Why visit Morocco with WeLoveSpain?

In 2018 I studied in Sevilla for 4 months. Most weekends I travelled with my friends to Cadiz, Granada, Málaga and more. We visited many places together and had so much fun!
I wanted to visit Morocco so badly, as Sevilla is pretty close by. Unfortunately, reaching Morocco with public transport is not the easiest from Sevilla. Also, did I not find it that comfortable to travel in Morocco on my own. As it also would be my first experience travelling solo.

WeLoveSpain
Then I discovered WeLoveSpain.org. which offers trips mostly from Sevilla. This is super easy if you are staying in Sevilla for a longer period of time.
So in October 2018 I decided to join a trip of WeLoveSpain to Morocco and Gibraltar. I really wanted to visit Morocco and Gibraltar was a plus 🙂 It were 3 hectic, but fun days! In this blog I will write about my experience in Morocco.
On Friday we visited Gibraltar all day. You can read about my experience at Gibraltar here.

After visiting Gibraltar, it was time to head to our boat, so we could cross to another new continent, Africa! I was so excited! We took the boat from Gibraltar and went directly to our hotel.

Saturday

Cape Spartel & Camel ride on the beach

Saturday morning I stepped into the bus and directly met an awesome American girl. We had an amazing time and spoke a lot in the bus. I met here once again after our Moroccan adventure, before she went back to America. I hope to meet her again in the future.

Cape Spartel
The first destination was Cape Spartel. This is cape, located about 1,000 feet above sea level and it connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. That of course means that it has wonderful views!
I think I even saw the color changing between the Sea and Ocean. Or maybe I was just hallucinating 😉

Camel ride on the beach

We also rode a camel on the beach there! This was super cool!
I sat on a camel before, when I went to Jordan, but this time it was a bit longer.
I also found it cool to do this on the beach, with many other girls and a professional photographer.

Have you ever been on a camel?
The way they go up when you are already sitting on them, is so scary! You have to hold them well, otherwise you will be landing 5 meters below on the ground.

The way they are treated
The fact that this was on the beach, I found really cool. On the other hand I did not like the way the camels were treated. I saw that the mentors were hitting the camels when they were not listening. If I knew about that before, I would have doubted to go on one. This is something I think WLS should have done some research about. I hope they will change it in the future, unless I am wrong and the camels are treated very well.

Baby Camels
After this experience, we suddenly saw all these baby camels! They were so cute and of course just as tall as me, because I am tiny (1.54cm, very short if you know that the people in the Netherlands are the tallest people of the world. Can you imagine my struggle every day ;))

Chefchaouen

The blue town

From Cape Spartel we drove through Morocco to Chefchaouen. The nature was so beautiful! It was a 2.5 hours drive and all I did was staring out of the window and be amazed by how beautiful Morocco is. Unfortunately, we had to stop after these 2.5 hours, because we arrived at the destination. But I was so excited for this place and I think this would turn out to be the highlight of our trip.

Chefchaouen is an amazing blue-painted town and really photogenic. Around every corner I wanted to take another photo. We first started with a lunch and had a gorgeous view over the whole town.

Fun tour
After this, we had a fun tour through the whole town. It was awesome to get to know more about this amazing place.
I did notice that there was not much time to take photos, if you wanted to take photos many others would be in the photo, because we travelled with a group. And if you wanted to take photos without any people, you would not hear anything of the information of the guide.
Besides that, I noticed that the inhabitants sometimes were a bit annoyed by us, even though they are still kind. I would be too, if I would live in overly crowded touristic place like that.

Factory & exploring
Next we also went to a small Moroccan factory, where they explained about all their products and showed their beautiful carpets. Argan oil comes from Morocco, so of course I had to buy it for my sister.
Then we had another hour to discover the place on our own. I did this with the nice Finnish and English girl I talked about in the blog about Gibraltar.

Highlight of the trip
Chefchaouen is truly one of the most impressive places I have ever been to. I will never forget this blue place. We also saw a Moroccan man with a traditional instrument and he played for us. Such a lovely experience and I will never forget this. Chefchaouen was the highlight of this trip for sure.

Júzcar
In Spain I also went to a blue painted place, called Júzcar. (Click on this link, to read more about Júzcar).
Júzcar was also really beautiful, but not as cool as Chefchaouen. This is mainly because Chefchaouen is much bigger, so more gorgeous blue roads to discover. Júzcar is also the town of the smurfs, which you can find over the whole town (statues, paintings). So both places are very different from each other.

Dancers & Henna
The last thing we did on that day, was also super fun. We went to a beautifully decorated restaurant, to have amazing food and to watch awesome performances, from belly dancers to cool guys playing their instruments. Other than that, it was also possible to get a henna tattoo, which I of course wanted! The artist also created my name, but I doubt if she heard and wrote it correctly hihi.
For a video, scroll down this page!

Sunday

Tetouan: The white town

On the last day on our trip we went to Tetouan. This is a beautiful white town. So from a completely blue, we went to a white town.
Here we had a tour as well through the whole town and the medina, which was amazing. The tour guide was so funny, yet informative and I felt like he knew everyone in the Medina. I knew I would not get lost with him.

What a maze is the Medina of Tetouan! If I would have walked there alone, I would definitely be lost. I get lost anywhere to be honest, but there Google Maps also doesn´t function. That makes it even more cool to visit actually! Just visit all the markets and see the locals selling their stuff.

Of course we had some free time there as well. But unfortunately, it was raining a lot. So I went to have Moroccan tea in one of the little bars in the Medina (I have had Moroccan tea in Morocco :D, goalsss). I had a great time there, especially just looking at the locals, was so much fun.

Cross the border
After this it was time to go home sadly. We had to take the boat again and I can tell you, to cross the border was pretty scary. We were not allowed to take any photos and the tour guide told us that many children/people try to stick under the bus, so that they can go inside Spain (Europe). I even heard from one of my classmates that went later to Morocco, that one child succeeded in doing this. I really hope that child is okay.

Summary

And that was it! My 3 days of travelling (without friends) for the first time are over.

I travelled with a tour company for the first time
Visited Gibraltar
Saw monkeys in Spain
Got a quick taste of Africa
Drank Moroccan tea in Morocco
Rode a camel

I simply just had an amazing time. Even though it is not always super awesome to travel with a tour company or WeLoveSpain, just because you can´t decide anything on your own and taking really good photos is difficult with so many people.
They also make you experience things, that you would not have thought about beforehand and they have the best information.

I do recommend WeLoveSpain! They thought about everything, like they should. Even food! So if you want to travel from Sevilla to Morocco, this could be a good idea!

Lastly, if you want to travel to the north of Morocco, you definitely have to go to Chefchaouen & Tetouan! Both towns are completely different; Chefchaouen is a bit touristy, but absolutely beautiful. While Tetouan did not feel touristic at all, but is just as pretty! And it´s so fun to explore the medina.

Watch a video of one of the dancing shows below