Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Morocco

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For budget-minded travelers, LP usually provides a good guide to to inexpensively explore new countries, and this just-released edition is no exception. The guide provides accurate lodging descriptions for Fez, Marrakesh and Essaouira and great bargaining tactic suggestions, but very poor food recommendations.

Its restaurant reviews consistently focus on decor rather than the quality of food, leaving me and my travel companion to suffer more than once through lonely, barely-edible meals at empty restaurants where owners spend more time focusing on decorations than on sauces. As usual when traveling, follow your nose and look for places where lots of locals eat, as these typically present best value, quality, and "authenticity."

A good alternative to LP for Morocco is Rough Guide, which also just came out with a new edition.

Recommended with reservations.
I recommend this book, but with reservations. I used it last month during a solo-trip to Morocco that took me through Casablanca, Marrakesh, Ourzazate, Agdz, Zagora, M'Hamid, into the Sahara on a camel, through the Dades Gorge, Er-Rashidia, Azrou, Meknes, Volubilis, and finally Fes.

In general it provided fairly accurate information on getting around, prices, and where things were. But nothing in the book prepared me for the constant hassles, harassment, scams, crime, and corruption that were a part of my everyday experience in country. If you end up using this book, know that it ignores some of the most important parts of what life is like for travelers. With that said, there were no MAJOR inaccuracies of the type that could have gotten me in serious trouble.

Pros:
Solid logistical information, food overview, and language guide. Interesting historical and background sections.

Also good maps (although I couldn't have survived without GPS or at least a compass because there are very few street signs).

Listings of restaurants were helpful even if LP seemed to give rave reviews to average places.

Cons:
Totally ignores the hassles of everyday life. (The book should have a section on how to act: Ignore anyone who tries to talk to you. Always count your change for the simplest of transactions and decide early on how much you're willing to argue over. Never stop on the side of the roads, even if kids are begging for water in the desert (they WILL rob you). Be prepared to bribe police in rural areas--a guide on how much would be nice. Don't accept invitations for tea even if you've done something nice because you'll either get robbed or pressured to buy something...the list goes on.)

Largely ignored the most important things about accommodations. The authors pay too much attention to "friendly staff" and the decorations in lobby at the expense of things like cleanliness, bed bugs, running/hot water, lighting in rooms, doors that lock, etc. As a general rule, independent "4*" hotels will be 2*'s or worse at five or ten times the price. Don't expect a/c or heating unless you're dealing with a major chain. Don't trust online ratings from orbitz, [...], etc, unless they're chains. I ended up in Ibis Mousaffir's at the end of my trip and wished I'd stayed there the whole time.

Doesn't do a good job of prioritizing places to see. Instead, the book rates every site pretty highly, which makes it tough when you're pressed for time. For instance, Casablanca is pretty much a waste of time but LP makes it sound interesting and exciting. The same goes for desert towns that have little to offer but get a couple of pages.

Bottom line: Use LP Morocco but make sure you know what it leaves out and what it gets wrong so you can plan accordingly.

My bf and I recently went on a two week trip to Morocco and took along this book. I have to say, the maps were horrible, we got lost so many times trying to follow the maps and had to constantly ask locals to guide us. We also discovered that the book didnt mention that you need reservations in pretty much every riad and the majority of hotels you want to stay at. Also, make sure you get the most recent edition... a few places listed were closed and had been for some time.
All in all, we were disappointed with this book.

I know of no other book that assists in living overseas as well as Lonely Planet. There are other guidebooks out there, and they have their own attributes, but I'm familiar with the Lonely Planet system, and it seems to be far more diverse in the countries covered than any other travel collection. And living in Morocco as I do, I particularly enjoy the Moroccan edition.

This book is well structured, with copious information on every aspect of traveling, from transportation to hotels to food to sights. I appreciate that Lonely Planet looks especially out for the budget traveler- hotels that I can find nowhere else (and I've looked) are present in Lonely Planet. When I want to decide where to stay, where to eat cheaply, and what to see of interest, I turn to Lonely Planet. If I want to know if I should take the trains, big taxis, small taxis, or buses, and which bus line, I turn to Lonely Planet. The hiking information is also helpful in the last section of the book.

I must admit, all Lonely Planet are a bit confusing with their listing of Travel Around the area listed after Travel To and From the area. But a more major weakness in this book is the lack of coverage of the Southern half of the country. Yes, it is less traveled and less touristy, but Lonely Planet really only has the two major cities for half of the country- and that's only 3 pages covering those cities. And the Southern half has a completely different culture, clothing styles, language, and a lot to offer. A glaring omission in an otherwise excellent book.

I use to use Lonely Planet guides to travel around, but in this case the election was very disappointing, I got even angry with myself! My staying in Morocco was quite short, only Tanger, Asilah, Fes, Marrakesh and Essauira. As I advanced in each step of my trip, as I got more and more angry about this book. I don't want to be missunderstood, Morocco is an AMAZING place to go, but as in every developing countries, you should have to care about some things.

The authors care too much about how fancy or well-decorated places are, and very little about what really matters: cleanliness, quality and security of places. For instance, I NEVER found in the book that you should be prepared to be cheated every time that you want to take a taxi, and subsequentely there is NO SUGGESTION about how to fight against. A very simple suggestion, for not french speakers, would help: always ask to run the counter, or simply ask 'avec counter'. They can still cheat you, but it restricts their possibilities. Another example, they never said that if you want to stay in medinas, you should be prepared to sleep with bugs in the bedroom, even in their 'funcy' hotels (I have never been there in a five star place). Some 'delightfully decorated places' that they recomended had bathroom really discusting!

I noticed the same sin in friends who have gone there before: they tell to you only the nice stuff, not the ugly part. BUT IN THIS CASE, AUTHORS ARE WRITING A SUPPOSED HELPFUL GUIDE! The last straw was to read their 'accomodation suggestion' in marrakesh. It was a 5-star hotel, for the same money that my whole budget for a week. This travel book really made me think if Lonely Planet is still a guide for budget travellers, and I have serious doubts if the authors really stayed sleeping in the floor, as they boast about in they presentation.

Another point is that they describe every place as fantastic. If you have a year to travel around is ok, but if you are time-restricted you need a criterion to select places to go. It is suppose that this is one of the reasons to buy a guide, and this one doesn't help at all, apart of the highlights that come in every lonely planet guide.

The book gives me very good information for my travels, sometimes not enough, but always accurate and reliable.

Rather stereotyped cultural comments which are not particularly accurate. Having seen the DK Guide to Morocco since, wish I had bought that instead.