Honeymoon pt. 1: Morocco
For those who don’t know, Hayden and I have both quit our jobs to go on a 4 month, around the world trip for our honeymoon! While Hayden fully quit, I only quit my full-time job but will still be working for myself. That means I’ll continue to be a travel agent and take on a few hours freelancing for my previous job in marketing.
This also means that we’ll be in full backpacking mode, which I’ve been slowly walking away from over the past few years, though Hayden never left. And with that in mind, I got Hayden on a business class flight to Morocco. I used all of my credit card points to book us lay flat beds and soaked up every minute of luxury that we got.
Business Class in AirFrance
Marrakesh
We splurged on our first two nights of the trip, so they were true honeymoon nights! We stayed at the lovely Ryad Dyor in the historic medina. The first morning we had breakfast on the rooftop of the riad and started talking to a couple who was seated across from us. They told us that they were celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary and we told them that we were on our honeymoon. Hayden kept asking them questions and we stumbled upon the incredible fact that the couple are best friends with my Godmother—they live in the same small town in California! We all could not get over the coincidence and got up and hugged and took selfies to send to my Godmother. The world is truly so small and it was such a happy start to our honeymoon!
We spent our time in Marrakesh leisurely. We wandered around, read our books, and drank lots of tea. I stared at all the beautiful things in the souks that I wanted to buy but cannot carry in my backpack for months. Marrakesh pleasantly surprised us in the fact that it wasn’t too overwhelming. Cars would stop for pedestrians, the streets were fairly clean, and the shop owners were pushy, but not TOO pushy in their sales pitches. Compared to India, it was a stroll through the park.
Walking the streets of the medina
Desert Tour
Hayden and I signed up for a 3-day desert tour that would take us across the country and into the Sahara Desert. We were picked up from our Riad in Marrakesh where we climbed into a mini-bus with 13 other travelers and set off. While there are many things I love about traveling, meeting new people may be my favorite. We got an exceptionally good group of people on our bus, which made this tour all the better.
Our first stop was Aït Benhaddou, a ksar (fortified village) that dates back to the 11th century and a UNESCO site. It sits right on the old caravan route that connected Marrakesh to the Sahara, making it a prime destination for rest, trade, and replenishing supplies.
The old streets of Aït Benhaddou
The village actually had people living in it until the 1950s when they built a new village on the other side of the river. However, one family still lives in the original village today! It has also been a filming set for lots of movies and TV shows—including Game of Thrones, The Odyssey, Outer Banks, Gladiator, The Mummy, and so many more.
Todra Gorge—where we also ran into a group of Virginia Tech students who were studying abroad in the same program I went on!
Our tour took us through the Atlas Mountains with a stop at Todra Gorge, which reaches 300m in height and has the Todra River flowing through it. The rest of the day was spent winding through the mountains, where we admired the contrast of the arid landscape that was dotted with patches of oasis with palms. We ended the night at a pretty hotel perched above a valley.
Tea at our hotel in the Atlas Mountains
The next morning, we had a lot of driving ahead of us to reach the Sahara Desert. Once we arrived, we were handed off from one guide to the next, hopped on camels, and set out into the desert. We trekked through the dunes for about 1.5h with a stop to go sand-boarding before we made it to our camp for the night.
Riding the camels through the desert
Camp was a cool very experience, but one that made me doubt my decisions to be a backpacker again. Early September is still a hot month in Morocco and while the desert cools down at night, it didn’t cool down quite enough. Our tents were actually cement huts cosplaying as tents and therefore trapped all the heat inside. Hayden and I attempted to sleep outside, then eventually moved in. Overall we managed to get maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep, while I dreamt of fluffy pillows and AC.
Booking call out: You can book the same budget tour that I did HERE or you can email me to do the same route, but in a much more comfortable and luxurious way.
Watching sunset from the dunes
We absolutely loved our time in Morocco! While we were not the biggest fans of the food, we loved all of the cats, the tea, the colorful decor, and the people.
