Marrakech Birthday Adventures

On Friday 6th February we finished up with work and headed to London Gatwick airport to spend the night in the Gatwick Airport Central Travelodge where we had a small family room here for £48.99.

We actually parked at £29 for 3 days using JustPark at 24 Forge Place via JustPark which is just around the corner from the Travelodge although the Travelodge Car Park which is £10.50 for 24 hours (from 1st October - 30th March) up to 5 nights if you are staying in the hotel so not a huge difference - the price difference is accentuated during the peak season when it is £14.50 per 24 hours.

After a good sleep, flight was an early one at 06:00 so we took the Gatwick Hoppa airport bus bright at early at the completely unreal time of 04:40 to the London Gatwick South Terminal (adult return £8; child return £4.50 - you get a paper ticket with a QR code which I kept in the back of my phone whilst I was away). Before the bus we did have quite a nice, fresh morning walk back to the car to drop one of our suitcases as the hotel was not keen on keeping our luggage. We even got to hear the birds' dawn chorus!

Our Wizzair flight cost £89.96 but in addition to that I had paid £93 which comprised £22 each for front seats on the return leg and 30 euros of cafe vouchers for each leg of the journey. The reason for doing this was that Marrakech is a non digital airport and I was a bit worried about being unable to print a boarding pass in Morocco itself. With 20:20 hindsight I'm not too sure if this was me overthinking things, but at least we had seats booked for the return leg.

Our flight was due to leave at 06:00 but once everybody was boarded, the pilot told us that we had a broken radio - this being quite important as this radio is used to speak to Air Traffic Control. They did try and find a new radio, but in the end we were all de-boarded and had to go on a completely different plane! One activity on the plane which Tiger particularly enjoyed this time was a sewing kit. We made teddy bears in a little bed.

We ended up being almost 3 hours delayed and instead of landing at 10:40, the doors were finally opened in Marrakech at 13:35 with Morocco being one hour ahead of the UK. We had turbulence so strong that we were hanging onto our seats and drinks - thankfully Tiger just thought this was funny. I spent the entire flight hoping for an over 3-hour delay as we'd have been due £700 in compensation (the rules are £350 per ticket) which would have paid for our whole weekend! However, this is only the case if the aeroplane doors open 3 hours after your initial projected arrival time so we were 5 minutes before that cut off time! Here's all the information on flight delay compensation.

We did get out of the airport pretty quickly, having been ushered through immigration quickly with a child. And I changed up £40 in the arrivals section of the airport. We bought a physical SIM card Upon arrival for 100 Dirham (£16) and then took the L19 bus for 60 Dirham, or £4.80, (1 adult 1 child). We were dropped at Jemma el-Fnaa square and we set out to walk to our Riad from there but used the Google Maps app on my iphone which took us to completely the wrong place! But we asked in a Riad who helped re-route us using Google Maps on a web browser we did eventually find the Riad Blue Berber. It was actually only about ten minutes walk if we hadn't gone wrong! Here we had a 'family suite' for £137 (2 nights) with a double bed and single bed.

We just dropped bags quickly, and headed straight out as we had booked in for an Airbnb Experiences shopping souk tour for £31 with our guide Ahmed. With the flight delay, thankfully our guide was happy for us to be two hours late and we got going at 16:30! I did think that perhaps we didn't need a guide, but it was nice to be able to not worry about where we were exactly and he definitely showed us all the different sections of the market from carpets, to ironmongery, to clothes, argan oils and general nick nacks!

We were incredibly tired after we finished and just grabbed some simple food in the main square and headed off to bed. One thing I forgot to do was switch on the heating (i.e. via the air conditioning unit) so we were snuggled down in our beds with it off but once I worked it out I put it on full whack in the morning!

During the previous afternoon and early evening I had been messaging back and forth regarding our hot air balloon flight. I had booked this on Airbnb Experiences - £134 adult, £87 child - but the weather was windy and in the end the decision was made to cancel and we would get a full refund. We later heard that some companies did attempt flights but didn't manage to get up for long (ten minutes) and some 'crashed' so I was very grateful for our company's diligence as much as I was also super grateful for a lie in on my birthday!

So we didn't emerge until 11am for breakfast, which was handmade and delicious! Then we headed out for our Get Your Guide tour for £38. I wasn't quite sure how good it would be but so pleased to report that it was brilliant and six hours including dinner for two people was completely amazing value! The tour included visiting an argan oil collective, quad biking, camel riding and ended with a fire show. The quad biking was brilliant although I was a poor driver, and we had to get helped out by one of the guys - who sat on the front of our quad bike and drove with his hands behind his back! As Tiger settled into the activity, she grew massively in confidence and soon she was driving with the guy just keeping her on track.

Now, it should be noted that this activity is extremely touristy but it is very well managed. We were in a small minivan with around 15 people and a guide, but on the day we went there were perhaps ten groups of minivans. We were expertly shuttled between the various things to do and did run into the other groups but actually the whole experience was so great I actually didn't mind. It was wonderful going for a walk on the camels (although after we were done I was quite aware they would be sitting down, having a quick rest, standing up again and doing their next group!).

There were various different locations we stopped at. One was the argan oil collective where we also had tea; another was a rest stop which had a swimming pool with quite cold water (and an amazing view) so we just dipped our toes in (but it may be worth bringing kids swimming costumes for that) - and this was where we took the camel ride from. Then finally we stopped at the dinner place. From here we took sunset photos, had a nice dinner (in our group) but also with all the other people and it concluded with a fire show. We even had a conga going!

We got dropped off where we had been picked up (Place des Ferblantiers) and from there we walked back to our Riad and I cracked open champagne I had brought from Duty Free. Happy birthday to me!

The next morning, my alarm didn't go off so we were in a big, mad rush to get the 19 airport shuttle bus but I was quite impressed at us as we were up at 8am and on the bus for 08:30!! We'd had to walk through the main square (Djemaa el-Fna) and kept asking people where the bus stop was. We kept getting pointed in the right direction despite me panicking. Once we reached the bus stop (which is super obvious once you get to it) there was also a bus guy who confirmed the bus number and also gave us a shout when it arrived. This bus is only 30 MAD (£2.40) per ticket and, whilst I paid for Tiger on the first bus that took us into Marrakech they didn't charge me for her on the return leg to the airport. The buses go every 20-30 minutes and take about 30-40 minutes to the airport.

Compared to our outbound vastly delayed flight, our return flight on Monday 9th February, was completely on time with a 11:20 departure, arriving into Gatwick South Terminal at 14:00. We made another of the Eugy Unicorn on the plane - these kits are now a bit hit with Tiger as we can do them together and it kills about half an hour! And the best bit - upon landing at Gatwick, Tiger was allowed into the cockpit to chat with the very young pilots. Thank you Wizzair!

We headed back to the Hoppa bus, walked to pick up the car from nearby to the Travelodge, and drove home (55 miles, 1 hour) to Bordon at a super reasonable time. A good night to decompress! Despite being gold-plated tourists on this one, it was so enjoyable. We'll be back Morocco!