I am planning for 7 days around Marrakesh. I would like to spend 1 night in Essaouira and do an Atlas trip...

Can I combine it with Ait Benhaddou? What would you suggest (probably spending a night to avoid too many hours in a vehicle). Any tourist agency than can do this?

By the way this is in the new years eve week...

Thanks!

My girlfriend and I fly into Fez on Oct. 18th, looking to hang there for a few days, possibly drive up to Chefchaouen for a day, maybe a night. Then after that we want to head to Merzouga for the Sahara trek, and then to Marrakesh. Questions:

1. Is renting a car to go to Chefchaouen a good plan?
2. Is renting a car to go to Merzouga, then Marrakesh a good plan?
3. If we decided to get a guided trip from Fez to Merzouga (Sahara camel tour) to Marrakesh, it would be $300 Euro's a piece. If we went with another couple or two more travelers, they would do $200 a piece. We could leave Fez on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, but need to end in Marrakesh. Any takers?

Thanks in advance for the help!

I'm going to be spending 12 days in Morocco. I'll be trekking the Atlas mountains for four days as well as spending some time in Marrakesh. I've got four days to spare before my return flight.

I'm looking for somewhere to base myself for these days that is near(ish - maximum 5-6 hours travel away) to Marrakesh. I'd quite like to be somewhere natural like an oasis town rather than a big city. I'd like the place to be somewhere with beautiful natural scenery that would allow me to wander about/do some short day treks in the day. I'd quite like to wind down during this portion of the holiday, so a chilled out vibe with pleasant accommodation (I backpack, so the definition of pleasant for me is very wide) is a must. Access to nice food is a big plus as well :)

I've looked at Essaouria which is very close to Marrakesh but I don't know if it ticks the natural scenery box enough. I've considered Taliouine and/or Tarradount. I've also looked at the oases route (Ouarzazate/Agdz/Zagora etc) as well as Skoura.

Could anybody recommend the best option from those above, as well as any other suggestions you might have? What would you do in my shoes with those four days?

Edit: forgot to say - I'm reliant on public transport (although wouldn't be adverse to hiring a scooter to travel up to an hour and 1/2 from Marrakesh).

Hi, I'd like to trek up Acatenango to watch the night time Fuego eruptions. I prefer independent travel to tour groups, so I'd like to do it with just one or a few other people.

I have a lot of camping and hiking experience. My timing is pretty flexible. I'm in Belize now, on my way to Tikal, then down to Antigua.

I'm a 44M American/Brazilian who's been traveling for a few years, right now by motorcycle.

Hablo español.

Cheers!

I know that you can trek in Sapa without a tour guide, but is it possible to tent camp in Sapa without a guide? I'd like the freedom to plan my own exploration of Sapa without having to deal with a guide or a tour group. Can I camp with a tent, or do I have to do homestays?

TR for a short stopover in Moldova.

Click here for full report with a few pics.

Cheers.

Jon

That would be Finland but I've been in Moldova for the past couple of days for the sole purpose of hitting yet another European high point. Moldova formerly had the unfortunate distinction of being ranked the unhappiest country in the world. After 2 days here it's fairly safe to say that the Moldovans have shaken off that reputation and ranking.

I arrived Monday afternoon after an easy [i]marshrutka[/i] ride from Odesa, Ukraine and made my way from one bus station on the edge of the city center (there are 3 stations in the city) to the central market. Using my best Russian at the station there (Russian still a primary language here together with Romanian), I tried to suss out the schedule for the next morning to Bălăneşti, the wine-country village at the base of the hill of the same name. The first direct bus wasn't leaving til 10:30 which I thought would be too late to tag the "peak" and get back to Chişinău the same day without having to shell out for a taxi for the 60 km one way trip. But one of the drivers assured me I could go earlier to Nisporeni and catch another bus from there.

The hostel was a bit of a walk from the market so I first grabbed a cheap meal at the [i]stolovaya[/i] and changed some US$ at surprisingly good rates before heading to the crash pad. I booked a dorm room and met another traveler, Alex from Moscow, whom I convinced to join me for the trip to Bălăneşti in the morning. He had a train departing for Moscow at 21:00 so we'd have to leave pretty early so as not to risk missing the train.

Following morning we were at the central station for the 8:45 [i]marshrutka[/i] to Nisporeni, took ~1½ hours. The bus to Bălăneşti wasn't leaving til 11:10 so we passed the time asking car drivers at the adjacent gas station if they were headed our way. No luck so we wandered the main drag picking up a lot of unshelled walnuts that had fallen off the trees onto the sidewalk. The bus didn't leave til 11:30 and dropped us at the edge of the village 20 minutes later where we could see what looked like a dirt road leading to the summit, presumably to service the antennae located there. We asked a local how to get there and it seemed pretty straightforward until we got to a left turn onto a dirt road where we double checked with another local tending his drinking well. From that point it was basically straight up the dirt road and after ~50 minutes we reached the top.

The way down ended up being slightly different and we ran into another local bringing water back from a different well. Alex asked him if he knew where we could get some homemade wine and he replied, "V magazeen (at the store)." Alex persisted that we had to have homemade wine for the simple reason that I was from America. That seemed to do the trick and Zhora invited us into his yard under the vine-thatched cover where he brought out a pitcher of really sweet but excellent red wine. He explained the 5 different varieties of grapes that he grows and then clipped a few bunches that we ate, along with some plums, while drinking another pitcher of wine.

We had to leave even though we had long missed the 13:00 bus from Bălăneşti direct back to Chişinău. Before departing, Zhora gave us a huge bag of grapes and plums for the road. We continued our walk down to the main road then caught a lift to the bus stop and, after about 10 minutes, another ride in a truck to Nisporeni where there was conveniently a [i]marshrutka[/i] leaving for Chişinău [i]muy pronto[/i] at 14:30. We got off before the central market as we were passing one of the local [i]stolovaya[/i] chains and we were famished, nevermind all the fruit and wine we had consumed back in the village...

US$ ≈ 17.7 Moldovan lei

[h1 left]Chişinău[/h1] Didn't see much of the city aside from the area between the hostel and the central market. It appears to be designed in the classic Soviet style - lots of trees, parks, wide boulevards, and imposing government buildings to give the impression that Big Brother is watching.

[b]Accommodation and food[/b] Reserved 2 nights in Hostel City Center, 140 lei/night in a 4 person dorm. Honestly, this is one of the best hostels I've ever stayed in, desperately needed free laundry too, just BYOD. Coffee shops abound, 10 lei or so for an americano. There are several of the local Gălbenuș cafeterias nearby, figure less than 100 lei buys a very substantial meal, great desserts.

[b]Transport[/b] [i]Marshrutka[/i] 178 runs from the northern bus station (arrival point coming from Odesa) to the central market, 3 lei. For Bălăneşti we took the 8:45 departure, arrived Nisporeni 10:20, 34.6 lei... exactly. The bus from Nisporeni to the village runs a few times a day for 10 lei. Same price and duration returning from Nisporeni, last departure 17:00 or 18:00. For complete schedule, autogara.md is very useful but seemingly only for departures from Chişinău, not back to the capital.

Heading to Romania Wednesday there is a night train departing Chişinău 16:56 arriving Bucharest 6:20, 587 lei in second class (4 bed compartment) but only 678 lei in first (2 beds) for which I "splurged" since it was a whopping $5 more.

In september I want to visit the USA for the first time and travel around in the west of the country by motorbike with a tent in my backpack. Initially I wanted to drive something like Seattle to San Diego, but it seems as if the renting fee is really high, when giving the machine back at a different location than the renting place. I also thought about making a big circle through many national parks (like from Sequoia to Arches, about 3000km), which seems to be too much for a timespan of maybe two weeks.

At the moment I am thinking about doing a tour "just" through the Sierra Nevada and surrounding area (which are certainly big enough and I heard really beautiful).

As I am pretty inexperienced regarding the USA, I would be happy about some tips:
- What is a good tour size for 12-14 days?
- Which region / places / national parks could be good for me? I want to experience different and beautiful scenery and in general the magnitude of the country.
- If I have time, does it make sense to extend the tour eastwards to Nevada, Arizona and maybe Utah? This would be a pretty big tour and probably contain desert roads (which some say are also beatiful)
- What are good places to get in contact with people there? I want to visit more of the country than just the tourism spots.
- What are things to consider, when travelling through the USA by Motorbike?
- What are things to consider, when camping?