Gunter

Apr 27, 2018

With RSD Travel to Morocco - A mixed bag

We had never heard about RSD Travel until we saw a glossy leaflet in a professional magazine, offering 2 weeks in Morocco for the special price of £249, including a cultural round trip. By the time we had chosen a departure date, Stansted airport (£50 surcharge) and booked a week’s worth of ‘gourmet buffet’ dinners, the price had increased to £604. We are experienced travellers and realised that this was still are very good price compared to packages we had previously booked with better known companies, so decided to proceed. Our travel documents arrived about 2 weeks prior to departure and were reasonably detailed, except for the lack of any concrete information about the hotels we would be staying in. The reason for this became apparent at check-in, as RSD had chartered an entire aircraft for 180 people on the same tour, who upon arrival in Marrakech were split into 4 Groups with their own coaches and guides. The flight with Corenden Air, a small Dutch charter company, was very pleasant and above average. We were even offered a free roll and soft drinks, unheard of these days with uk based carriers. Immigration procedures and baggage retrieval at Marrakech are tedious, but the subsequent transfer to our hotel was efficient. Initial impressions of our guide and driver were positive and the allocated coach was almost new. Before we disembarked, Ali, our guide had a job to do, namely to sell two further packages, one for lunchtime buffet meals and one comprising several optional excursions. It became clear that our travel schedule during week one would be very tight and that hunting for independent restaurants during a one hour stop in an unknown location would be difficult, so we signed up. We also realised that the tour groups were allocated different hotels (pot luck!), probably at the last minute, hence no advance information. In some ways this was a bonus, as we did not see much of the other groups and we were able to get to know the members of our smaller group. The hotels had all been billed as Four Star, Moroccan classification. We reckon that by international standards they were between 2.5 and 3 stars. Hotel food was surprisingly nondescript and bland, and not always hot enough; some evening dishes were clearly warmed up for breakfast the next morning and the majority of our party, after a few days, suffered from digestion ailments. Some of the better meals were had during our lunch stops, as they were generally freshly cooked. The overall schedule for travel and sightseeing was strenuous for the mostly elderly clientele, but had been well chosen and gave an excellent overview of the country, especially for first time visitors. Ali was a very knowledgeable and engaged guide, probably the best we have ever had. He did of course take us to three local ‘craft emporia’, for rugs, leather and jewellery. Here we were given the predictable hard sell, but we were able to bargain hard, say ‘no thank you’ when we did not want to buy and did not feel under undue pressure. The add-on excursions and entertainment were a mixed bag - ‘Chez Ali’ equestrian show was disappointing, ‘Casablanca by Night’ lasted just 60 minutes, but the longer excursions to Essaioura and Quarzazate were excellent. At the end of our intense first week we were looking forward to some relaxation in the ’Four Star Dream Hotel in the City of Marrakech”. Again, name and location had not been identified. We were very strongly encouraged to book ‘sumptuous gourmet buffet’ packages for dinner and lunches, payable in advance. We did so, as we could not get confirmation about any a-la-carte our external alternatives. The moment we arrived at the the Aquamirage complex, we realised that we had made a mistake. The place is a long way from the city and certainly not a dream hotel, more like a Butlins family resort with a water slide park, sun loungers 6 rows deep and 650 rooms arranged in four ‘cell blocks’. The real horror was the restaurant. The food on offer was not bad, but the place was extremely noisy, tables were grubby, staff were overwhelmed and always ran out of cutlery, glasses etc. After the first day we decided we could not bear an entire week of this and booked a Riad in the old city, which turned out to be marvellous. As the basic hotel stay for the second week had been billed as a ‘free gift’, we just had to write this off, but we asked to be refunded the money for the unused meal packages, which was duly arranged on the spot by the local representative. Overall verdict: Value for money and overall experience during the first week was good, for the second week we should have ignored the ‘free’ hotel and made our own arrangements right from the start. RSD are doing some things very well, but are letting themselves down by misleading and over-hyped marketing, which will unfortunately lead to them having few repeat customers.