Morocco was never a place I even thought about going to visit. It’s one of those places that any time I heard from someone about it, it always had a little negative connotation.

I heard a lot about men harassing women in the streets and that I always had to be fully covered to enjoy the experience. It was never on my list of places to go, never a thought in my mind.

UNTIL…

The Blonde Abroad started talking about her upcoming TBA Escapes.

Quick break in the story to talk about Kiersten from The Blonde Abroad. This business women is taking female digital entrepreneurs to a whole different level. Forbes just featured her as creating a million dollar travel empire. Ladies and gentlemen, Kiersten knows what she’s doing. Just a total and complete bad ass boss top the core.

Naturally, I’ve had a crush on her since I was first introduced to her blog in 2014. I’ve traveled to Iceland, Bali, and South Africa (of course!) with pieces of the Blonde Abroad in my travels throughout the way. She has inspired a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam this winter, and continues to keep my wanderlust alive.

The TBA Escapes is a women-only travel experience that offers carefully designed bespoke travel tours and educational retreats for the adventurous female traveler. I have been planning my own travels for years and I have never done a fully booked and planned trip with anyone else, so this year I thought — why not? And I knew I was in good hands with Kiersten running the books.

In comes the Morocco tour, a 10-day tour with an optional 4-night adventure into the Sahara Desert for the ultimate luxury glamping experience! YUP. I was in.

All I had to do was book my flight, and when I got off the plane everything was ready for me! So let me take you through the streets of Marrakech, Blue City, and into the Sahara Desert.TBA Escapes

Tangier

We only spent a night in Tangier, but it was one of my favorite nights of the entire trip. Its a city right on the water with a birds-eye view of Spain just across the bay. We caught the sunset, live music, and ate one of my favorite meals of the trip as well. What an incredible evening I will never forget with new friends by my side.

The Blue City of Chefchaoen

This was a city for the Instagram photos. Set against a wide valley and nestled between two peaks in the stunning Rif Mountains, its medina has been lovingly cared for with striking blue and whitewashed houses. We explored the city on foot, walked around to get the best photos, and I wondered off for some alley sprints.

This city is pretty tiny, so two nights was all we needed to see everything it had to offer. There was even a Hammam offering, which I was super excited to try. Basically, you get pretty much naked with a friend (hey new roommate, we’re bff’s now!) and a lady comes and scrubs you down from head to toe. I didn’t hate it.

Fes

Fes was something to write home about. I hadn’t even heard of this place before arriving and now I need everyone to go see how great it is. We did everything from checking out the local markets, to tea time, to the smelly leather tanneries to seeing how intricate traditional Morrocan tiles were made. I even walked away with two beautiful hand-painted bowls that made there way back to the US without a scratch!

Walking through the narrow streets of Fes was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The streets were so narrow but the buildings were so high. The buildings also had nothing on the sides, so it feels like you are just walking through stucco and see random doors that you don’t know what could possibly be behind them, which I feel like was the coolest part. Who knows, dead bodies and garbage or a king could live there? I mean how COOL is that!

Speaking of, Riads are something I wish the US had. A riad (Arabic: رياض‎) is a type of traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard. Walking into a home you may not see a lot of light right away, and then if you keep walking you see a brightly like courtyard that goes all the way up to the sky. The sun shines through into a little pool/garden in the middle and lights up the rest of the inside of the home. It’s more beautiful than I am explaining it, but make sure you stay at a Riad if you go. We stayed at Riad Laaroussa and WOW.

Casa Blanca

The quickest stop overnight to Casablanca for our halfway point of the trip. You can skip this city entirely. It was busy with so much traffic, and unneccassary in my opinion, but it did get us to the next awesome spot the next morning.

Marrakech

What a dream. I loved this city so much that I can’t wait to come back. We were there for three nights and I could have easily stayed the entire week. It’s HUGE, and there is two major parts to the city. We only really had time to explore one. Who wants to take a trip back with me?

Since there were 12 of us, we were able to book out the whole Riad Yasmine, gorgeous in every way and in a great part of town. We could easily walk to the markets to buy too many things and bargain on things we probably will never use but hey! You’re only in Morocco once! Maybe not though…

I was able go to a spa, shopping, explore, go out for live music, and relax all in one city. Now those are things I can get behind!

Sahara Desert

Hi bucket list destination, I’m Tara.

This was everything I thought it would be plus so much more. I sprinted the hills of the Sahara desert, how many other people can say that? I was also able to meditate, go on a walk with camels, and eat fresh/incredible food with friends in the middle of the desert. What a way to end out the journey.

We also had an idea to create a Burning Man experience within the group, so that went over really well.