Middle East & North Africa Travel Guide

The trip was amazing. The hotels, the driver, and the guides were all top-notch. Dealing with Zicasso's travel company was very easy. They were extremely responsive. I can’t say enough positive things about this experience.

Our 13-day trip to Morocco with Zicasso’s travel company exceeded our expectations and included many wonderful surprises! The quality of the accommodations and tour guides was top-notch, with a private tour in the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and a private dining experience in Moulay Idriss being particularly moving experiences. And we had an exceptional driver, who made us feel so welcome in his country, but also safe and comfortable throughout our trip.

Each day had the right balance of activity, with a good pace overall. We had time in urban and rural areas; the chance to see all of the expected highlights, but also to spend time with Amazigh families; occasions to eat well, but also stay active, including a memorable hike in the Dadès Gorge.

Zicasso’s travel agent and his team were always on hand with ready answers to any questions, recommendations, and support, including when we briefly needed medical care while traveling. We left feeling we had as much of an authentic experience in Morocco as anyone could in 13 days and highly recommend this travel company to anyone thinking about a trip to this incredible country.

Zicasso’s travel company did such a great job putting the trip together. I was charged for an extra night at our hotel in Paris, but they are refunding that and the Cairo portion of the trip we had to cancel.

Our Paris tour guide was great and I’d recommend her to anyone. Our Rome tour guides were very good. Hong Kong was fine. Our Tokyo guide was wonderful.

Really, the only hiccup on the trip was our hotel in Hong Kong. The company that picked us up dropped us at one hotel, not the correct one. Thankfully, a couple of their bellhops walked us and all our luggage several blocks to the correct hotel. Our tour guide the next day also went to the wrong hotel, but we only lost about 45 minutes before we figured out the issue. If you use that hotel again, please make sure folks know which hotel is which.

The "Fast and Furious" car experience was OK; however, my grandson was so tired he slept through most of it. The chopstick-making was fun, as was the glass-blowing experience.

The trip to Morocco was wonderful. We really had a wide variety of experiences: cities, medinas, Berber villages, gardens, and the Sahara! Zicasso’s travel company was readily available to us throughout to plan the trip. They provided a driver who was with us throughout the trip and he was amazing! By the time the trip was over, we felt as if he were part of the family.

It was a fantastic trip and Zicasso’s travel specialist was always available, responsive, and great to work with.

The trip was exactly what we asked for, though in retrospect, we tried to do too much in our 11 days.

Our driver was excellent—very safety-conscious and always on time, so that made the long driving days more tolerable. Zicasso’s travel specialist tried to arrange it to minimize the driving, with interesting stops on the longer travel days, but our determination to get to the Sahara Desert and ride camels pretty much made the long drives unavoidable.

Another thing I'd probably do differently is not stay in the medina of Marrakech. I asked to stay in the medina, but in Marrakesh, the medina has been taken over by motorcycles and that was a huge detraction for us. If you want a truer medina experience, Fes is probably a better bet.