Ourika Valley Day Trip From Marrakech

Une journée très sympa, malgré la pluie, et oui ici aussi ça arrive, un bon moment passé dans des beaux paysages, mention spéciale à notre chauffeur et au guide pour leurs services

Hicham a été un super guide !! Souriant , aidant et petit plus pour son partage de wifi Nous avons pu visiter une coopérative d’argan et un marché berbère ,ainsi que les cascades où nous avons pris plein la vue ????????

Very disappointed. I booked for myself and 3 friends. Main reason I booked was for the walk in the hills and waterfall visit that I previously did in 2015 with my husband and 3 kids. On this trip we were the only 4 from the UK, the other people on the trip were French. Guide spoke perfect French and English, at first he was friendly and happy. He gave us an intro chat about what we were doing, must admit I didn’t hear him mention the waterfall. Didn't think to ask and confirm. Longer talk in French. First stopped at a lay-by, some hills to see. Heart shape structure to take photo. Visited a woman’s Aragon oil co -op, which was a shop, then walked up the main road to a Burbar village (small town on the road up the hills), visited a Burbar house, they wanted you to buy at their shop and tip. Went on a walk up the road, up some steps, to a viewing area, looked like waste land and then along a path to a shut down restaurant area. Empty pool and table and chairs on grass area. Asked why we were visiting this place, guide said for the views???? Got a little defensive in manner. All tourist traps, but happy to do as going on walk and waterfalls. Back on minibus and taken a bit further on. Had lunch at 12, thought early but busy chatting with my friends. Lunch ok nothing special, basic and more expensive than Marrakesh, then back onto mini bus, fell asleep. Thought we were on the way to the walk and waterfalls. Woke and looked like we were near Marrakesh! Stopped at petrol station - told to go get a coffee. This was at 15:30. Asked why here and not doing walk and waterfall. Guide said he was told by the ladies at the Aragon oil place we couldn’t go there. Said he had told the French people but not us. Was his fault. Asked why he didn’t know at the beginning and never mentioned not going to the waterfalls on his short intro. He kept saying-Please don’t complain he will loose his poorly paid job. Total waste of our time. Would not have gone. He said he was saving our lives not taking us there on the walk and waterfalls too dangerous. I said I had been before, but was told by him I had not! This was the only reason we came on the trip. He said after the lunch he told us all we were going back to Marrakesh, we obviously were not listening properly, he did a joke and said keep walking down the hill to Marrakesh as we were returning to the minibus. Thought he was joking. Gave different reasons why we didn’t go to the waterfall then said someone fell 2 days ago, then it was yesterday, then there was a landslide on the road. All the villagers had to leave work to try and clear it, “did we not care about them?” Then it was-No water at the waterfalls, then it rained and made the rocks slippy. Too dangerous to walk there. Back to someone fell a couple days ago. Asked what we wanted , we did say we wish we had been told at the start of the trip and we would not have gone. He said no refund and don’t give a review. One of my friends came and said she had spoken to another couple on the trip, who was disappointed. We asked if we could get a 50% refund. He said no but did offer to get us a souvenir! I was annoyed and said walk to an empty restaurant area and stopping at a petrol station was not at all nice or scenic. Guide then got annoyed, pointing finger at me, saying we should not talk to anyone else on the group and he didn’t care what I did, Allah would make sure he was breathing tomorrow, said this a few times pointing at my face. Gave up as he was getting annoyed and not very nice. I just asked to get on the mini bus and back. If we had been told at the beginning we could have decided if we wanted to go, he kept saying no refund, but we could make that decision ourselves, if we wanted to go or not and forfeit the fee. Didn’t like his explanation all sounded like excuses, lies and threats, stoping at petrol station seemed to be just delaying getting back. So in brief, we had an atrocious walk to closed restaurant grounds, stopped at a shop, visited a house with an old woman who wanted a tip to have a photo, a meal that was by a river but felt like a building site, coffee at a petrol station and a threatening guide, though it was a reasonable price! We just wish we had paid more and gone on our own. Total waste of time. It was also our last day in Marrakesh and there was lots of other places we could/should have visited.