Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

Reviews of this experience

1. A fantastic experience in a beautiful landscape; I loved staying in the
   villages and mountain retreats. It was my first multi day trek.
   However I'll defiantly be back for more. My only wish was that my trek
   was longer!

   Mustapha was my guide. I was delighted
   with the service provided throughout the trek by Mustapha and the two
   muleteers. Mustapha was great company, friendly and professional and
   really enhanced my experience. The food was excellent and all transfers went like clockwork.

   Andrew Hale reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

2. Guide (Mohammad) was great, set a good pace, knew how much time to spend engaging with us and how much to leave us alone, friendly. Great guy - a mountain marathon runner with a slightly surprising array of card tricks.
   Food was amazing and the chef really friendly. The trek overall was brilliant - I've recommended it to friends and family. Thanks for an amazing trip, and pass on our thanks to Mohamed and crew. He was there to welcome us at the end and was very friendly.

   Jake Lomax reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

3. We completed the 4 day version of the Classic Berber Villages and Toubkal Ascent at the end of October/start of November 2011. We booked as a couple and were joined by another solo male traveller who luckily we got on really well with, we all appreciated having someone else on the trip but also that it was a very small group.

   Our driver picked us up at 9am from the door of our riad as promised, and we drove to meet our guide, muleteers and mules at the start of the route. They had already sorted some equipment we needed to borrow like sleeping bags (to avoid extra luggage on the plane) and drove the other guy to their shop in Imlil so he could borrow some other things.

   It's an easyish hike on the first day, we had an amazing lunch on a grassy plateau with the first of many stunning views. The muleteers do an amazing job preparing a range of fresh foods for lunch and dinner and manage to present it beautifully. And let's not forget the constant supply of lovely tea!

   We then hiked to the first village where we stayed in a local run gite which was comfortable enough.

   We found the 2nd day's hiking hard. The first few hours hiking through villages was really interesting and colourful, followed by a harder uphill hike with the sun beating down on us to where we stopped for lunch. The hiking after lunch was thankfully much shorter to our refuge for the night. The refuge was a great little building with a waterfall right behind. The size and personalities of our group made for a really good atmosphere in places like this, it didn't matter that we were freezing cold and didn't speak the same language, some tea, food, music and card games made for fun evenings together! You tend to reach the place you're sleeping quite early in the day. I'd suggest cleaning up, sorting yourself out for the evening and wrapping up warm as soon as you arrive, and pack some stuff to do! Books, music and card games supplemented chatting to keep us entertained.

   Day 3 has a fairly difficult uphill nicknamed '90 zigzags' but when you pause for breath and water the views behind are increasingly amazing. The walk to the 'base camp' refuge after is an easier gradient and we got there by lunch (like I said, lots of down time). This is a large refuge with many groups going to or returning from the summit and their guides. It may be different if there are groups you can get to know but with a language barrier we didn't really chat to the others and preferred the smaller refuge from the day before. Still, comfortable sleeping arrangements, and a nice lounge area.

   On our summit day we set off after an early breakfast before 6 (in the dark) and got to see the sun rise over the mountains ahead as we climbed. People talked about 'the first bit being the hardest' before we left but there's not much change in gradient until the last 10 minutes! It took us 3 hours to reach the summit and we had to use crampons for about half because of quite deep snow that was frozen quite solid. The views from the top are stunning and totally worth it. We were up there for about half an hour and were lucky enough to meet only one other climber at the top. As soon as we started descending it seemed less real that we'd been there. Glad we've got pictures and videos to remind me!

   After lunch at the refuge we walked all the way down to Imlil (on a different route to the way up) which was straightforward but looong, and we were weary by the time we reached the Imlil shop to settle up for the things we'd borrowed.

   A car met us outside the shop and drove us to Marrakech without a problem, however when we got there it was clear that the driver did not know how to get us back to our riads, and actually became quite confrontational about it when we said we didn't want to be dropped on the wrong side of the medina. He was not a taxi like the car on our way out, we got the impression that he had been asked to take us because he was heading that way. Luckily we could use internet mobile to look up the number of our riad and one of the boys from there came out to meet us and direct him. It was a shame to sour the end of our experience with a bit of a shortcut gone wrong.

   Overall, a brilliant experience. Our guide, Mohammed spoke excellent English, was very informative and was a great pacemaker. The muleteers Ibrahim and Mohammed did a great job, spoke little English but their personalities shone through. We took everything on Tourdust's suggested list but did not need water tablets as bottled water was readily available to but at least once per day. We would recommend plenty of light and warm layers and both had sports 'skin' long sleeved tops which proved invaluable. We struck very lucky with the weather (no rain) but had both hot and cold climates to dress for.

   Overall, a 5 star unforgettable experience and good value for money.

   Alex Nicholson reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

4. The 5day Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent was the highlight of our 2wk trip in Morocco. The guide and cook were both very friendly, respectful, and informative. The food was amazing - we wanted to take Rashid home with us! It was very pleasant walking through the villages, with the days getting progressively harder - a perfect build-up to the final 2days of great ascents. Climbing Toubkal was extremely rewarding, meeting various lovely people on that final day. We highly recommend this trek to others, and for those who have already booked it, additional advice would be to take a pack of cards and interesting books because there's so much relaxing time at the end of each day of trekking! Thank-you Tourdust & Thank-You Abdulla & Rashid!!!

   Alanna reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

5. We had a wonderful trip - highlight of 2011! Everything ran like clockwork, the care and attention from the team was first class. The trekking was fantastic - challenging but just enough so. I don't think we would have changed a thing. Thank you

   RachaelErskine reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

6. a great trip. Organisation was very simple and smooth, and the walk itself - through villages, along valleys and up to the summit of Toubkal was wonderful - altogether a great experience.

   tom howes reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

7. Overall, I was really impressed with the trek and it was definitely the highlight of our trip to Morocco. We stayed in relatively isolated villages, saw few other travelers, interacted with Berbers, saw amazing challenging hiking around the valleys and up Mount Toubkhal. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wanted to do something that was definitely off the beaten track in Morocco.

   Jenna Jadin reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

8. We really can't speak highly enough of our holiday. You and Ben were a pleasure to deal with, knowledgeable, helpful with no pressure or hassle.

   Our guide Mohamed and our muleateer Mohamed were a delight - solicitious but never intrusive. You seriously under sell the gourmet element of the trek - every meal was a feast, fabulously presented in wonderful settings. Mohamed Aktaz's house was great and chips a novel but welcome sight!

   Some specific suggestions:

   - add a water bottle to the kit list. We had tablets as a precaution but anticipated water being provided en-route.
   - weather link from your site was helpful, we probably should have taken less "winter" kit on the back of this.
   - the 1:50,000 map (Toubkal) from Stamford's was well worth having

   Adrian really enjoyed the Toubkal summit - up and down in three hours despite a broken crampon!

   AdrianBelton reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

9. I would definitely recommend this trip to other travellers.
   Everything ran like clockwork. Mohammed met us at the airport and took us to our riad in Marrakech which was a lovely place right in the centre but quiet as a retreat. We loved sitting on the upstairs terrace chilling out and having cups of mint tea prepared by their lovely staff.

   On the trek Mohammed picked us up at 9am and we were taken to the start were we met our guide Mohammed ,our cook Hammed and our Mule who we named Janet.
   We spent a lovely 5 days trekking and were really looked after by Mohammed and Hammed. The food was amazing and nothing was too much trouble for them.
   The climb up Toubkal was amazing. Lots of snow and beautiful views.

   We met some lovely people in the villagers.
   We will definitely like to return to climb some more peaks.

   Kevin Dawes reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

10. We would highly recommend booking a trek with Tourdust. We had a tailor made 4 day trek with friendly, professional guides. It was fun and well organised with good accommodation and great food. Lots of great memories and stunning photos.

    We had an amazing time, mohammed and loshum were both really helpful. took us into the village in the evenings to see the village celebrating eid, played football with the kids in the village. We felt safe. Food was excellent, had our own impromptu cookery course with mohammed. On the last day lucy went with loshum for a harder walk and I stayed with mohammed so catered to both levels of fitness

    RuthCrook reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent

11. Mohamed Aztat, a fluent speaker of English, French, Berber and Spanish is equally at home taking a family group through the low level M'goun valleys or experienced trekkers and climbers up the steepest slopes.

    LonelyPlanet reviewing Classic Berber Villages & Toubkal Ascent