Product Description

This fully updated and lavishly illustrated DK Eyewitness Guide is all you need to discover Morocco at its best, from the Mediterranean coast to the High Atlas and beyond. Using detailed maps, cutaways, floor plans and colour Street Finder, navigate your way around the sprawling Medinas and magnificent ancient urban architecture whilst expert recommendations provide you with the best hotels, restaurants and nightlife. Soak up the endless flavours of the country with sights, beaches, markets and festivals listed region by region, town by town. And with special features explaining everything from the historic cultural mix of Berber, African and Arabic peoples, to details of the many ancient Kasbahs, mosques and colourful Souks, this comprehensive guide won’t let you down.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16166 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 408 pages

Review
A pleasurable read with ravishing photography plus maps and plans of supreme quality. (The Observer )

Customer Reviews

Some good features but needs supplementing with further research
I will compare this guide with the Lonely Planet. I took both to Morocco.

The Lonely Planet has far more detailed information on trekking and budget travelling but the DK is better for deciding where to go. It has many more photographs and is strong on opinions, while the Lonely Planet often just gives facts which don't help with planning.

On restaurants and hotels DK's advice is also better. I stayed in the Berber Palais in Ouazarzate. It cost a staggering £420 a night for a family of 6 without breakfast. Fed up with the price I switched to the Club Hanane which cost one third as much (£150 a night including breakfast). Its public areas aren't as fancy as the Berber Palais but the rooms in the Club Hanane are larger, much more pleasant and have incomparably superior bathrooms. The enormous contrast in value for money shows how hard you have to do your homework. DK got it spot on with its review. The Lonely Planet didn't mention Club Hanane and said this of the Berber Palais: "Sumptuous, recommended, extensive list of facilities" - factually correct but completely useless advice.

I was also disappointed with the review of the Saghro at Tinerhir. My room was a box with no space for anything but the beds, which were of appalling quality. Yet it cost as much as the Club Hanane. The Lonely Planet offered this misleading advice: "A large 4 star place...the rooms are comfortable and the views from the terrace are fantastic".

On restaurants, the Lonely Planet is equally unhelpful. This is its entire entry on the food at the Terrasses de l'Alhambra in the main square in Marrakech: "Salads and pizza are good options for veggies but the menu also offers more traditional Moroccan fare". Thank you for telling me that salads are good for vegetarians but is this a good restaurant? And if not, why include it? In fact the Moroccan menu and the international menu were both extremely poor.

My conclusion is that travelling to Morocco requires so much research and planning, no guide book will be adequate on its own. Here are a few examples from my experience:

I booked a car hire with Europcar. They sent me a fax a few days before my departure cancelling the deal.

I had to change my schedule during the holiday. The only way to get accommodation in Marrakech at short notice was to pay double the normal rate or go way outside the city.

I stayed in the Sofitel Marrakech partly because it is listed as having a fitness centre. In fact - no exaggeration - the fitness facilities comprise a postcard telling you to go for a run round the block.

Be aware that the peak season for Morocco is April but the swimming pools are freezing at that time. I was almost the only person using them.

Finally, Morocco doesn't offer great value for money. I recently had similar holidays in Egypt and Malaysia. both were higher quality holidays with better food and accommodation costing less than Morocco.

Want to be 'Confused of Marrakesh'?
I've just come back from a week in Marrakesh which was dogged by the inaccuracies of this book. A restaurant that sounded great had been knocked down: one that sounded even better had the rudest service that I've ever encountered - and that's saying something. The Majorelle Gardens don't (as stated) close at lunchtime but are open all day (we'd arranged a day around the claimed closure) and there was one particular recommended site that made Tooting Bec Lido look glamorous. And La Mammounia, far from having 'just reopened after extensive refurbishment' has just closed - for extensive refurbishment. There's a discalimer at the beginning of the book, but even so, you'd think the publishers would like to give you the impression that they had visted the city at least once...I'm going back to Michelin Guides.

Not great for Marrakech
I bought this book for a 4-day trip to Marrakech. This was a mistake, I should have probably got a specific Marrakech guide but I had been impressed by a couple of the other Eyewitness quides that I have (Venice in particular). This one was useless for visiting this city but I can't comment on what it says about the rest of Morrocco.

The main problem with this book was that it went into great detail about places that as a non-muslim I wasn't able to visit and dealt with places I could visit with dismissive one-liners. A more balanced approach to its readership would have been useful. The places to eat section was also poor, most of the recommnedations were in the new town and weren't where they said they were. We did eat in one of their recommendations in the Medina which was nothing special and very overpriced. The majority of the decent quality and good value for money restaurants that we found in the Medina weren't even mentioned.

A fantastic city and well worth a visit, but take a different quide book.