Rachid was wonderful. He put up with us really well. I am sure that we visited places we would not have done without his knowledge of the area and what would be of interest to us.

All the accomodation was great. We particularly enjoyed the stay with Abdul at the Dades Gorge. He and his family were so hospitable and was an amazing cook.

The vegan issue, people didn’t really understand the difference between vegetarian and vegan, but really went the extra mile to make it all work out so well.

Loved the mountains. Don’t care if I never ride another camel. Obviously we could have spent another couple of weeks.

Overall we found the combination of countries fascinating and refreshing. It was great to be able to observe culture and environment that was so different to our day to day experience. Compared to our travels in Europe, North Africa was a breath of fresh air. There were no cruise ships, no hordes of tourists, lots of opportunity to be alongside of and engage with local people. In addition many of the historic sites we visited were not only far superior to those in Rome, but you could actually experience them almost as the only people there. Seldom did we see any other tourists at these sites. I think the most spectacular was the privilege of being able to visit the Bardo Museum. The mosaics here are nothing like I have ever seen, we were so privileged it was open.

While we has some cautions about Algeria, given information that we should not leave our hotel unescorted, what we actually found was the most lovely, friendly people. We spent our evenings out in the squares where families were gathering, buying the street food for our dinner and watching the children. We felt very safe and comfortable at all times.

Our guides were wonderful, and put up with us. Being on our own time we were able to spend as much time as we wanted at the sites visited and never felt hurried or pressured for time. My only regret is that we had such limited time over all.