Morocco at beginning of June

gill_81uk

Has anyone been to Morocco at end of May/beginning of June? We're considering going next year, and I was just wondering what the weather is like?

Ideally we would like a beach holiday, but don't really like overly commercialised resorts with lots of big hotels on the skyline. Where would you recommend?

lamzy

I recommed Essouira for a beach holiday in Morocco, it's very warm (about 30 degrees celcius in June) and it has lovely small markets and winding alleyways with stalls, a lot like Marrakech but a lot quiter and not too many tourists. Nevertheless, the locals respect the tourists and vice versa. The town has a good range of small, boutique hotels and as it is a windy sea-side town there are a lot of watersports such as windsurfing and surfing.

The shopping is quite good. You can get a lot of pottery and silver jewellery for much cheaper than Marrakech and the shop-owners can speak English and French. You could also try the town of Asilah which is just a little south of Tangier. It reminds me a bit of Greece with the white washed houses with bright blue doors. The beaches are nice and clean and it's great for kids. I would stay away from big sea side cities such as Casablanca and Tangier as they're quite polluted, noisy and very European.

I have been going to Morocco every year of my life (21 years) so I have a lot of knowledge about the country as my parents were born there. If you have any more questions then please reply as I would be happy to help!

roxalana

Gill, I'm not an experienced traveller and it sounds like lamzy probably knows his stuff.

I went to Morrocco to Agadir in June 06. In the end it was the best hol I have ever had, but I (and all the other people on the Firstchoice package) got a bit of a shock when we arrived!

Firstchoice had sold it as being the same as Spain/Greece to a plane full of people requesting girly beach holidays, eating out and drinking and failed to mention how it being a largely Muslim country might affect these plans!!! Admittedly it was my (and everyone elses) geographical ignorance that caused the problem, but I believe it was still a little cheeky on firstchoices part...

Agadir was ok in that it had a beach & icecream was about 30p!! But due to the 1960s earthquake it did lack a bit of the Morrocan charm I was expecting. It wasn't a problem to drink in hotel bars/restaurants but a kind local did explain the reason we were stared at in the only alcohol serving bar in Agadir was that the only women that came in were prostitutes...
I think a lot of people who flew with us struggled to find enough to do in Agadir for a week.

I would recommend getting lonley planet/rough guide from your local library and seeing what might suit your tastes - maybe travelling round a few places? We found supratours coaches were reliable, comfy (good airconditioning!) and v cheap (It was about £5 single for Agadir - Marrakech).

We do recommend a couple of days in Marrakech if you do want to get away from the beach for a bit.