Morocco: Marrakech To Blue City, Sahara To Sea, Ruins To Riads

07/13/21 • 23 min

Morocco has all the elements travelers love: historic interests, great cities, friendly people; mild climate, scenic beauty, good food and lodging, and great shopping. Expert guide Ahmed Taoumi leads us through the country.
-- Ahmed tells of the Imperial Cities: Marrakech, Fez, Meknes, Rabat, with their casbahs. We also discuss the Roman ruins at Volubulus.
-- He talks of cities and the beauty in the Sahara, and of The Blue City in the Rif mountains, a couple of hours from Tangier.
-- We discuss architecture of the medina, the marketplace, and lodgings called riads, once homes to wealthy Moroccan families.
We talk of traditional foods like tagines, which are stews, and sugared-pigeon called bistila. Lea and Ahmed also discuss the wide variety and beauty of Moroccan handiwork.
Ahmed offers us shopping and bargaining tips . He ends with a favorite memory of a boy and a camel.

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Ahmed Toumi has been touring travelers throughout Morocco for over 40 years. Former president of the Guide Association of Tangier, he is currently a private guide. Ahmed's photos and descriptions of Morocco, are especially beautiful. Instagram/tour_with_taoumi; and here on Facebook. www.visitangier.com .

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Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter; Travelea on Insta; on Facebook, it's Places I Remember by Lea Lane. Website: placesirememberlealane.com. Please follow, rate and review this weekly travel podcast!

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Learning Through Travel: Family Trips, Gap Year, Exchange Programs, International Schools

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"Life is short and the world is wide. The sooner you start exploring it the better" is a popular quote from Simon Raven. Family trips, backpacking, gap year, exchange programs, international schools -- all are wonderful for young travelers, say guests Bob Gogel, CEO of WorldStrides, and student traveler Sabrina Lane.
-- Bob covers the first section of the podcast, explaining why it's important for young people to travel outside of the classroom. "It's all about learnable moments." He describes his own early travels as an exchange student in Nicaragua.
-- When traveling with family, he gives three suggestions, and shares some of his favorite destinations. He discusses exchange programs, backpacking, the gap year and the need for people to start traveling again.
-- Bob ends with his favorite personal memory of an archeological dig in France.
-- In the second part of the episode, Sabrina Lane describes her young travels with stories of family trips, traveling to Paris with her grandmother, living with a volunteer group in Peru, and plans for her senior year in high school -- in an international school in Bosnia.
-- Sabrina's stories are vivid, and she ends with a memorable tale in the Golan Heights of Israel.
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Bob Gogel is President and CEO of WorldStrides, the global leader in educational learning and experiential learning. It runs programs in over 100 countries for more than half a million students in over 5,000 schools and universities.
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Sabrina Lane will be experiencing her high school senior year and a following gap year at an international school in Bosnia. She's already traveled to over 20 countries, through family trips and volunteer experiences. She is an activist for peace and climate awareness.
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Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter; Travelea on Insta; on Facebook, it's Places I Remember by Lea Lane. Website: placesirememberlealane.com. Please follow, rate and review this weekly travel podcast!

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'1,000 Places To See Before You Die' Faves, With Best-Selling Author Patricia Schultz

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Patricia Schultz, author/editor of the best-selling series 1,000 Places To See Before You Die , is a terrific guest. On this super-size 25th episode, she and Lea share stories, experiences and info about favorite places around the world.
-- Patricia first tells when she started traveling, and how the "1,000 Places" brand came to be, about 20 years ago.
-- Then she and Lea alternate with some of their very favorite places -- continents, countries, man-made and natural sites -- adding their own experiences to each other's.
-- Favorite places include Antarctica; Antelope Canyon in Arizona; Beacon, New York; Bali,Indonesia; Italy, focused on Florence; Barcelona, Spain; Istanbul, Turkey; Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; Cuba; the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE; Iran; Iguacu Falls; Laos; Namibia; the "stans," especially Uzbekestan; Paris and New York;and the upland gorillas in Uganda.
-- Patricia ends with a touching memory about the most important travel aspect of all.
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Patricia Schultz is a veteran travel journalist who has written travel guides, magazine and newspaper articles as well as authoring her best-selling 1.000 Places series, with millions of copies in print. Contact her at [email protected]
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Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter; Travelea on Insta; on Facebook, it's Places I Remember by Lea Lane. Website: placesirememberlealane.com. Please follow, rate and review this weekly travel podcast!

Places I Remember with Lea Lane - Morocco: Marrakech To Blue City, Sahara To Sea, Ruins To Riads

Transcript

Lea Lane 00:04

Hi, I'm Lea Lane, an award-winning travel writer and author of Places I Remember: Tales, Truths, Delights from 100 Countries. On this podcast we share conversations with travelers about fascinating destinations and memorable experiences around the world. Today's guest is Ahmed Taoumi, former president of the Guide Association of Tangier. Welcome Ahmed. Thank you. It was a we're going to be talking about gorgeous Morocco in North Africa. I think it's just o