Exploring Morocco

My amazing husband helped me reach my first travel goal this year: I wanted to visit 30 countries before turning 30.

Throughout the end of May and into June we made it, traveling to some countries that had long been on my list–Morocco and Portugal–and spending a day in southern Spain.

Our itinerary was based on a great deal of planning and travel blog recommendations about getting around and how much time to spend in different cities. I also downloaded a few travel guides on our Kindle, which were perfect for looking up information as we went along, especially when we didn’t have Internet access.

Morocco Itinerary

The agenda ended up looking something like this:

Day 1: Fly from Cleveland, Ohio to Marrakech, Morocco
Day 2-3: Spend time in Marrakech
Day 4: Round-trip bus to Essaouira; final night in Marrakech
Day 5: Train from Marrakech to Casablanca; half day and night in Casablanca
Day 6-8: Train from Casablanca to Fes; spend time in Fes
Day 9: Train from Fes to Tangier; round-trip ferry to Tarifa, Spain
Day 10: Fly from Tangier to Lisbon, Portugal
Day 11: Round-trip train to Sintra, Portugal
Day 12-13: Spend time in Lisbon
Day 14: Fly from Lisbon, Portugal to Cleveland, Ohio

I was actually really happy with the amount of time we allocated each city, I just wish there had been more time overall. I would have loved to have taken a camel rides out into the Sahara to tent camp or to have rented a car to visit the ruins of Volubilis or the blue streets of Chefchaouen in Morocco, and I would have loved to have seen more of the country-side in Portugal.

I guess there’s always next time!

I’m going to write a little about each country in a series of posts and include some of our favorite moments– we have so many incredible pictures that tell a little about the people, the food, the atmosphere and the geography.

None of them come close to the way I felt watching the countryside go by our sun-warmed train window or feeling the cool air on my face as we rocked through the waves of the Mediterranean on our way to Spain. Or the terror I felt when we couldn’t get out of the Marrakech airport or the frustration I felt when we were harassed every step of our way through the Fes market about seeing the tanneries!

There were so many incredible memories. Here are just a few.