Chasing the sunshine, we decided to take a quick trip to Morocco, the most visited country in Africa. After a short two-hour flight from Bordeaux to Fes, we found ourselves in this very exotic muslin country. We used Fes as the base, and did day trips out of Fes located in central Morocco. Most people travelling through Morocco in one direction, either from North or South. Every few days, they relocate to a new city. We only had 7 days in total, not long enough to cover long distance travels, and moving from one city to another would lose lots of valuable time. We'd rather focus on one small region, get to know the area, the culture and the people.
Day 1 - Arrive in Fes
Our flight was 30 mins delayed. We didn't arrive at Fes airport until midnight. For a 30 Euro one way flight (Bordeaux, France - Fes, Morocco), that wasn't too bad. The owner of our airbnb had suggested that we exchange some Moroccan Dirham at the airport as it was the weekend. Banks are closed on the weekends and most businesses do not take credit cards, so if we want to survive the weekend, we need cash. So we did. BIG mistake!!! Never ever exchange money at the airport. They DING you big time. The exchange rate was not in our favour to say the least. We later found out that we lost about 10% for doing that currency exchange. We could actually have used our WISE card to get Dirham in cash from most bank machines. Even with the service charge by the 3rd party ATM and the regular fee from WISE, the exchange rate was still a lot better than the one we got at the airport. So, lesson #1 - DO NOT exchange currency at the airport EVER!!! And I just can't stress enough that WISE card is absolutely the best multi-currency travel card out there. Anyone who travels lots, does not want to worry about getting the best currency exchange rates or getting dinged by credit card companies or other bank charges need to get this card.
Our driver (arranged by our airbnb owner for 20 Euro) picked us up with a small mini-van. As soon as we stepped outside the arrival, we felt the warm humid air surrounding us instantly. We were still in our winter jackets LOL. All I could think of was ditching my down jacket. Kids were excited about the palm trees uniformly lined in the middle of the road. It was well past midnight, but we were wide awake, feeling very excited.
Checking in at our airbnb, a Moroccan 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom palace (kids called it) was easy. The owner was still up and waiting for us. He was a Moroccan in his 60s, speaking no English, but fluent French. He showed us around, and in the end I was thinking what are we going to do with all this space? We went from a tiny 2 bed and 1 bath (often lineups during critical times) to this GRAND palace!!! I had no idea when I booked it. Well, let's enjoy it thoroughly in the next few days.
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