Hi Everyone!
If you were following my stories on Instagram a few weeks ago, you know that I went on a mini girls trip for my close girlfriend’s bachelorette in Morocco.
When I first moved to LA, I met Michele through friends. We would continue to bump into each other at social gatherings and various events, so as a result we knew that we were destined to be friends. Time has flown by and now she’s engaged and is to be married soon. I couldn’t be more honored that she chose me to be one of her lovely bridesmaids to walk her down the aisle as a future Mrs. Sung.
Check out this super old pic of us when we first met! Have we aged much? ;p
Unfortunately, there were only 3 out of the 6 Mish-maids that could make it out to her International Moroccan Adventure. Obviously we would have loved to have all of the Mish-maids in attendance, but none the less we were able to plan out a very memorable bachelorette getaway coordinating within different cities; Becky from SF, Liz from NYC, and myself from LA. We were able to execute operation “Michele’s Moroccan Voyage” successfully! After thorough research, we realized there were many things to see in Morocco. To maximize our time, we came to the decision that we would all meet in the big apple, New York City and start our adventure together. Here was the quick guide to our itinerary – NYC->CASABLANCA->CHEFCHAOUEN ->FEZ ->SAHARA DESERT ->MARRAKECH -> HOME
First stop Casablanca! Right away we were greeted and picked up by the Tangier taxi service. Through this company we created a customized day tour before heading to the famous Blue City: Chefchaouen. Since our flight was delayed by 3 hours, we had to adjust our original plan on the fly to help us stay on schedule. Although we still managed to hit two major spots along the way: The Famous Mosque and most importantly…. Lunch!
The Hassan II Mosque was absolutely breathtaking! We walked around in awe of the cultural beauty, architecture and captured many photos. Unfortunately we did not get to visit the interior of the Mosque since it was not open to the public… BUT check out a few photos from our personalized tour! The site is gorgeous and to top it off it was such a beautiful day.
Next up was LUNCH! Our driver took us to a near by restaurant, Squala, where we experienced our first authentic Moroccan meal. SOOO EXCITED! We ordered freshly squeezed juices, an array of colorful salads, tagines, and brochettes. We devoured and loved every bite of it!
As we arrived to Chefchaouen in the evening, the whole city was illuminated in a majestic sky blue color. Every corner, inch, wall, and door was magically painted in blue, and we were were itching to get out and explore! However, the city was already settling down… We already had a long day of traveling and we happily tucked ourselves in at our cute little bed and breakfast and decided that we would take on the city early the next morning.
We woke up bright and early eager to catch a glimpse of the sunrise in Chefchaouen, unfortunately to our disappointment it was cloudy… so we didn’t get to see much of a sunrise. Instead we wandered through the streets first hand. Soon enough our stomachs began to rumble, so we headed back to the Terrace and enjoyed our first traditional Moroccan breakfast. CARB LOAD HEAVEN, we realized moroccans loved their BREAD! Hehe, not one single crumb was left behind. Reminiscing about this breakfast always gets me salivating.
After a carb loaded breakfast, we hiked up a trail to burn off the tasty breakfast to get a birds eye view of the city. I had scheduled our driver to pick us up after sunset, so we wandered back to the city streets, giving us plenty of time to snap breathtaking photos.
In the late afternoon our stomaches started grumbling, so we grabbed LINNER aka lunch & dinner, through a recommendation by a guest from our Bed and Breakfast. This was ABSOLUTELY my favorite meal of the entire trip! It was insanely delicious and yet was so freaking affordable. We ordered absolutely everything on this menu. No plate was left untouched. I would definitely go back to Chefchouen to eat this meal a thousand times over again …ok maybe I’m exaggerating, but it was literally mind blowing.
Once the sun had set, we got picked up by our private driver and could not wait to visit Fez for the next couple of nights. Our delicious meal in Chefchaouen had the girls and I buzzing!! We decided that it would be essential for us to take a local cooking class. So on our way to Fez, we quickly found a class on Trip Advisor. To our excitement, “Cooking with Fez” was available and absolutely amazing. This would definitely be a highly recommended activity for anyone. Our instructor, Samir, picked us up from our Riad aka the hotel, and from there we experienced the city of Fez through the eyes of the locals. I’m so glad we did this because the streets of the old Medina in Fez would have been challenging. This city was a maze.. haha. Since our group as a whole did not have any sense of direction.. we were so grateful to have a local guide touring us through the city. The girls and I had a blast exploring the market with our instructor Samir, she ordered our meats, olives, vegetables, fresh herbs and spices. She geared our menu to what we wanted to eat and made our experience that day memorable.
After finishing our delicious home cooked Moroccan meal that we got to assist in making, we ventured into city with a local tour guide. We visited the famous tanneries.. which smelled absolutely awful by the way! Checked out the oldest university of the world ( OMG it’s been around since 859AD!!! ) and visited local shops to fulfill our shopping desires. We definitely maximized our time in the city!
The following morning we prepped for our most anticipated adventure of our trip. We heard so much about the Sahara in Morocco; the camels and soft sand and how it was an experience of a lifetime. After extensive research, we booked our Saharan adventure with Rough Tours. Be warned that driving to the Sahara is long and tiring, but is definitely worth every minute and not to be missed, if time permits. Once we arrived at our destination, we rode our beautiful camels into the sunset, took several photos like any good tourist then went straight to camp overnight. We sat by the camp fire, played the drums, sang and danced and stared into the beautiful starry night sky.
After a cold night, we were woken up early to hike up the hill and watch our first Saharan sunrise. Words could not describe the beauty that nature displayed. The pictures did not do its justice for the actual experience that we had.
Once the sun had risen, we all got the opportunity to experience our first sand boarding adventure. If you happen to catch my Insta-stories, you know I pretty much ate SAND at the end of the ride. Hope you were you entertained!
After a sandy ride, we headed back to the car on our camels and ventured to our next luxurious destination; where we had our first glass of wine, relaxed by the pool and enjoyed moroccan massages. It makes sense after a night out camping that Rough Tours would save the best for last.
Our final day of the Saharan tour was yet another long car ride through the Andes, where we all purchased Argan Oil, explored the Hollywood sites of many famous movies, then got dropped off at our final destination: Marrakesh. Marrakesh was similar to Fez, but had much more of a newer city feel. Like many of the other cities, we only spent a full day in Marrakesh as we had to return back home to a responsibility of life called work.
While we didn’t get to visit the cities for as long as we would have liked, it was still really nice to experience a taste of Morocco. All cities were unique in their own way and I hope our future Mrs. was happy with how the whole trip panned out. We had so much fun exploring and traveling together; but most of all we enjoyed each others company, all to celebrate our dear friend Michele.
I hope you enjoyed my blog post of Michele’s Moroccan adventure and caught a glimpse into the Moroccan culture!! We had a blast! Thank you for reading.
With all my Love,
Beverley – xoxo
Three-E-Beverley 