Marrakesh by tour/solo, night/day
Guided tour travel organizes the details, but leaves you wanting more; solo travel lets you go after more, but leaves you with the details.
Tour vs. solo tourism is the question. Sometimes you do both, for better or worse.
Actually, both have appealing features, as long as you get back to the hotel safe. I visited Morocco on a guided tour with Intrepid Travel, and took a few extra days on my own in Casablanca and then in Marrakesh.
For the record, I felt very safe in Morocco, but you never know. While overseas you hear about crime back in the States, then wonder if it could happen where you’re traveling. Odds are you’re safer in many places overseas doing the same things you would be doing back home.
When our tour arrived in Marrakesh, our leader took us to the hotel, got us registered, then organized taxis to take us to the famous Jemaa el-Fnaa Square (see tweet above) for night time dining and entertainment. (For the record, the New Year arrive in Marrakesh six hours before in New York City.)
After dinner the group was tired and opted to go back to the hotel. Our leader led us to the city bus network, then showed us how to ride back to the hotel so we could return to the square on our own later.
No wandering the square after sunset that night.
After the tour ended a day later, I rode the city bus back to the square on a post-tour day in mid-May. It was 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40C) later that day. Just about no one was on the square, except for a snake charmer or two. Most of the square’s famous dining and shopping options are rolled out on carts as dusk looms.
I wandered the adjacent covered market stalls (there must be a million of them🤞), but eventually rode the bus back to the hotel’s air conditioning as the afternoon heat began to cook.
With an early flight to Lisbon the next day, there was no sunset on the square for me that night either. Good thing I went on the tour, which let me see both sides of the square. (Open this tweet below for more on Intrepid Travel, the company I toured Morocco with).