Reviews (5)

Wouldnt recommend...
My bf and I recently went on a two week trip to Morocco and took along this book. I have to say, the maps were horrible, we got lost so many times trying to follow the maps and had to constantly ask locals to guide us. We also discovered that the book didnt mention that you need reservations in pretty much every riad and the majority of hotels you want to stay at. Also, make sure you get the most recent edition... a few places listed were closed and had been for some time.
It Just Helps Me Live
I know of no other book that assists in living overseas as well as Lonely Planet.There are other guidebooks out there, and they have their own attributes, but I'm familiar with the Lonely Planet system, and it seems to be far more diverse in the countries covered than any other travel collection.And living in Morocco as I do, I particularly enjoy the Moroccan edition.
itm
Rather stereotyped cultural comments which are not particularly accurate. Having seen the DK Guide to Morocco since, wish I had bought that instead. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Morocco    5. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (2)

Very insightful
I think this series of guides is very good. I've just come back from Morocco and found this to be the better of the books to be carrying (others I met had Footprint, Rough Guide or Lonely Planet). It is as good as an inspiration to go as it is as a reference inside that mosque, market or on that mountain. It must not be confused with the 'comprehensive' reviewed/listing/directory book of the Lonely Planet genre (for people who call themselves adventurers yet cannot go to a hotel that has not been 'bigged up' in their 'bible' - well at least they're all guaranteed to end up in the same shed based on one person's opinion!). There's rarely a book with as many photos and full color diagramatical explanations - call me illiterate but sometimes I just want to see a photo of something and say 'I want to go and look at that'!
Morrocco travel guide
It has a lot of wonderful pictures and very clear descriptions of the regions of the country and includes a brief history.I hope Morocco will live up to the wonders of this travel guide! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Reference - General    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel / Africa   

Reviews (30)

An unimpressive narrative of a colorful destination
To readers who favorably reviewed this book I'd like to recommend reading other travel narratives by Tahir Shah. I am a big fan of Shah. All previous works were records of Shah undertaking ambitious projects with bravery and ardor. I always appreciated his sense of humor, and admired the list of classic travel literature he reads for preparation. In this book the project -- renovating a Caliph's house he purchased in Casablanca, Morocco -- remains unequivocally ambitious, but the book lacked the other hallmarks I grew to expect from Shah.
A Year in Provence goes south
Enjoyable enough read, but a little repetitive with the superstitious natives and their djinns alternating with the menace of a mysterious gangster who wishes the author to fail in his endeavor to fix up a glorious old house in Casablanca. IN the end it is somewhat unclear why he would want to live there as the local culture is not portrayed in a very interesting light other than its old world craftsmanship and the usual plotline about the locals decidedly unbritish approach to schedules.The proverbs that subtitle the chapters are the most interesting things you get along the culture line.

agree with the rest
I have to say that I agree with the other reviews which all seem to be glowing.
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Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Biography    3. Description And Travel    4. Essays & Travelogues    5. Morocco    6. Shah, Tahir    7. Travel    8. Travel - Foreign    9. Travel writers    10. Travel / General   

Subjects:  1. Photo Techniques    2. Individual photographers    3. Morocco    4. Photographs: collections    5. Places & peoples: general interest    6. Travel writing   

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Architecture    3. Architecture, Domestic    4. Architecture, Islamic    5. Design & Construction    6. Interior Design - General    7. Morocco    8. Travel    9. Architecture / Interior Design   

Reviews (4)

Skip the Fodor's, Get the Lonely Planet Instead
I bought this book and carried it along with me to Morocco, along with a couple of other travel guides.I found this one to be the least useful, and I abandoned it along the way to lighten my load.In my opinion, the Lonely Planet Guide was the best.I would advise against wasting your money on this one.

Good for highlights, short on detail
The guide is very good at giving an overview of what to see and visit andsample itenerarys.However, it is extremely lacking in detail from placesto stay to potential dangers that can be faced in different areas.This,in combination with the Lonely Planet, which is short on overviews but hasextensive details is great.

Railroad from Marrakech to Safi, build by Frenchs
This railroad was build by french near 1930. I want to know about it ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1981-    2. Africa    3. Description and travel    4. Guide-books    5. Guidebooks    6. Morocco    7. Travel    8. Travel - Foreign    9. Travel Guides    10. Travel & holiday guides    11. Travel / Africa   

Reviews (4)

Great!
Looking at these great pictures in this book, make you think that you are in Maroc. They are so real, and really it feels like the soul of Maroc is in this book. I think it's really special for people who have lived inMaroc and have moved to another country.

Wow!
Truly great B&W photography. Best I have seen

Visually stunning
This is a visually stunning work.If you enjoyed Cyclops, Watson's previous book, you will absolutely love this one.It is luscious, sumptuous, a veritable feast for your eyes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1942-    2. Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions    3. Individual Photographer    4. Individual Photographers And Their Work    5. Morocco    6. Photo Essays    7. Photography    8. Photography, Artistic    9. Pictorial works    10. Subjects & Themes - Travel - World/Africa    11. Watson, Albert,    12. Photographs: collections    13. Photography / Individual Photographer   

Reviews (2)

Marrakesh Resident Likes the Book
As a twelve-year foreign resident of Marrakesh, I read with interest this slim volume in about two hours.Before reading, I thought this was something written in the past 20 years.But I quickly discovered that the author's sejour in Morocco must have occurred in about 1959 (according to my Moroccan husband) due to certain events mentioned.(The book was first published in 1967.) A vivid record of Marrakesh
"The Voices of Marrakesh," by Elias Canetti, has been translated from German by J.A. Underwood.The copyright page of the 2001 edition notes that both text and translation have a 1967 copyright date.The back cover notes that author Canetti was born in Bulgaria and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Essays & Travelogues    3. General    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Biography: general    7. Morocco    8. Travel / General    9. Travel writing   

Subjects:  1. 1890-1976    2. Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions    3. Exhibition Catalogs    4. Exhibitions    5. Individual Photographer    6. Photo Essays    7. Photography    8. Photography, Artistic    9. Strand, Paul,    10. Egypt    11. Ghana    12. Italy    13. Morocco    14. Photographs: collections    15. Photography / Travel    16. Places & peoples: general interest    17. Romania    18. Scotland   

Reviews (2)

A must for any traveller to Morocco!
This book is one of the best I have ever seen for Morocco. It is insightful, full of pictures and diagrams, and packed with information on every page. Eyewitness travel books have quickly become my favourite series of travel books. After reading this, I wanted to go to Morocco right away. It provides you with information on Dining, Hotels and Shopping, while showing you pictures and diagrams of interesting things all over the country. I recommend this book to everyone!

A must for any traveller to Morocco!
This book is one of the best I have ever seen for Morocco. It is insightful, full of pictures and diagrams, and packed with information on every page. Eyewitness travel books have quickly become my favourite series of travel books. After reading this, I wanted to go to Morocco right away. It provides you with information on Dining, Hotels and Shopping, while showing you pictures and diagrams of interesting things all over the ocuntry. I recommend this book to everyone! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Morocco    3. Travel & holiday guides   

Editorial Review

Orin Hargraves, author of Read more

Reviews (8)

What about the language?
It is all very well, but the main vehicle of culture is the language. This book is helpful in highlighting cultural features but a good section on the language would also be a good idea.

Well, now I'm excited
After reading this book, now I'm all the more excited to go to Morocco.Hargraves paints such a vivid picture of the people, the culture.It is a complicated society, very foreign to my understanding and experience.And yet, as I read through it, so many times, page after page, I realize that the culture is so familiar, so like my experience.Most of all, I now understand that it will take a lifetime to learn to adapt to Moroccan culture.I am eager to see how the words lift off the pages and into reality.
A must for anyone living with a Moroccan or in Morocco
I have spent 3 summers in Morocco and 5 years with my husband who is Moroccan and this book clarified a lot aspects of Moroccan life for me.No matter how objective one may be about cultural differences, it helps tohave a neutral party explain what is happening in a given interaction. Ididn't even realize how much I suffered from culture shock until I read"Culture Shock!"Particually helpful were the author's commentson the difference in Western and Eastern concepts of personal space, publicspace and privacy. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Africa - General    3. Reference - General    4. Special Interest - Business Travel    5. Travel    6. Travel - Foreign   

Reviews (4)

Alison Bing Fan Club!
Alison Bing knows Marrakesh inside out. Following her foot steps off the beaten path - made for an incredible, fairytale journey. You can tell she's done her research and is passionate about sharing her explorations. Now only if we knew what part of the world she'll review next...We'd sign up in a heart beat!

Like having a friend who just went and is excited to tell of her discoveries
After trying a few examples she gave, we quickly realized she had great taste, an eye for beauty, and really understood the wonders of foreign adventures. If she says do it - do it!

Marrakesh through the eyes of Ms. Alison Bing
We used tips from Alison Bing on a recent trip to Marrakesh and were thrilled with the results.She offers suggestions to explore this city that stimulate all of your senses.From her descriptions of the city, you gather that she not only visited and explored this city in great detail but she also met and came to understand its inhabitants. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Morocco    6. Travel & holiday guides   

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Description And Travel    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign    5. Travel Guides    6. Morocco    7. Travel & holiday guides    8. Travel / Africa   

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (2)

Very Helpful
This combination CD and phrasebook has been excellent in helping me with both my research for my third novel and for preparing to visit Morocco. Moroccan Arabic is not the same as the Arabic spoken in other countries and this product not only lets me put authenticity in my dialogue, it ALSO lets me communicate to shopkeepers and others while touring Morocco. I highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip to this beautiful country.
Book suggestion
This page suggests that you buy the Phrasebook, but my CD actually came with the same book, so then I had two .My husband is Moroccan, and he said the book is pretty good accuracy wise.I have just started learning so, we'll see.... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Arabic    2. Foreign Language Study    3. Language    4. Middle East - General    5. Special Interest - Adventure    6. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    7. Language learning: audio-visual & multimedia    8. Language self-study & phrasebooks    9. Middle East   

Subjects:  1. Europe - General    2. Special Interest - Adventure    3. Sports    4. Sports & Recreation    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Water Sports    7. Europe    8. Surfing, windsurfing, water skiing    9. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (4)

When its good, it's very good...

A Missed Opportunity
The Hajj is a fascinating topic and this book promised something possibly unique: a travelogue which attempts to reconcile the detachment of an ethnographer with the physical, mental and emotional demands of a committed participant. However, the end product is almost completely undone by long, turgid, almost unreadable and certainly incomprehensible passages written in academic gobbledeygook. Sokal & Bricmont did us all a favour by dissing this style of writing in their book 'Fashionable Nonsense'. All we now need is a fatwa from Al-Azhar University which does the same for authors like Hammoudi.Having said this, what remains is actually worth persisting with as the author does not hold back on either the negative aspects or virtues of the Hajj experience. In other words, it's a warts and all portrayal that is rather different from the sanitised descriptions of the pilgrimage in most Islam textbooks. In closing, then, the book is just about worth the effort: two and a half stars would be a more realistic rating if this were possible.

A Muslim writer questions his religion's fundamentals
A SEASON IN MECCA: NARRATIVE OF A PILGRIMAGE comes from a Muslim writer who is always questioning his religion's fundamentals - but not its meaning. His survey of how his fellow Muslim make the pilgrimage to Mecca, and why, gets him on the road of pilgrims, to personally investigate the different worlds of Islam and the varied reasons pilgrims have for making the sacred journey. Moroccan scholar Hammoudi's own pilgrimage to Mecca describes its history, religious importance, and social effects alike, as well as the politics which influence the pilgrimage itself. A 'must' for any who would understand modern Muslim sentiments.
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Subjects:  1. Islam    2. Islam - General    3. Islam - Rituals & Practice    4. Mecca    5. Middle East - General    6. Morocco    7. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    8. Religion    9. Religion - World Religions    10. Saudi Arabia    11. Travel Guides    12. Religion / Islam   

Subjects:  1. Morocco    2. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Description    3. Description and travel    4. Sahara    5. Tayler, Jeffrey    6. Travel    7. Travel - Foreign    8. Voyages And Travels    9. Journeys    10. Travel / Africa   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Europe - Spain & Portugal    3. Europe - Western    4. Real Estate - Buying/Selling Homes    5. Travel    6. Travel - Foreign    7. Housing & property for the individual    8. Morocco    9. Travel & holiday guides    10. Travel / Europe / Western   

Reviews (5)

All words no colour
I was expecting a beautiful book of photos full of inspiring mediterranean colours.This book had a lot of text and wasn't what I expected.Might be interesting but haven't got the time to read it.

nice -but not what I was looking for.
I bought this book looking for a lush picture book of inspiring photos of mediterranean homes. It is not. Although the photography is nice, it is primarily of colourful buildings abroad.

Gorgeous book full of color!
Wonderful book and great writing. Beautiful images of architecture, color and life. I highly reccomend. A must have for anyone who has traveled there or for anyone who dreams of doing so. Jeffrey Becom's photographs are a feast for the eyes and his tales are engrossing. One must also look at his other book Maya Color - stunning as well! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Architectural & Industrial    2. Architecture    3. Description and travel    4. Europe - General    5. Mediterranean Region    6. Photography    7. Pictorial works    8. Subjects & Themes - Travel - World/Europe    9. Travel    10. Vernacular Architecture    11. Views    12. Europe    13. Photographs: collections