The lesser known region of Northern Morocco is home to beachside art and surf towns surrounded by rolling green hills and jungle. It is also easily accessible from Europe. I visited Morocco for the first time while living in Spain, and took a short ferry ride  from Tarifa across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, a large coastal city in Morocco. 

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Tangier is a great starting point in the north, and if you're planning to stay in nicer hotels, it is a good location to keep as a home base. This is not necessarily the best way to go, but how I experienced it in an organized group for the first time. 

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Note: I am not a proponent for organized travel experiences. I do understand the appeal... It works for those that are too busy to build itineraries and make reservations. It can feel safer, more secure and trusted. It can sometimes appear cheaper (to see less zeros guaranteed as your end total). In reality, it can be just as easy to meet those low travel totals or even lower while traveling independently if you just stick to your plan and stay disciplined with your spending from start to finish. Even more so, travel is so much more rewarding with freedom to choose each of your experiences and mold a destination into your own.

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Tangier happens to be fairly close (3 or 4 hours) from the ​Pinterest-esque location of Chefchaouen - also known as the "Blue City." Chefchaouen is the most charming village in Morocco (at least that I've seen so far.) I can't imagine it gets any better, though, for the avid local village traveler. The village is still as local-feeling as can be despite its famous blue alleyways plastered over every travel platform, which I think is remarkable and incredibly refreshing. I visited about 4 years ago, so things may have changed since and the city may have become more touristy - but I hope not! To see a place with iconic and infamous imagery that is still for the most part untouched and not commercialized does not happen very often. During my tour of Chefchaouen, there were quite literally no other tourists, no westerners, no chain hotels or restaurants and no organized tourist attractions. Women sold crafted goods and trinkets in the streets and quiet men lounged around the entrances of their shops - all without the aggressive coaxing and hustling of larger cities. Chefchaouen is also notably clean, with not much chaos, animals or waste in the streets, despite the poverty of the rural area. The town itself is pretty small and can be accomplished in half a day. I did not stay overnight, and I don't know much about options for staying in town. I would imagine the options are slim and not up to a westerner's standards. If you are more of a comfort traveler (at least when it comes to where you sleep) I would recommend staying in a nearby city such as Tangier that has plenty of 3-5 star hotels. 

 

From Tangier, I also visited the seaside town of Asilah, which was the best surprise. This village is a Moroccan take on the white-washed Cycladic Islands in Greece and a Southwestern Africa artist's village. The village is extremely vibrant and lively. Alone the boardwalk area, which is cliffside above the coastline, were tribal-dressed street performers and drummers making music and showing off traditional dancing. In the center of town, every building was bright white, with pops of green, red, and blue at every doorway, arch, mural and tapestry. Each mural had a message of world peace, which was a moral theme for this town that could be felt. The jewel tone palette against stark white is something I hadn't seen before and have yet to see since. The artistry and positivity of Asilah really did radiate through its streets and made my time in Northern Morocco most memorable.

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