peek of this week's episode.
Marrakesh, because Marrakesh was crazy. Marrakesh was, we were like, you know, just like stimulus overload all the time. Like there's people going everywhere, doing all sorts of different stuff.
Scott.
And I'm Melissa.
And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do or those who want to learn more about travel or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our first-hand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth. Today, we will be embarking on a trip that has been at the top of my bucket list for quite some time. Although we have visited locations close to Morocco, we've never been on its shores. Join us as we chat with our friend Ashlyn about her experiences planning and visiting Morocco. She will be sharing how she decided where to go, what to see, and where to stay. So pack your bags and let's head towards our first destination on the African continent.
reasons why this destination is important to us. Firstly, it's been on our bucket list for quite a while. Secondly, we're planning a visit in October as a part of our African safari. We were considering Morocco on the front end of our trip for a few days. Hence, we wanted to talk to Ashlyn about the process that she used to plan her trip and some of her experiences while in the country.
so thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Ashlyn about her trip. As a young person, she took the initiative to plan the trip and work with travel partners to make it happen. Let's hear from Ashlyn and afterwards we'll summarize the interview and share some insights that we have gained as we plan this portion of our
joined today by a friend of ours, Ashlyn, and Ashlyn has actually been to one of the places that is on our bucket list. Matter of fact, this place has been so plaguing to me. I've even been to the point where our phone said, welcome to Morocco, but yet we've never been there. And so Ashlyn, thank you for joining us today. And we want to just dive in, hear a little bit about your story around Morocco, and then, you know, let you just kind of tell us all about the things that you did, where you guys went, the experiences, the food, every bit of it. We want to hear about it. Yeah,
thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
Yeah. So why don't you start by just telling us a little bit about why Morocco? Where did the inspiration for Morocco come from? I think
as we were talking about before we started recording, I have always been interested in history. I was a model UN in high school and was obsessed with that. So the international community is something that I've always found very interesting. And then going to law school, you know, being surrounded by a bunch of history nerds every day, it's something that's very much in my blood. And so I think part of the reason I picked Morocco is because it's so different from what we're used to every day here in the US. You know, it's, when you go to Europe, Europe is a little bit closer to us, closer to home. And there definitely is an aspect of culture shock and the little things that happen in Europe. I wanted to go somewhere that was so different from the way that we live and just kind of experience how other people live across the globe, you know, because you have these ideas of, you know, what it might be like, but it really is truly astonishing to see it, you know, yourself and be there and experience it and so that's kind of what I wanted to go for when I was planning.
Yeah. Well, so I think this is an important part, Melissa, is to help everybody understand Ashlyn is currently in law school and you did this as I think a senior trip out of high school, but it was a little bit delayed because of COVID.
but it was a little
My dad had maybe not the best move on his part, but he had promised all of us, you know, anywhere you want to go in the world after high school, you know, I'll take it. And, you know, for me, I was like, we're going to Morocco. And he was like, oh, no, we're not. Anywhere
Anywhere but Morocco, right?
Morocco, right?
in him and so he was like i was saying earlier very afraid just safety wise in you know because it is so different from the u.s it's not like something he knows a lot about and that he feels like he can you know help us out with if we get in a sticky situation because he doesn't know the language or the culture the traditions anything like that you know so he was very hesitant to let me plan this trip but i ended up doing a ton of research and I found a travel agency that seemed really awesome. And part of his stipulation of us going was that we have someone there that spoke the language. And so just talking back and forth with them, we had arranged a guide to come with us the whole time and that kind of got him on board. But yeah, I did plan most of it. I had a ton of help from the travel agency though uh it was oddly travel i don't know if you're familiar with
not familiar with them and so are they stateside are they where they
not familiar
located in
i want to say boston somewhere up north but the thing i really liked about them was you know i got on the phone with them and they had connected me to somebody who was from morocco and so she was a travel agent working out of boston but from morocco and she told me a lot like the company pays for them to go on these trips every year and to go through the itineraries they make for people and you know make sure they're good and so like she like, had been to all these places I was talking about. I was like, yes, that one's good. That one's bad. You know, you can do this, but not that. Like very, very helpful and insightful. It's always good to talk to someone who's been there, as I'm sure you both know.
Yes, absolutely. You have to get that firsthand. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So that was super helpful. I don't want to take too much credit for myself because they
a lot well yeah but you you took the initiative right to like find the travel company was it was it something so like how easy was that i guess or how like how did you end up finding them it
up finding them it was just a few you know google searches i um when i was looking originally to plan the trip on my own i had ended up going to the website anyway, because I was just looking for ideas, you know, things to do in Morocco of like the best cities to go to and, you know, where the best routes would be to, you know, get to the country. So I'd end up stumbling across them anyway. And then when my dad was saying, you know, we need to have somebody there with us, I was like, knew exactly who to
So that's really important. And we talk about that a lot. It's part of traveling to somewhere that you're not familiar with, that speaks a different language, has lots of different customs, that it's important to have someone local who really understands how to navigate all of that system. And we had that with us in Ecuador when we traveled to the Galapagos. Someone met us at the airport. They helped us get all of our paperwork ready because there was certain things that we needed to go on to the Galapagos. And then they shuttled us through the security lines more quickly and said, oh, you need to go over here and all of these different things. And that's very helpful for people who are traveling, especially when you're traveling to somewhere that you may struggle with communication and things like that.
Absolutely. Yeah. One of my friends, one of his friends went to Morocco and had a completely different experience than we had. We felt very very safe the whole time our guide was awesome but she had gone it was her and like a few others it was a very small group and they didn't have a guide and she ended up getting mugged so there are definitely you know two sides yeah
know i i'd say that if you go somewhere looking for trouble you can find it it's everywhere that you go. And you just have to always be careful and safe when you're traveling.
this your
your first trip outside the U.S.?
I mean, we had been on a few trips just around the U.S., like the Virgin Islands. I think we had gone on a cruise to Mexico, stuff like that, but very close to home. And then we had been on a trip to France my junior year of high school it was a school trip sponsored by our orchestra for the 75th anniversary of d-day which was super fun we got to go to normandy and paris and you know all those good places but morocco was the first it was it was our first like i would say like real international trip you know what i mean like paris wasn't really planned by us, you know, that was all kind of taken care of by somebody else. And then obviously the Virgin Islands and Mexico are so close to home. It's almost in the States, you know, it feels similar, but.
for sure. So I have a question about the planning. So how much of like, like where you went and what you did, did like did you already like have some research and make suggestions to them or did they pretty much just lay everything out and some of those things were on there or how did that
on there or how did that work so I had like a list of cities I wanted to go to and a list of things I wanted to do in those cities and I I pretty much came to them I said I want to go like here here here here and some of those places they were like that is way too far away you're going to need to like get on a plane and that's like not possible they kind of worked with me and like prioritizing things i wanted to do and you know cutting off a few of the things that were just like super far away and not doable because morocco is a big country it doesn't you know mercator's map obviously plagues it a little bit but it doesn't seem like that big of a country and obviously the u.s is so big we're like yeah it'll be fine but it's it's a big country we did a lot of driving in morocco to get to all these different places but a lot of different areas and different like i guess biomes so definitely worth it to kind of jump around i think well
let. Well, let's jump in right there. You know, where did you go when you were in Morocco? And what was, maybe if we even just step back and say, what was that list of things that you wanted to do? And then what did you end up doing? But
let. Well, let's jump
to do?
originally wanted to do sort of the north part of Morocco, which is, you know, closer to Spain, like Mediterranean area, and then kind of travel down and do you know marrakesh casablanca the sahara and stuff like that and it ended up just being like it was a lot it was a lot of driving we were just you know spending much time in the car i was like it's just not worth it you know fly all the way over here and spend all your time in the car so we ended up just doing casablanca marrakeshch, Swera, and then the Atlas Mountains, which were all great, great locations. Casablanca is, a lot of people think is the capital, but it's not, it's Rabat. But Casablanca is one of the bigger cities there. And it was probably my least favorite overall location. But I would say if you're traveling to Morocco it is a must go just for the Hassan to mosque it's one of the only mosques that non-islam people can go into or Muslim people can get into and so obviously that is a plus but it's also just stunning I mean it is mind-boggling it's one of those things you see pictures of it and you're like oh that looks really nice it looks really pretty you get there and it is like eight times as big as you thought it was. And everything
there is hand carved, you know, being non-Muslim, how were you able to visit that? I guess it's similar to Alhambra that we visited.
it's similar
Yeah.
What were you going to say?
What were you going to say?
I was just going to say, yeah, it's the only mosque in Morocco that you can do. Like, you can go and see the outside of some of the other ones, but it's the only one you can go in but it is i mean it is beautiful it is beautiful but then we went to marrakesh and marrakesh is your more i guess traditional like moroccan experience you know like what you see the pictures of you know it's near the sahara so and they call it the red city all the buildings are kind of reddish almost clay colored and you know these are like winding streets and markets and just people everywhere you know very hustle and bustle but it was i mean that was probably the biggest culture shock moment is you you know we get to marrakesh and our our amazing driver we called him our magic school bus driver because we would be walking through and
it is
you know know, the van just shows up. It's just there when you need it to be there. But so he would drop us off and we'd be walking through the markets with our guide. And all of a sudden, there's the van and ready to go. But I remember when we get to our hotel, we're going through this alleyway. It looks super scary. We're all like, what did we sign up for? What is going on and he opens this door and it's just this beautiful like courtyard it's like everything in marrakesh is very like it feels very like hidden and like you know you're going through and then you like find little like enclaves and stuff like that so that was a super fun thing to sort of explore you know the city was awesome but we get to the hotel and at night time we're all sitting
and the adan starts playing which is muslim called a prayer and so you know they play it from all the mosques to let everyone know that it's time to pray and so we're just sitting there at night and all these mosques just like one by one start like you know they start playing the adan and it was it was crazy it was like the it was the most like mind-blowing moment ever it was beautiful it was like awesome but it was it was very different you know from from what we're used to and then we went to suera which is on the on the ocean on the coastline and that is i guess they call it more of like an oasis area that's where a lot of argan oil is made is in that sort of region and so we went there and that was a really, really nice change from Marrakesh because Marrakesh was crazy. Marrakesh was, we were like, you know, just like stimulus overload all the time. Like there's people going everywhere, doing all sorts of different stuff, you know, just all this crazy stuff happening. And then we get to Swear and it's like this beautiful beach city with like, you know, a nice breeze. Marrakesh was so hot marrakesh was it was it was really hot you know we're in georgia and it was hot but then swera had this you know nice breeze coming in everyone was really relaxed and chill and it's a smaller city so you know you're less likely to get lost and so our guide kind of let us wander off on our own a little bit in swera because you know nothing too bad was going to happen there but so that was a really nice change that was probably my favorite place we went overall it was just it was really relaxing and but also still a lot of fun cultural aspects and things to do like in in Sperr we went to the fish market it's a big fishing city so we went there and we you know picked out some fish with our guide and then we went we picked out some fish with our guide. And then we went and we picked out some vegetables from the market and we took him to a local chef and he cooked us dinner. And so that was a really, really awesome experience. Just being able to go in the markets and try our hands at bartering, which the guide took over eventually and stuff like that. But that was awesome. And then then after that we went to the Atlas Mountains which is where a lot of Berber villages are and that was a super super fun experience as well we ended up going on a hike just like through the valley in the mountains which was labeled as easy and I didn't think it was too bad but let me tell you my dad complaining the whole time grandparents complaining my sisters they were like it is hot we were walking what did we sign up for what's going on but it ended up being so worth it because we got to go to these berber villages and we got to stay and have lunch with one of the the local families they made lunch for us and we got to like see their house and just kind of how they lived and that was also like one of my i don't know best life experiences ever that was that was awesome it was great but obviously i don't know if that will be as available to you when you guys are traveling obviously because of the earthquakes which happened there i know that all the villages just i mean got completely destroyed with those earthquakes.
so interesting because those two experiences that you talk about were something that you really needed, I guess, the travel agency and the guide. Absolutely. Right. Working together to allow you to do that. If we just showed up and said, okay, how do we do that? Like, it would be very
Yeah. I mean, I highly, highly recommend guide. You can even, we had a guide for our hike that was different from the guide we had for the rest of it, because I want to say that the Berbers speak a different language. You might have to fact check me on that. But so he, we ended up getting a separate guide who was like from the area basically. And he was only around for the hike so i'm sure you could hire a guide for those short sort of excursions if you wanted to you know it doesn't have to be a nine day long you know tour guide sure so we're thinking
we probably are going to have like three days in morocco right this is just going to be dipping our toes into morocco as part of a bigger trip because we're going to leave from morocco right this
to leave from morocco
going to be dipping our toes into morocco as part of a bigger trip because we're going to leave from morocco go to kenya we're going to do a 10 days in kenya and then leave from there and go down to south africa and down to cape town so you
know we
we don't have a lot of time to spend long periods of time anywhere other than Kenya and the safari. So given the fact that we maybe got, you know, two to three days, what would you recommend?
Well, that's going to be an awesome trip. First off, that sounds amazing. But I think, I think maybe doing two days in Marrakesh and then maybe doing the Atlas mountains. One thing I really wanted to do that I didn't end up being able to do, which I think is a big part of why a lot of people go to Morocco is the Sahara desert tours. They do overnight tours in the desert. You can go out there. I think they do like ATVs or camels or horses. You can go out there and they have these camps all set up and you can stay overnight in the Sahara. And that was something I like really, really wanted to do, but obviously with the family restrictions, wasn't able to, but they say that the stars at night in the desert are supposed to be mind blowing. If you're going to Kenya and you're going on a safari, you might also have a similar experience there, but I would didn't do it, but that was on my bucket list of things maybe that you'd want to do. And you can do that out of Marrakesh. So maybe spending two days in Marrakesh and then either spending a day in Suera or a day in the Atlas Mountains, I'd say would be a good start, I think.
Ashlyn, spell that for us if you have that handy. Suera?
Oh, I think it's E-S-S-A i a okay just in case somebody's listening
if they're like me like i'm always like yeah on my google maps and marking it and i would be like okay i don't even know where that was definitely
if they're like me like i'm always like yeah on my google maps
where that was definitely one i had to like google search like how do i pronounce this before we went because i just had you know no clue it doesn't look anything like it's pronounced and i'm sure i'm you know still doing a horrible job but I'm trying my best yes no
you did I'm sure you did great that's how we are always are too and so tell us a little bit like how long was the trip overall and then how long did you spend in each of those places that you talked yeah I think
yeah I think we went for nine days I think I had it written down but we we spent, gosh, it was, we landed, we spent overnight in Casablanca and then we went to Marrakesh for, I want to say three-ish days, but God, I don't remember. But then we went to, I don't know, was it Suera for a few days, well, like three days. And then I want to say like one or two in the Atlas mountains, just enough to, you know, kind of stay there, go on the hike and then head back to Marrakesh for the
Okay. Awesome. Awesome. So like two to
like two to three days in each
Okay. Well, I'm glad you, yeah, talked about just like Marrakesh and it being overwhelming and stuff like that. One time we were in Lisbon and didn't realize that like it was not that it wasn't so close, but it was so easy to get a flight there or whatnot. And Scott, really, that was, that was time number two about our being so close the first time we were on a cruise went to gibraltar and you kind of you crossed right there right and scott was like oh princess welcome
you could look you could stand on the rock of gibraltar look across and see morocco wow that was awesome
so but the second time he was
second time
change our plans we're gonna go second time he was like, maybe we could just change our plans. We're going to go to Lisbon for the weekend. Maybe we'll just change our plans and do this. And I'm just like, I haven't done any research, Scott. I just can't imagine like flying to Marrakesh and then just showing up. And so I think you've confirmed that it would be like, you know, and then we'd have like one day, right. It would just be like, I think that's just too much overwhelming. I need to, I need to plan a little bit.
like flying
us a little bit about your accommodations in each place, right? Because like you mentioned, you mentioned as far as go in and it's these beautiful courtyards, you know, these private pools and fountains and all the tile work and all that kind of stuff. That is what I, you imagine, right? When you stay at places in Morocco. So talk a little bit about where you stayed and if you have names and if not, we can, we can get those from you and okay, we
we can get those
Yeah. So we stayed La Doge in Casablanca. That was, all of the hotels we stayed at were, I'm going to just preface this, like they were all so unique and different and awesome. The travel, I could not give enough credit to the travel agency. They really set us up with the hotels. But so you say that La Doge in Casablanca, which was, they had these different sort of 1920s themed rooms. And so the one we were staying, they all had, you know, different names of, I don't know, people from movies in the 20s and 30s and stuff like that. But the one we had was all like pink roses and it was very fun it was a very quirky unique place to stay one thing about morocco is when you stay at a hotel well i say hotel we say that all rads which are sort of like house converts if you will to hotels not necessarily like you know the marriott like we would imagine but so it's you know it's a smaller place with you know more localized staff it feels but you get there and they all want to serve you tea they all want to serve you mint tea so you sit down and they give you this hot mint tea and it's hot outside and my mom was like you know where's our ice sweet tea see from the cellar like this is not what we need out of here in this heat but it was it was delicious a lot of dentists say like that moroccan tea will like make your teeth fall it is so sweet it is so much sugar like they'll be right at home here in the south with the sweet tea but so you sit down and serve tea yeah it just needs some ice but they'll serve you your tea and they you know get all your bags for you up in your room you know just very i don't know they're very kind to foreigners you know they
you sit down and serve tea
definitely want people to enjoy the country and in the culture obviously gets a bad rep here in the west but uh they were all you know super kind of accommodating so yeah ladoge and then it was omaha and Marrakesh, which was the one I mentioned with the beautiful courtyard, you know, it opens up and you're like, where, you know, it actually, it has, you walk into the sort of lobby and then there's like a false wall almost that the hosts opened up and it was, it was just beautiful. I'll have to send you all the pictures as well. yeah that would be awesome we would love to yeah share yeah and then that one had a rooftop we had rooftop access from our room so we could go sit up on the roof at night and that was really really beautiful and then in suera it was i think it was here blue definitely not pronouncing that right it's french but it was another rad and it was i mean super super tall very different from the other ones we stayed in more like a traditional hotel almost but that was that was dad's favorite because it was it was very nice very clean great service beautiful beautiful hotel and then can we say that i think it was caspa and gore and atlas and atlas mountains and that was that was definitely my favorite it didn't have like And then can we say that I think it was Kasbah Angkor in in the Atlas, Atlas Mountains. And that was definitely my favorite. It didn't have like traditional air conditioning. So got a lot of complaints there. But I really enjoyed that one just because it was, you know, in the mountains. It had this like beautiful pool. You could go and sit and look at the view. And because we had so many people people we had our own like little tower so that was kind of fun but that was a really neat place to stay very
yeah that's really neat yeah Scott would uh that would be not having air conditioner or whatever that would yes those
yes those little window units but definitely wasn't enough for the whole
Oh, gotcha. I guess so that we'll have like, what time of the year did you visit? And then how does that compare like to other times of the year and the weather and stuff like that?
I definitely can't speak for the other times of the year, but we went during the summer, like the early-ish summer. It was definitely hot, especially in Marrakesh. Marrakesh was extremely hot. But then in Esuera, the breeze, it was like in the 70s, it was in the 60s and 70s. Like we got a little cold at times at night. So it definitely fluctuates a lot with, you know, the day and night, the temperatures do. But overall, warmer temperatures, 70s, 90s definitely looser fabrics were you know what everybody wore and I would definitely say like windbreakers as well are always a good option especially because it does get colder
and as far as women any any restrictions in dress or things that you had to do in particular situations? So I know when
I was researching this, it seemed so daunting. Like everywhere I was looking up, they were like, you have to dress modestly. You know, people are going to like scream at you and all this stuff. That is so not true. You definitely should dress modestly just because I think it's a part of the culture and, you know, you're visiting someone else's country you should do their traditions but you know i saw french tourists walking around in booty shorts and tank top and nobody said anything to them maybe somebody should have but nobody did and so it definitely isn't as scary as people make it out to be on the internet, people are very kind there. You know, they're wanting you to have the best time possible. But I would say for the mosques, they do require, you know, you cover your shoulders, you cover most of your legs, you know, your stomach, your chest, everything like that. You don't have to cover your hair or anything, that's not something that they ask. I would say for like day to day though, mostly what we wore were sort of lighter looser pants and then either like like a t-shirt or like a long sleeve sort of lightweight t-shirts something like that but one thing that i think needs to be emphasized is that having good shoes in morocco there is a lot of walking i mean it's a lot of those roads are so old you you cannot access them through a car or whatever. There's going to be a significant amount of walking around, which is honestly the best way to get to know the cities anyway. So definitely some good shoes.
Sure. And would you recommend like close-to-shoes tennis shoes or sandals or anything? Yeah, tennis shoes worked well for me, I'd say.
bit about the food. I mean, what was the
Yeah, so the food was great. I loved the food. It was very up my alley. A lot of fish. They do chicken and tagines a lot. So that was a popular one amongst the family. We had a lot of tagine. In fact, by the end of it, everybody was so sick of tagine. But if you're into fish, the fish there is very, very good, especially in Azuera by the sea. I mean, that fish was awesome.
Will you just explain what tagine is for somebody who might be listening and might not know?
and might not know? It's like this clay pot, and I believe they cook it over coals and they it's like chicken and like a stew with pickled lemons which is a flavor I didn't even know existed until I had it I like bit into it I was like I have never tasted anything like this it's almost like like a sweet sort of taste it's really really interesting it was little in my mind the first time I had it I was, this is so beyond what I'm used to,
know? Wow. Yeah, that's, I haven't, I haven't heard of that. So yeah, I've heard that that's part of it. That's interesting.
yeah, I've heard
And so when you talked about you going to the market and then they, them preparing the food, what was, was it that similar dish or did they do something different?
different? No, we just had fish. It was just sort of like a grilled fish that we had picked out from the market with some vegetables and things like that. But that was a really fun experience. The fish market was crazy. I mean, they just had these like carts of fish that were wheeling around. And my family was so grossed out. It smelled quite bad. It smelled
so in the evenings would
you mostly eat at like restaurants or would you
you mostly eat at like restaurants
the hotel or mostly restaurants yeah we our tour guide was super like he knew it seemed like he knew everybody but he knew you know like all the good restaurants so if we were in the mood for something you know like hey can you take us to like this kind of food especially like in the bigger cities i think one night was my parents anniversary and so we ended up doing like a like a sit down like italian sort of dinner for them but we went to a few different restaurants that had i'm trying to think i don't think i remember the names of any of them i'm sure i have them somewhere in this dinner i can send to you but we went to this one restaurant that was in this old spanish fort which was really neat that was fun to see it was i think if that was in casablanca i believe but that was a really fun one
so did you you didn't have to have like reservations ahead of time? It sounds like y'all just kind of said, this is what we want. Or was there times where you had planned ahead?
you had planned ahead? I honestly don't know because I think the agency set up most of it. I do feel like most of it was our guide would set it up for us kind of on the spot. Just because a lot of times you'd be like, hey, look, I have like these options for dinner. Or we'd be like, you know, we're hey, kind of in the mood the spot just because a lot of times you'd be like hey look i have like these options for dinner or we'd be like you know hey we're kind of in the mood for this you know and he would help us out there in the atlas mountains though obviously not many restaurants so we ate with in the barber village for lunch and then for dinner and for breakfast we had at the hotel okay
was the food so when you ate with the family, what was that meal like?
the food so
It was a lot of like fruits and vegetables mostly is what I remember, especially because we were on the hike. That fresh fruit was like, that was a constant. But I think there was tagine as well with the chicken.
is there anything else that you can think of that we haven't asked you about that if someone was visiting, they really needed to know?
like so, so different from the US. I cannot emphasize how awesome that culture shock moment was. It was a mind blowing experience. I highly, highly recommend it to everybody. You know, just that different perspective on how other people live outside the U.S. is really valuable, I think.
Well, one of the things we always ask Melissa at the end of an episode, especially one that has to do with the destination, is what do you need to pack? So give us a rundown on a packing list real quick.
Yeah, I definitely mentioned a little bit of it earlier, but a lot of lightweight fabrics, lots of loose fitting pants and shirts. If you're in Marrakesh, it is hot. You're not going to want something heavy on at all. Dressing modestly is important even for men at times. And then I would say like some good shoes. Oh, like backpacks, definitely one of those backpacks that either locks or a fanny pack or under the shirt, something like that just as like an extra layer of safety. You know, in those markets it can get super crowded and hectic and you know, you're too busy looking at where am I walking, what's going on? You somebody know, could just walk up right behind you and you you're know, too busy looking at where am I walking? What's going on? You somebody know, could just walk right behind you and grab your phone. So definitely one of those sort of safety feature bags, I'd say is also very important.
Yeah. That's good to know. I did
want to ask a little bit about, because I believe I remember seeing on Instagram that shopping was a big part of your trip in America. Oh Shopping yes. is
Shopping yes. is a big part of wherever trip in America. yes. Oh, Shopping is a big part of wherever my family goes. It was always shopping.
It was always
Yeah, so our guide took us, you know, obviously through the markets, got to go to a bunch of different like stalls, but he also knew, you know, a lot of really good artisans to go to. And so he took us to this one, he was almost like an antique collector. And we went there and he had all this beautiful stuff from different like riots around Morocco. And mom ended up finding these, I think they were windows, like old, old windows from a riot and bought those and took those back home. And now they're in our house but
oh that's very cool yeah no
no they're beautiful I want to say they're from Fez which is up north yeah I believe and then I got a rug which was on my list of sort of things to do in Morocco was buy a rug right and so you know I told our tour guide like hey really would like to purchase a rug. And he took us. That was an awesome experience in Marrakesh to this rug artisan. And he, you know, had a bunch of people and he'd say like, you know, what are you looking for? And he would just like have these men throw out this rug and it would roll out to you. It was, you know, just rug after rug. And it was, that was a crazy experience. I've never seen so many rugs in my life. So many rugs in that man's, in that man's shop. But yeah, I found one that I love and it's sitting in my living room now. So.
Nice. Very nice.
nice. Yeah.
do have three questions that we like to end every interview with. And so we'll hit these kind of rapid form, but, you know, what is your favorite place that you've ever visited? And I think I know the answer, but I'll let you tell me. It's
me. It's absolutely work. I mean, that is, that was a once in a lifetime trip. And
then any one of the specific places?
say Suera just because of sort of the situation we were coming from. You we were know, so tired after Marrakesh and it was just such of sort of the situation we were coming from you know we were so tired after Marrakesh and it was just such a breath of fresh air and it was you know that was I guess more of the vacation side of the vacation you know less of the running around and more of the like you know sitting by the beach and having dinner and so that that was probably one of my favorite places we
what's the top spots on your bucket list. So these are places you haven't been to yet, but they're definitely up there on your bucket list.
they're definitely up there on your bucket list. Well, before I wanted to go to Morocco, I really wanted to go to Turkey that got vetoed, but Turkey is absolutely on my bucket list. I would love to do India. I think India would be amazing. And then actually the Vietnam, I think would be a really fun place to go.
Well, we're, we're definitely talking about a Southeast Asia trip at some point.
some point.
And so, you know, I think you can't go to Southeast Asia and not go to, go to Vietnam.
we have another friend who, go ahead. No, I was going to say it's like the most, one of the most biodiverse countries. So, I mean, it's supposed to
yeah we have another friend who she talks about it too like vietnam you know just she just absolutely loves it as well and so that's very interesting because those are three places that a lot of people would not mention i think right so you you have some you know typical things you hear over and over again so that's very interesting you have some places i think right so you that you have some you know typical things you hear over and over again so that's very interesting you have some places i think that's
i think that's what i like of almost just the i think that my favorite part of traveling in general is the culture shock you know and just like like this like it's so different it like almost blows your mind and like definitely experience that morocco and you know would love to experience it again you know but you'll
get that when you go to
think so i've got a friend and his family's from india and you know we're in law school together and he brought it up like hey end of law school india trip and he's like that exactly that's what i want to do
i've done kind of central india and the southern most part of india i've never been into the north. You I want know, to take Melissa
And Taj Mahal is definitely
my list of places to visit. that's what I've heard is that it's supposed to Yeah, be super awesome. I had a friend who went recently and the pictures
just, beautiful. mean, Yeah. Okay. Last question is where
next that's a good question i have a few friends who are currently in school over at the uk and so i kind of made a promise to them that i would go and visit at some point so likely the uk if not my youngest sister has dominion over the next family vacation when she graduates. And she really would like to go to Greece and Italy, sort of Mediterranean area. So I think that is probably our next
You think I can convince Mark to adopt us into the family?
but yeah.
Those places.
We do love those places. All those are great choices. And like you not as much of a culture but yet even in the right? said, shock, UK, There are things that are right? different, The way that they say things are different. Where do they use? Just lots of different things. So anywhere you right? travel, You can have.
You can have. Yeah, no, absolutely.
You should
In the UK? That would be an experience. all my friends Yeah, over there don't drive. you They, just know, take the tube. For good reasons.
if they're in Well, now, in London. London, especially, yes, I'll let you turn the car into London and parked it and all that good stuff. yeah. And, I didn't get any tickets. You didn't get any tickets in London.
now, in London. London, especially, yes,
I didn't get any
That's good.
Well, Ashlyn, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. I think you've given us a lot of great ideas that we need to now go back and, you know, I've spent a lot of time on the Safari part of it, but we haven't spent a lot of time on the Morocco and South Africa piece yet. So I'm anxious to take this information and now go and, you know, maybe hone in our search a little bit more.
And I'll absolutely send over all of the materials I have, which is quite a lot.
be, yeah, we really appreciate it. We really appreciate all this information. Oh
it. We really appreciate all this information. Oh yeah. I hope you guys have a great trip. I mean, it sounds like you already have a wonderful bit set up with South Africa and Kenya.
Melissa, I think after listening to Ashlyn, we might need to save Morocco for another trip where we're going to have more time. I've been looking. The expenses of getting there are proving to be greater than the benefit of only spending a few days there. than the
I totally agree. I totally Yeah, agree. And I really think that just after all the things she has told us, like it would be just so hard to just go to Marrakesh or just choose Casablanca or just choose Azuera. Like you really need to experience the differences that she talked about and then just have time to enjoy being there and explore as well.
and I'm also finding out that, like, I thought it would be easy to move throughout the continent of Africa. It's so easy to move through Europe. It's so easy to move through the U.S. I just didn't think that it was going to be so difficult to move from one country to another in Africa.
and what you found is, like even when, if we can, you know, get to Morocco, then it's very difficult then from to get to Morocco to Kenya without like multiple stops, right? Like you're listening at least two or three or more like stops. And then it's very cost prohibitive as
But when I say stops, I'd stop like in Turkey, not even in Africa. But when I say I'd
So I guess you not knowing like you how people would travel. just, know, how, know, So like this is this might be a possibility. something, oh, I that's a great right? So, mean, point, For our listeners to I think like, that's why we always say like you book your air first. Like that is always the first step. Because if you can't make that piece work affordably or with point or whatever it is, right, you're trying to accomplish, then the rest of the trip just isn't going to make sense. So that's why that's always the first step.
I just don't know that it's going to work this time to go to Morocco, which that really pains me because it's once again so close, but yet so far.
Elusive. So, I mean, that really gives us the opportunity. The other thing that I wanted to talk about here is the fact that I really think this is one of those destinations where it really benefits you to work with a travel partner, work with an agency or somebody from Morocco or someone like that, right, who can really help you maximize your time, your transportation, and then just really nail down what it is that you hope to accomplish, right? That's true in the Galapagos. That is true for an African safari. And I think this is just another trip. And so Ashlyn's given us a great, you know, somebody to look look at somebody to talk to and and then just also I think because she did that then just having the experiences that she got to have like she mentioned going and getting to meet the the Berber family and you know have some time there where if you just are completely on your own. So, and I think that's why really, you know, we mentioned in the episode or in the interview when we talked to her, but, you know, not just wanting to fly from Lisbon that time and just go in it and say, okay, what are we going to do? Like, I feel like just that would have been so overwhelming. And I think this is just a great example of when you might partner with somebody to help you get the information. And
that's a really good thing about all these locations that we talk to, or rather that we talk about, is that they're so unique in the ways that you might plan them. You know, we've had so many interviews and conversations recently with people who, you know, they did the same things we do. They go online, they start looking for flights, they get the flight, then they look for a hotel, and then, you know, then once they get the hotel, they figure out what are they going to do while they're there. And I just don't feel that Morocco is one of those places where you could do that.
Yeah, I agree.
did mention a few locations that we just weren't even familiar with. So I think on our radar, we had heard about Fez, we had heard about Marrakesh, and we had heard about Casablanca, but I didn't know anything about Eswara. Yeah.
then for her to say, that was a not-this place, right? That was something that she said, this has to be on the list. So that's always good to know. And that's why we want to do this and share this, right? So that you can, you know, hear other people's experiences and weigh those options and say, oh, yeah, let's, you know, let's definitely try to make that work too.
And then the other place was the Atlas Mountains. And, you know, that's where she talked about going and visiting the Berber families and having a meal with them and stuff like that. So I think it just will be to our benefit. Push Morocco out again, no matter how much it pains me to say that. And then do some research and put the time into it. And then when we do Morocco, we're going to do Morocco right. put the time into
right. Yeah. And it's interesting that you say that too, because, and I know we keep mentioning that Amazing Hotels, but we're really obsessed with that show. But they had an episode too, where he got to do that as well, right? He went, it was one of the families of somebody at the hotel, and he went to see where they live and go. Their their family they took a hike like ashlyn talked about and so you know if you're interested just kind of seeing what that would look like and seeing the scenery of that like you you could check that out so
know if you know this or not but when we're in the messiah morrow i believe that one of the nights we're going to go to visit with the messiah tribe
that, that's awesome. And I think that, again, that is a benefit of not just going to a place and doing everything on your own, right? Because then you have an opportunity to plan something like that. So, yeah, I'm super excited about that. Because I feel like that the people, and having experience with local people, and I know we've talked about that. We talked about the Bahamas episode, you know, and just getting to meet Krista and talk to her and then talk to, you know, just talking to different people and spending time with them is just such a big piece of the travel that we need to be incorporate more and be more aware of. So, yeah, I'm super excited about that.
Anything else on morocco you want to talk
about so i definitely think that the shopping there too i think for for anybody so it's interesting that she mentioned that but other people that i know who have been to morocco you know always about you know the textiles and the shopping and if they were one one person that comes to mind in particular they were doing this as part of a longer trip right and so that was the one place where they were like okay we're gonna buy some things and have some things shipped you know shipped home to our family and that will be there because i think that's a big i think that's a big piece of it and and having those things as as souvenirs yes but in a different way because then you incorporate them into your daily life. Kind of like we have all the Turkish towels that we brought home from Greece that we use on a daily basis. So I think that is big on my radar too.
in the photography, I've seen so many pictures recently of the spice markets and Marrakesh and stuff like that. I truly was looking forward to it. But I know that when we go, we're going to have an opportunity to see some amazing things. And I'm just going to continue to look forward to it.
Yeah, just all the colors, right? And then the sights and sounds. But yeah, having somebody to then take you through the market, you know, and help you navigate that.
Well, you know, sometimes that's how it works out when you're planning a trip. We're still going to do the safari, so that's something to look forward to. But once again, Morocco will have to wait.
when we were on our Mediterranean cruise at one point, I remember when we were on our Mediterranean cruise at one point and we were so close to being Morocco that our phone welcome to Morocco.
I actually
have a screenshot of that. As we were leaving the Portage of Raulter that popped up. And I think initially this was a way for me to check off the continent of Africa. You know, I had a I had a goal to reach all continents across the world. And because I didn't know a lot about Africa, I think Morocco was one of those easy little, you know, it was just across from Portugal, right? It's just a dip your toe in, check off Africa, and now you're done. But the more that we've learned about Africa, the more it's like we've got to spend more time there. If you have any suggestions on a short itinerary for Morocco, please send me an email, scott at sunshinetravelers.com, and let us know what you would suggest, as well as any recommendations on where to stay.
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