices items so they can get comissions. Tourists don't really get to see anything as they keep being rushed and they have no choice whatsoever to decide what to do or see during their trip. And not to forget that these tours cost more than private tours.

 

"The wonders of Islam and how women enjoy their lives at home"...Can you please Parrot mom explain what is this supposed to mean?:confused:

[Parrot Mom]

Our guide, Bus #4, told us all about his wonderful Islam religion and pointed out the women who "were so happy being at home, tending the stove,cooking and taking care of the children".. I kid you not--we did stop where there were men with goats in the tree.. the goats didn't look too happy..lol.. and when the bus stopped interesting enough about half a dozen colorfully dressed women ran off to the side. Then our trip stopped at a rest stop outside of the souk where we had mint tea or juice with some local kids dancing...that was a fun break..But as I mentioned we were rushed through the Souk...with somebody behind the group making sure that Parrot Pop didn't get lost while he insisted upon taking pictures, plus he walks slowly with a cane... Really would have loved to have "shopped" and bought items, even dates or material....then we werey herded to an herbal shop (the guide had already talked on the bus about the properties of a particular oil)for a sales pitch...after that we were herded to an "inexpensive" gift shop...one that sold rugs and another where Parrot Pop spotted a cane... for $150.00...yes, that's right.. $150.00...made of camel bones. The sales pressure was incredible..the prices out of sight.. Yes, I bought a lovely set of handmade silver earring as a present for a young lady, but only after walking out of the store and using my best haggling efforts..lol..and when I paid.. I insisted that the $$ price be put on the slip...The credit card bill was just received and was as I asked..WE NEVER, EVER take ships tours.. I had searched for months and never found a guide..but like life... you learn.. I still would like to go back to Touradant and to Marakesh. Thanks to his insistence Parrot Pop took many pictures and is "working' on them..so Ill get a chance to relive the experiece this his and my eyes.

[moroccanguy]

Well thanks for the reply. I still don't understand what the guide meant by women being at home and all, because Islam does not tell women to stay at home, it's a personal choice.

I wish you good luck finding private guides for your next travels.