We’ve just returned from a superb week in Morocco organised by Rendez-vous Marocain through Addicted to Travel - thanks, Rida. The riad they suggested - Riad Adika - in Marrakech was fantastic – a walk away from the centre through souks where there were only locals. Rida gave us all the freedom we wanted, while we knew that there was always someone available to help should we need it - we didn’t. We spent 5 nights here and 3 in Essaouira at the Madada, built into the old walls. It’s a wonderful laid-back town on the coast and totally different from the hustle of Marrakech. We wished we were in both places for much longer.To begin with we managed to get lost every time we ventured anywhere for a walk! Not that this was at all catastrophic and by the end of the holiday we were getting lost deliberately. Amazing. One wanders through narrow, covered alleys lined on both sides with small shops selling just all sorts of things – many of them made on the premises. Other things range from huge metal doors to chameleons and tortoises. There’s no space here to write about the dyers, the metalworkers, carpenters and all the other workers we watched.We ate a wide variety of food, including the fresh fish stalls in Essaouira and among the many stalls in the main square in Marrakech, set up every evening. We also ate at a small workers’ café wonderful lamb that had been cooking slowly all morning in the fire under a hammam. Surprisingly, the best meal of the trip in our riad in Marrakech. Haggling in Marrakech was great fun - ‘But my children will starve!’ ‘But MY children will starve!!’ etc, etc.We returned home with our luggage seriously over the limit with all we bought!We recommend it VERY HIGHLY! But go soon. We were told that tourism is expected to double over the next couple of years and everywhere there is building.
