WHAT THE ATS PROGRAMME OFFERS:

You don’t need to travel far from Marrakech to experience contrasting aspects of very “real Morocco”. As a great (and possibly most welcome!) change to the hustle and bustle of the city, exciting and as vibrant as it is, to travel out on to the surrounding Marrakech Plain is to enter another world, a rural world, a captivating world

ATS can offer you a very unique set of experiences that are only an hour away from the city streets

Your Marrakech experience can be for a ½ or a whole day. Your journey will take you across the very beautiful and carefully tended and cultivated rolling lowlands that lie to the north and east of Marrakech. Several villages will be visited and individual farms too. Many stops will be made, to view, to photograph and, of course, to experience the wonderful hospitality of the people. Traditional refreshments and foods will be enjoyed (a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach). Visits to “les artisanal”, the skilful craftspeople (e.g. traditional carpet weaving, metalworking) can also be incorporated.

As well as arable farming, pastoral farming too will be seen. Day about, everyone in the family takes a turn at tending to the grazing needs of the family’s sheep and goats. If visiting in the springtime you’ll clearly appreciate just why the milk, butter and meat tastes so good, the meadow grasses and flowers are so abundant (e.g. red poppies). Depending on the season, many interesting activities will be seen of rural life as it unfolds daily - sowing, harvesting, tending the plants and processing the produce. Much is still done by hand with the aid of donkeys

Eating a “second breakfast” (a traditional meal that fits the daily rural schedule of chores to be done) is a delight; olives, butter, bread, eggs, mint tea, all ingredients most like to have been grown within a few hundred metres of your table. And if you also wish to have lunch this can be either in a traditional farmer’s home or as a picnic in a glorious location; again, the food will be traditional, tasty and very healthy.

For those who wish to stretch their legs a little bit more, then there are many gentle rambles to be enjoyed. Rising above the Marrakech Plain are outcrops of granite that from low hills and boulder fields. Their shapes and landforms are very varied, offering intriguing little sorties to explore their hidden gems.

VILLAGE ASSOCIATIONS :

Douar Oulad Elgern, one village on the Marrakech Plain, has recently established a Village Association; this is offering great hope to the villagers. Supported by local government agencies and the inhabitants themselves, it is hoped to open a staffed nursery school, to create a walled cemetery, to help students to continue their studies after primary school, to create small projects for the villagers (e.g. the purchase of goats for the women to allow extra income; to encourage artisanal workshops). Such ideas for sustainable development will bring the opportunities for everyone to thrive, young and old and for Douar Oulad Elgern to continue viably into the future. You may indeed feel, after your visit, that you would like to contribute in some way to helping the Association to achieve its goals.

WHAT ATS OFFERS:

• Return transport from your accommodation in Marrakech to the Marrakech Plain;

• A local Moroccan guide throughout your day (with much local knowledge to impart);

• A programme that is bespoke to your individual requirements;

• Participation in the “second breakfast”;

• Many stops along the way (for photography, for bird watching, for wild flowers, etc.);

• Visits to les artisanals (skilled craft workers);

• Lunch (either in a farmer’s house or as a picnic);

• Optional short strolls to the low, granite hills;

• A truly meaningful and most involving visit.