Once again Patricia and I find ourselves able to take a fall vacation to a place we have wanted to visit but thought we might not be able to: Morocco.
We had been planning to visit Scotland and drive around the Highlands and some of the islands on the West coast. Planing was well underway and we were looking forward to the trip–we both like Scotland a great deal–when something totally unexpected happened.
I won a prize! In early April I filled out a survey/vote for Kensington Tours, the company we used on our first trip to Turkey. Part of the incentive for the survey/vote was an entry into a drawing for a $5,000 travel prize. Of course I never expected to win. Patricia started getting calls from someone who wanted to speak with me about a prize I had won. She kept hanging up because she thought it was a scam. They finally spoke with me and I was pretty sure it was a scam but it turned out to be real: we had a prize for travel with Kensington but there was a tiny drawback. We had to use it this year. We thought about it long and hard and decided to use the prize to visit Morocco, a place we might not have otherwise justified.
With Kensington’s help, we have planned a very nice visit to Morocco. We will have a driver/guide for most of the trip and we will be able to stay in some very nice places. Just a list of the cities is exciting: Casablanca, Fes, Marrakech, Toubkal (the High Atlas Mountains), and Essaouira. I have posted an itinerary and a calendar so you can follow along with us if you are interested.
Our original plans had us spending a few days in Amsterdam because it was easy to get to and because Patricia had never been there. We will still do that before flying to Casablanca. Getting home from Casablanca was a little trickier than I thought it would be. So we decided to fly to Lisbon and spend a couple of days there before returning home.
I will add some maps before we go. As usual, I will try to post a little about what we have seen and some pictures while we are on the trip.
If you have any suggestions about what we should see in Amsterdam, Morocco, or Lisbon, leave a comment or send me an email. We have tons (not quite literally) of travel books, but first-hand guidance is always valuable.