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Kase Im Licht posted:Planning a trip with some friends, tentatively looking at this summer. We originally wanted to do the spring when it would have been cheaper but it was tough to organize and now we're looking at paying a lot more. Oh well. Just need to make sure it's money well spent. I wouldn't recommend going to Morocco for less than a couple of days - Tangier is where you'll end up if you just go straight across from Spain, and it's sort of all of the bad aspects of Morocco with very few of the good aspects. If you can head out to Fez, I would consider Morocco worth visiting, for sure. Just be prepared for a much larger culture shock and an entirely different vibe from the rest of your Europe trip. Here's where we went, with some thoughts: 1. Fez - The medina is as ridiculous as the tour books say. Venice doesn't have anything on Fez in regards to getting lost in a city. The whole place feels like something out of a movie, it's really fairly incredible. The tanneries are a cool sight to see. Also, I would really recommend finding a guide, and getting them to show you around. It's a little sketchy, they're quite clearly getting paid off by the various shops they take you to, and it's important to haggle a price up front, but it's WAY more stressful than to be constantly harassed by other guides trying to lead you somewhere throughout the old city. If I had to choose between Marrakech and Fez, I'd probably choose Marrakech, but Fez is a bit more accessible from Tangier. 2. Marrakech - The medina, while not quite as ridiculous as Fez, is still a pretty amazing sight, and it has much more of a "market" vibe here than in Fez. It also has a few more modern conveniences - having something like a pizza place in the medina in Fez would be unthinkable, but it's normal in Marrakech. It's also a bit more tourist friendly - you don't have to haggle quite as aggressively, and you don't feel like you're as much of an odd person out (In Fez, you'd see maybe 2-3 other groups of tourists a day, in Marrakech they outnumber the locals). The Jamaa el Fna (the central square) is amazing. During the days you can buy trinkets and odd things, watch storytellers (in Arabic), see monkeys and snakes, and get the best orange juice you've ever tasted. At night the entire square is filled with restaurants that have cheap and amazingly good food (Mostly standard Moroccan fare, a few interesting delicacies like sheep's heads, and a really good cinnamon tea) 3. Merzouga - This place is remote. Like, really, incredibly remote. It's basically about 6-7 hotels backing straight onto the Sahara. Most of the hotels are semi-all-inclusive, meaning that your cheap room (20 euros a night for us) includes a really nice Moroccan breakfast and dinner, with an option to purchase a cheap lunch. It's really relaxing, a good place to unwind halfway through a hectic trip. You can also do a really cheap excursion where you head out into the Sahara on a camel, and stay the night in a Berber tent. The only downside is that the remoteness - you really need to budget a full day just to get down here and back.
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Mar 19, 2013 11:46
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TheLizard posted:No, you get a cab and take it an hour south to Asilah. You can absolutely do a few days in Morocco, but Tangier is a shithole and you want to get a cab to take you to Asilah. I haven't been to Asilah, but yeah, don't visit Tangier except as a transit point is something that can't be emphasized enough.
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Mar 19, 2013 14:49
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quote:I just booked a flight from London to Prague for late November, and one from Budapest back to London about 3 weeks later. I want to hit up Austria on my way between the two countries. Melk is a pretty cool daytrip from Vienna, and if you can take some time to do some exploring in the small towns up the Donau, all the better. Try to find a Heuriger around that area - they're Austrian wine bars that serve local wine and awesome charcuterie-type stuff, and the stuff in the Donau valley is way better than the ones you'll find near Vienna. The Melk monastery is pretty great too, if you're into the whole old, ridiculously baroque palace type thing. It's a pretty obvious spot, but don't leave Budapest without checking out the baths - preferably the morning after a long night of drinking. If you want something a little bigger than a daytrip, both Hallstatt and Innsbruck are pretty incredible for scenery. Hallstatt does shut down quite a bit during the winter though. On the eve of St. Nicholas' day they have a pretty big market / celebration with Krampuses (it's insane, go research it) running around the town. enki42 fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Mar 28, 2013 |
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Mar 28, 2013 16:03
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In general though, don't stress too much about figuring out local transit in different cities. For the most part, everything in Europe is arranged much better and is more comprehensible than it is in North America. And language is almost never an issue - almost every ticket machine or map is going to be bilingual. It's probably worthwhile to figure out what stop you need to get off at before you leave for a new city, but beyond that it's definitely something you can figure out when you're in the city. Funny that you should mention it, but Vienna was one city where the airport - local transit connection wasn't blindingly obvious, but it's still not difficult at all. You'd want to take the U-Bahn rather than a bus if you're taking public transit though.
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Apr 1, 2013 12:12
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