NOTICE!
This trip is only being offered as a guided tour at this time. Since this is our first time running this route, we are looking for 3 additional planes to attend this trip for costs only (no money paid to us). The only consideration we ask is that you allow us to use any photos and videos taken on the trip. If you are interested, please reach out via the Sign Up Now button, call us, or email via our contact page for more info.
MOROCCO,
NORTHERN AFRICA
Experience Morocco like few have! Spend 12 days exploring the history and culture of Morocco. Experience what it’s like to live in modern day Morocco and dive deep into the incredible history of the country, including the Phoenician colonization in 800BCE, the Berber people some 2000 years before that, the Romans, Alaouites, and so much more.
Highlights:
- Take a guided walking tour of 6 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
- Ride a camel to your desert camp for two nights.
- Stay in traditional riads.
- Drive a sand buggy in the Sahara.
- Shop in a local market and cook your own meal with the help of a local chef.
- Have mint tea with Amazigh nomads in the desert.
Areas Visited:
- Casablanca
- Moulay Idriss
- Fes
- Tangier
- Chefchaouen
- Merzouga
- Zagora
- Ouarzazate
- Marrakesh
- Essaouira
Availability:
October 5-17th, 2024
Cost:
$6500/person – All inclusive price except for avgas, travel insurance, a couple of meals as indicated in the trip details page, and personal expenses like souvenirs, hotel mini-bar, snacks, or alcoholic drinks. See below for outline of all expected/included costs.
All listed excursions are included in the price as well as tips for any services we receive during the trip.
Tipping your Tour Guide/Lead Pilot – All of the guides and support staff that we work with are paid a living wage. Your Tour Guide and Lead Pilot are likely to have a “real” job or own a business and are providing their services because they love sharing their country and providing these experiences. It’s important to our mission to support the countries we visit. Tips are not required and our guides will never ask for them. If you do feel you have received exceptional service, you are welcome to tip any amount you feel is appropriate, but again, this is not required.
Trip pricing is based on dual occupancy of planes and hotel rooms. If you are traveling solo and would like your own room, this can be accommodated at an additional cost. Please contact us for details.
Planes:
5 Planes (Cessna 182, Socata TB-20, Cessna 172RG, or similar). We limit each plane to two people. The trip is based on double occupancy. If you are traveling solo, you will be paired with another pilot for the trip.
KEY DETAILS
Trip Duration: 12 Days
Total Flight Hours: 15
Trip Style: Comfort
Type Of Flight: VFR Only
Average Flight Leg: 1.5 Hours
Longest Leg: 2.5 hours (no wind)
Lodging: Hotels. Riads. Desert camp.
Additional Costs: Fuel. See below for outline of all expected/included costs.
Food Included: All meals with the exception of 2 dinners and 2 lunches. Breakfast is mostly hotel style buffet breakfast. The hotel breakfasts in Morocco are generally better than in the USA. There is more selection and the food is better quality. No boil-in-bag scrambled eggs.
Runway Types: Paved
Shortest Runway: 3700′
Risk Factors: Flight Over Remote and Unforgiving Areas.
Flight Over Remote Areas: This route takes us over some EXTREMELY remote desert areas.
Physical Requirements: We recommend being able to walk 1 mile at a slow pace. If you can manage that, you will have zero issues on the trip. You will generally have the opportunity to walk as much or as little as you want. Sitting in a small plane all day gets tiring and it’s good to keep your legs moving. This trip will be a fair amount of walking/hiking but all at a mild level. There are some visits with significant stairs. You can skip out, take an alternate route, or turn back at any time at any of these areas. All of our walks start and end at the same point or meet our shuttle at the other side, so the worst case scenario is that you just wait for the group at the start or go with the driver to the other side.
Special Requirements:
You must have a valid passport, FAA license, and valid medical certificate on you with an expiration date AFTER the last day of the trip. BasicMed is NOT recognized in Morocco.
Aviation Adventure Routes will assist with, and process for you, any license conversion, documentation, radio license, etc. required for out of country travel. We will handle everything you need and go over any important information in the pre-trip communications including deadlines for paperwork submittal.
Additional Costs:
Things that are NOT included in your trip price:
- Avgas. Expected fuel costs are estimates at best as we can not predict future fuel prices, how rich you run the plane, or weather conditions. This trip includes 15 hours of flight time. At 14gph you can expect about $1800USD in fuel costs at the very upper end with significant rounding up. Adjust this for the fuel burn of the plane you are flying.
- 2 Lunches – These lunches are days where you have free time to wander a city. You choose what you want to eat, either alone or with the group. Everyone might be tired of the local food and need a good cheeseburger, or maybe you want to try a camel burger. Choose what you want. Remember to tip your server. A common tip is 10%.
- 2 Dinners – Same as above. Choose what you want. Your guide can make recommendations. Remember to tip your server. A common tip is 10%.
- Snacks – Any snacks required throughout the trip. You will have a chances throughout the trip to stop at local stores and shop.
- Included meals come with water. Mint tea is also included at any meal where it is available (almost all the time). If you want a soda, smoothie, etc, that is not included. Alcoholic drinks (at night or non-flying days) are not included.
- Daily drinking water. Tap water can be questionable at some places. Each participant is given a Grayl Geopress water purifying water bottle so we can do our part in reducing plastic waste of disposable bottles. Any bottled water purchased is not included.
ITINERARY
Day 0
Arrive in Casablanca anytime before 6pm. A shuttle will meet you at the airport and bring you to your hotel for the night. Group meet and greet in the hotel lobby at 6pm followed by our first group dinner at a local restaurant. Meet your tour guide, companions for the trip, and get a brief introduction about what to expect over the next several days.
Day 1
With everyone likely tired from a full day of travel yesterday and out of sync from the time zone change, we spend the day checking out Casablanca. With everyone being tired, it’s best not to fly today in a new place with new rules in a new plane. We take a guided tour of Hassan II Mosque, walk along the boardwalk, eating lunch at a seaside restaurant, and shopping for snacks for the trip. In the afternoon we head to the airport, meet our Lead Pilot, do some paperwork, drop off anything you want to leave in the plane, set up tablet mounts, and find out if you are missing anything. The Lead Pilot will give a brief overview of what to expect on the trip, review everyone’s navigation apps and help set things up. Today is spent getting sleep schedules back on track, making sure everyone’s plane is set up and organized for the trip, getting all documents in order, and making sure we will have no issues. A little bit of time up front eliminates having to come up with a makeshift fix to hold your ipad that keeps falling off because your yoke mount didnt work, or your sim card for your phone isnt getting data, or a number of other issues.
Day 2
An early breakfast at the hotel and then straight to the airport. Instructors will be waiting to complete your checkout flight, which consists of a couple of takeoffs and landings at local airports, a scenic flight of the area, an aerial view of the Hassan II Mosque from yesterday, and some fun on the coast. This is a low pressure flight and should be fun. We will also break the group up into two so that one group can attend a classroom session on local rules and regulations, things to note about flying in Morocco, what to expect, notes about airspace, etc. We eat lunch at the airport. We wrap up late afternoon and head back to the hotel for a little relaxing before another group dinner in town.
Day 3
We depart Casablanca! Another early breakfast and then off to the airport for a lap or two in the pattern, work out any last minute issues, then take the scenic route towards the airport in Fes. We park for the night and take a van to Moulay Idriss, a town at the base of Mount Zerhoun that overlooks the Roman ruins of Volubilis. A local guide takes us on a walk around town explaining the history of the area before dropping us off at our traditional riad for the night. Dinner is a traditional tagine in the riad.
Day 4
A nice breakfast at the hotel and then in the van for a short ride to Volubilis, a Berber settlement from the third century BC that grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD. After our guided tour, we head to Meknes for a guided tour of the medina and lunch inside the medina. Finishing out the busy day, we visit our third UNESCO World Heritage site, Fes. Considered the spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco. The Medina of Fez is one of the world’s largest and oldest urban pedestrian zones (car-free areas). It contains the University of al-Qarawiyyin which was founded in 857 and is the oldest continuously functioning institute of higher education in the world. It also contains the Chouara Tannery from the 11th century, one of the oldest tanneries in the world. We retire late to another traditional riad for dinner and rest.
Day 5
A wandering morning flight to the very North of Morocco brings us eventually to Tangier where a van awaits to bring is to the blue town of Chefchaouen, Outa el Hammam Kasbah, Punta Malabata, and Akchour Falls. We arrive back in Tangier at dusk in time for a walk along the beach and a sunset dinner at a great restaurant featuring a beautiful terrace with panoramic views of the old and new Tangier. Our lodging for the night is an upscale hotel on the coast.
Day 6
Our day begins with free time to walk the city of Tangier, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Many civilizations and cultures have influenced the history of Tangier, starting from before the 10th century BCE. Check out any of the dozens of local landmarks, walk the old medina, do some early shopping in the new town, or relax on the beach. We make our way back to the planes, do a VERY thorough pre-flight, triple check the fuel, and depart for the Sahara for our longest flight of the trip. We fly along the Northern coast of Morocco and wave to Spain. Stopping for gas in Oudja, keep your pattern tight or you will find yourself in Algerian airspace. 120nm South over the desert we stop in Bouarfa for a little walk, stretch the legs, and then over the Eastern edge of the High Atlas mountains before landing back in the desert at Errachidia. A van brings us to Merzouga to meet our camels that help us complete the journey to your desert camp for the next two days. Dinner is around the campfire with no light pollution, no traffic noise, just stars, campfire, and peace. Retire to your glamping tent or stay out and gaze at the stars.
Day 7
Awake to breakfast outside. Get your fill because today we are venturing deeper into the desert. Ride solo or with a partner in 4×4 buggies through the sand dunes. We meet some Berber nomads, share some mint tea, and learn about how what life is like for them. Explore the desert a bit in your buggy, complete a fossil search, go sand boarding, or go for a swim at a pool on the edge of the desert, the choice is yours before meeting back at the desert camp for another unforgettable dinner and night under the stars.
Day 8
We leave our desert camp and fly to Zagora, taking the scenic route and checking out the High Atlas mountains on our way. We take the van through the Draa Valley and out to the Tinfou Dunes where we visit locals in a Berber camp for lunch. Another chance for swimming at a gorgeous riad and then hop in the planes for another short flight to Ouarzazate for the night.
Day 9
Hop in the van for a ride to Air-Ben-Haddou, a historic ksar along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakesh. It is considered a great example of Moroccan earthen clay architecture and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. An afternoon flight to Marrakesh gets us in town just in time for a guided tour of the old medina and get checked into the luxurious Opera Plaza Hotel before the night time excitement starts. Visit the square in the evening for an experience you won’t forget. See snake charmers, bustling food markets, and experience the night life. The shops just inside the medina are a great place to buy souvenirs, just don’t forget that haggling with the vendors is part of the experience. Dinner is not included tonight. McDonald’s is right next door, cheeseburgers at the hotel are delicious, and the medina has more than enough choices to satisfy any exotic craving from traditional tagine, harira, and chebakia to snail soup, sheep’s head, camel burgers, or stuffed camel spleen.
Day 10
A quiet morning after a big night brings us to Jardin Majorelle, a two acre botanical garden created by the French Orientalist artist, Jacques Majorelle, later purchased by the fashion designers Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé who worked to restore it. An easy and scenic flight along the South of the Anti-Atlas mountains and up the coast brings us to Essaouira, long been considered one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast. Spend some time walking the city with a local guide before venturing out on your own. Meet back at your riad for a group dinner.
Day 11
The final day of the trip. We enjoy a light morning in Essaouira before making our final scenic flight back to Casablanca. We pack up all our things and head back to the hotel. A final group dinner in the city finishes the trip. Airport shuttles are available the next day to get everyone back to their commercial flights home. Transportation can be arranged to Spain for anyone continuing on. Trains are easy and cheap.
