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EIT private classic tour of Morocco

My wife and I took EIT’s private classic 11-day tour of Morocco in April/May 2025. The tour was very well planned and organized and all the logistics were very smooth. Brian and Amy were extremely helpful and responsive throughout the planning process, and we appreciated Jill meeting us in Fes. Kamal was an excellent driver; he was very attentive to making sure we were comfortable on the long drives, and his explanations of the sights and of Moroccan culture helped make those drives fun and interesting. I like taking lots of pictures and appreciated his extra efforts to find good photo-ops for me. He was extremely reliable, always there at the exact time and place we had planned, and always encouraged us to call/text him any time 24/7 with any questions/requests.The city guides were very good too, particularly Thami, our guide for the Fes Medina, who was both informative and entertaining. Our guide in Volubilis and our group guide at the Hassan II Mosque were also very good. We enjoyed walking around the Fes Medina so much that in retrospect we wished we had requested to spend a second day there instead of our day trip to Volubilis and Meknes. Our one negative experience was the high-pressure sales tactics used by the salesman at the rug store that Thami took us to, particularly his attempts to play on my wife’s guilt for supposedly not wanting to support the divorced and single women who make the rugs.All the riads that EIT chose were beautiful. We particularly enjoyed the food at Riad Myra in Fes and the early morning view of the desert from the rooftop of Riad Madu.But without question our favorite part was our camel ride in the Sahara Desert. Our cameleer was very helpful, and we were very lucky with the weather and saw a beautiful sunset over the desert, which we're told isn’t always the case as sandstorms aren’t uncommon. Contrary to our fears the camel ride was smooth and comfortable.Other stops included Rissani, where our local guide gave us a glimpse of how the indigenous people in the less developed areas of Morocco live, Ait Benhaddou, which made for great picture-taking but we could have benefited from having a local guide with expertise in the historical and cultural significance, and Atlas Studios, which wasn’t really our thing but probably would be fun for fans of “Game of Thrones” and movies like “Gladiator” or “The Mummy”.Our one disappointment was we didn’t feel we saw enough of Marrakech, mainly because my wife signed up for a cooking class that turned out to be more than 5 hours long and included a lot of wasted time while the teacher waited on customers in the restaurant. In retrospect we wish we had skipped the class and Atlas Studios and used that time to see more of Marrakech. We did enjoy Jardin Majorelle and the Yves St. Laurent Museum.A couple of other considerations: Tipping was always a source of stress for us as Morocco is very much a tipping culture but it was challenging to obtain enough small bills. EIT provided a helpful list of tipping guidelines, but it would also be helpful if they could provide more guidance on where to get small change. Also, meals are very slow in Morocco: a full sit-down lunch could take 1.5 hours or more out of one’s sightseeing schedule. In such cases we would have preferred, in retrospect, to just have a snack and use the extra time to see additional sights or arrive at our destination earlier.

Date of experience: Apr 23, 2025