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: #75804 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.

Below the standard of the DK Guide books
The pictures in the guidebook were fantastic and highly influenced our decision to visit this beautiful country. The DK Eyewitness guides that we have used in the past were always invaluable in planning out visit. The Morocco guide however hs many, many gaps, many which we did not discover until we arrived.

1. As a previous reviewer had highlighted, the book is heavily padded with sites with that cannot be visited by non-Muslims. This isn't always obvious when you're planning your visit, so it can be very disappointing.

2. Should include more travellers advice with information on faux-guides, hammams, currency exchange, Ramadam hours and customs, to name few.

3. We found the sections and Fes and Marrakech to not be very helpful and sites that non-Muslims can visit contained very scant information. There was a lot to see, but so little detail in the guide. the maps so poor that we tended to leave the book in the riad.

4. there should be more info on where to eat in the medinas.

If you can read French, I would recommend that you buy the Guide Routard. The French guide books on the whole seem much better for Morocco and will not leave you wondering if the person who wrote the guide, ever visited the country.

A good general book
I found this book useful for general information about the country and would be really good if you were touring or going to lots of different places. Is not in loads and loads of detail about a couple of cities but there are good guides solely for those cities if only going there. Has good maps and for travelling around the country was a great starting place!