Tailor-made trips reviews

“Our expert in Morocco was a great choice We normally prefer to explore overseas destinations on our own, but for Morocco we decided that it would be less stressful to have a tour company take care of us and we are definitely glad we did! We just came back from a 7-day/6-night tour of Morocco arranged by Rough Guides through a local tour company. Overall it was a great experience. It was good value, the tour company and driver assigned to us were honest, trustworthy and responsive, and the hotels and local day guides that they arranged for us were all good recommendations. The tour company assigned us a driver named Tawfiq for the entire duration of the trip. Tawfiq is a terrific asset to the company. He is a safe and thoughtful driver and we felt safe in his care. Also, although he was not a formal guide he knew a lot about the places we visited and shared many interesting and useful insights about Morocco. Tawfiq also made sure to call ahead and ensure the hotels could meet us on arrival (which sometimes required a porter to carry our bags uphill or down very confusing alleyways in the old city), as well as meeting and handing us off to local guides. Tawfiq was available on WhatsApp (for Americans, it is a helpful texting/phone app overseas), so we had no problems arranging daily logistics for pickup, etc. Our tour started in Tangier where we were picked up at the airport, and continued over 7 days to Chefchaouen, Volabilis, Meknes, Fes, Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh, and included drop off at our departure airport at Marrakesh. The tour company was very helpful in helping us modify their initial "best of" recommended itinerary to match our flights and preferences. I would note that we did most of our communications arranging our trip directly with Mohamed, the owner of the tour company. Because of the time we had and the way the different cities are laid out, our itinerary did make for some long drives which they thoughtfully broke up into 1-3 hour segments. Our driver Tawfiq was very helpful planning rest stops and meals along the way, and you should not be shy about letting your driver know if you need to take a break. The hotels that they arranged for us were all quite good, clean with helpful service and good-to-decent breakfasts. I guess there is always a fear of getting sick but we were pretty lucky and no one had any digestive problems even though we ate out almost every day at local restaurants outside our hotels. The tour company also arranged for local licensed guides with expertise in specific locales. These local guides covered a full day in Fes, a half-day in Marrakesh, and 1 hour in Volabilis (ancient Roman ruins) and 2 hours in Meknes. You do not need to pay these guides separately, but it is customary to give them a tip. The guides were generally pretty good (special mention for Amal in Fes), but you should not be shy if you need them to slow down or speak more clearly. One point I think worth mentioning is that in the bigger cities, the guides included stops at various shops, including shops selling berber rugs, leather goods and ceramics. I have been on trips (e.g., Venice) where you find yourself in high-pressure sale situations. This is not that. These stops give you a view into the local culture and economy, and if you are interested, a chance to buy from respectable sellers. If you really do not want to be taken to any shops or merchants, you should say so, or ask your guide if you need help (although normally the guides will sit outside the shop and let you shop at leisure). For our family of three adults (2 hotel rooms each night), it came out to approx USD 330 per person per night, including an English-speaking driver and large van, 2 rooms each night at a 4- or 5-star riad-style hotel, breakfast was inclusive. The expense included hiring the local guides.”

“We had never used travel agents before this trip, and it proved a very worthwhile thing to do for travelling in a country we knew nothing about. We had organised our own stay in Marrakech but hadn't felt confident in undertaking the remainder of a packed itinerary to three other cities by ourselves. I chose to use a respected travel company (Rough Guides) and they have chosen an excellent partner agent in Morocco (Mohamed. Mohamed put together a detailed trip that followed the dates and places that I had asked for, but with added improvements. He called and suggested those small improvements and the resulting booking and payment was very smooth. Mohamed chose Tawfiq to be our driver for our 5-day trip and we had a lovely time with him. Tawfiq was very welcoming, very considerate and knowledgeable and we comfortably spent long hours driving across Morocco with him. He always took our needs into consideration, made sure we had all the necessary stops for toilets and photos, was always on time to collect us and made sure we were safely handed to guides and hotel staff at key points. He was always ready to answer our many questions about protocol, and to discuss culture, customs and life experiences. We would thoroughly recommend Rough Guides, Mohamed and Tawfiq to anyone else booking a holiday in Morocco.”

“Tawfiq was a great ambassador for your company. His upbeat personality and his love for Morocco was infectious. We even had a wonderful lunch at his families home. He was a very safe driver and certainly knew the culture of Morocco. We really took care of us and our needs. He was also very punctual. As a group, I think Tilia could leave off the Hercules caves. It was expensive, very little information provided and little to see. Highlights were our desert experience and the city guides were well informed.”

“The guide is knowledgeable, kind and very helpful. I do wish his English would be a little better. Sometimes it’s difficult to convey to him or understand what he is trying to tell us. But otherwise he is a great guide and eventually we do communicate after repeating ourselves. The trip has been wonderful and everything we have seen has been very interesting. However a few days we were done at 12-1pm and back to the hotel to essentially do nothing. Tomorrow nothing is planned and we are just spending the entire day at the hotel. We could have shortened the trip by a couple days had we known that. But overall we have enjoyed the trip and all we have seen and the guide has been very good.”

“We used Rough Guides for planning and executing our trip to Egypt. To start with Youssef was our travel coordinator who was extremely responsive and helpful throughout the planning and also the execution stage. He helped elevate all my apprehensions, changed the plan multiple times due to certain date changes or requirements and finally thru the execution he was there virtually with us throughout the tour helping and coordinating. We had a few Tour Guides through our journey who were all amazing and very helpful. Karam was the main guide in Cairo who was very helpful, accommodating and a wealth of information. The second guide was Ahmed Amin who was with us from Aswan to Luxor, again extremely knowledgeable, helpful and a gem - he was the best tour guide we had on the trip. Marwa was our guide for a day in Alexandria and it was great to have a change with a female guide, she too was amazing and full of amazing information and anecdotes. Mahmoud was our guide into old city Cairo on our last day and was full of information especially about the Soccer and sports. We also had our "filler" guide who would pitch in for us in between for airport pickups, dinners, etc. his name was Mohab and he was just amazing. All our drivers were fantastic skillfully maneuvering the dreadful traffic in Egypt and the mountains. The hotels recommended and booked by the travel agent were also great not 5 star but clean, functional and acceptable. The trip and the activities were amazing giving us a fantastic experience of Egypt. The Pyramids being the highlight but the ages old Temples and Tombs were not far behind. And I would be remiss if I do not mention the shopping - it was FUN!”

“Excellent choice of locations and activities. All transfers punctual and friendly. Good communications during the holiday but took a long while to finalise the booking initially.”