For Westerners,
Morocco holds
an immediate and enduring
fascination. Though just an hour's
ride on the ferry from Spain, it
seems at once very far from Europe,
with a culture - Islamic and deeply
traditional - that is almost wholly
unfamiliar. Throughout the country,
despite the years of French and
Spanish colonial rule and the
presence of modern and cosmopolitan
cities like Rabat and Casablanca, a
more distant past constantly makes
its presence felt.
Fes ,
perhaps the most beautiful of all
Arab cities, maintains a life still
rooted in medieval times, when a
Moroccan empire stretched from
Senegal to northern Spain, while in
the mountains of the
Atlas
and the
Rif , it's still
possible to draw up tribal maps of
the Berber population. As a backdrop
to all this, the country's physical
make-up is also extraordinary: from
a Mediterranean coast, through four
maintain ranges, to the empty sand
and scrub of the Sahara.
All of which makes travel
here an intense and rewarding
experience. It's not always
easy-going - there can be problems
in coming to terms with your
privileged position as a tourist,
and in dealing with self-appointed
guides eager to offer their
services. However, in recent years
the worst of the hustlers have been
cleared off the streets (anyone who
visited in the early 1990s will be
amazed at the change) and the
unofficial guides you encounter are
fewer and more discreet. If you find
things too much of a struggle, you
can take refuge in low-key resorts
like Essaouira or Asilah, or in the
more cosmopolitan holiday
destination of Agadir, built very
much in the image of its Spanish
counterparts. Or you could make
things easy on yourself with a
small-group tour, travelling by
Landrover or going on an organized
trek.
But Morocco is really an ideal
place for independent travel. A
week's hiking in the Atlas, a
journey through the southern oases
or into the pre-Sahara, or leisured
strolls around Tangier, Fes or
Marrakesh - once you adapt to a
different way of life, all your time
will be well spent. It's also a safe
and politically stable country to
visit: the death in 1999 of King
Hassan II, the Arab world's longest
serving leader, was followed by an
easy transition to his son, Mohammed
VI. And it's difficult for any
traveller to go for long without
running into Morocco's equally
powerful tradition of hospitality,
generosity and openness. This is a
country people return to again and
again.
