Cycling vacation in Morocco

COUNTRY:
Morocco
LOCATION:
Atlas Mountains
HOLIDAY TYPE:
A small group adventure
DEPARTURES:
2012: 21 Oct, 11 Nov, 23 Dec, 30 Dec
2013: 10 Feb, 3 Mar, 24 Mar
PRICE:
From US $830 - US $1040 (8 days) excluding flights
MORE INFO:
Single supplement $100.
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Cycling vacation in Morocco

Cycling vacation in Morocco

Small group adventure vacation
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travelers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are traveling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travelers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.

How this vacation makes a difference

Cycling; low impact on the environment and good for the health! Furthermore we enjoy the thrill of mountain biking whilst keeping our impact to a minimum as most of our cycling is on existing paths rather than off road.

An interesting dimension to the tour is the gite accommodation we use. A gite is a village house converted to accommodation for visitors and the revenue earned is shared between all the villagers.

Staying in and traveling through small villages along our journey, we are able to buy pottery and village crafted goods to support those local communities. It is also an ideal way to meet the local people more readily. Being on bikes, we can be quite versatile and are able to visit places that are not as easily accessible by other means of transport and can explore the high passes of the Central High Atlas.

As well as the above, we support a variety of charities and projects worldwide which support vulnerable communities and habitats including Friends of Conservation, Hope Worldwide and Send A Cow. We are also actively engaged with UK travel industry bodies which promote best practice in responsible tourism, such as Tourism Concern, The Travel Foundation and AITO. Our commitment to responsible tourism is not limited to our overseas operation and we have measures to ensure our UK office operates according to our responsible tourism policy. Carbon offsets for all flights booked with us are included in the tour cost.

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Story of the vacation provider

This small group operator is just celebrating its 30th year and its activity vacations are very popular. Arriving at a village by bike or on foot immediately fascinates the locals and offers you an opportunity to interact as well as being great exercise and allowing you to reach far flung areas. Activity vacations are a great way to escape, get some fresh air and take life at a slower pace, allowing time for thought and reflection. In completing an active vacation, there is an element of personal development and improvement which can really help travelers focus on doing things differently or better.

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Vacation provider no: 276

Cycling vacation in Morocco

Cycling vacation in Morocco

Reviewed 13 Apr 2012 by Sue Richards4 star rating

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


Probably the last day's cycling.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


Be prepared for surprisingly cold weather, specially at night, and rain.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?


I think it probably did benefit local people. I doubt it reduced environmental impact given the 4 flights to get to and from Marrakech from London, and the amount of travel by vehicle that is covered in the trip.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


On the whole, very enjoyable.

Read the operator's response here:

Thank you for your feedback regarding the above vacation.

We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with feedback from your trip, and we are delighted to hear that you had a very enjoyable vacation. We have noted your comments regarding the environmental impact as a result of the four flights and the amount of driving on this tour.

We would like to assure you that we take Responsible Travel very seriously and we take various steps to minimise the impact we have on the environment, such as, traveling in small groups, offsetting carbon emissions and supporting conservation projects. We also aim to bring employment to the countries we visit by using only local suppliers, family run hotels and local leaders when possible.

Reviewed 25 Feb 2007 by John Farmer2 star rating

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


I enjoyed the cycling through Morocco the most. Some of the scenery was stunning in the anti Atlas.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


The cycling is not that strenuous. And even though the vacation is billed as a cycling trip - to be honest cycling only makes up around 40 per cent of the tour. The rest is either visiting cultural things or transfers in the minibus from one place to the next. If you are a keen cyclist you might want to consider doing a grade C vacation instead. Also worth checking the age of people in the group before you book. Not that I minded but most people seemed to be in their 50s and 60s (20 years older than moi). And that might put some people off.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?


It did benefit local people. The hotels we stayed in certainly were not multi-national chains. Plus we ate at locally run restaurants. So money spent did seem to go to the local economy.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


Overall the vacation was ok/good. But I feel the amount of time spent either sight-seeing or transferring should have been stated more explicitly in the blurb as that made up the larger chunk of the vacation. Not cycling.

Read the operator's response here:

We note this customer's comments and appreciate their feedback. We have thoroughly investigated this matter, both by discussing it with the relevant member of our Operations department and also through liaising with our local agents. Following our investigation, we feel the trip dossier details an accurate representation of the amount of cycling involved in the vacation. However we will monitor future customer feedback on this issue and if necessary we will review the dossier description on this point. Many thanks
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Vacation Reviews

We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!

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Cycling vacation in Morocco
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