Word: toubkal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...other traditional Berber touches - along with some first-rate walking - sounds tempting, then look no further. Morocco's High Atlas range is a stunning destination, and easier to reach than you'd think. From Marrakech, it's a mere 90-minute drive up a winding valley road to the Toubkal National Park. Before you know it, you're sipping mint tea atop a sun-drenched terrace ogling the Djebel Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak...
Though created in 1942, the Toubkal park remains - charmingly, you could argue - in its infancy when it comes to signposts. Your best bet is to hire a local guide or, if you don't want to deal with logistics, Original Travel's excellent "big short break" arranges transfers and accommodation, www.originaltravel.co.uk. Our trailhead started at tiny Imlil (1,800 m), where the biggest municipal parking lot seemed to be the one reserved for mules. Fortunately, some of the "Berber four-wheel drives," as they're known locally, arrived to ferry up our bags - but we hoofed it to the impressively...
...peak baggers wanting to summit, overnight treks can be arranged up the Djebel Toubkal. On our final day we opted for an easier vista onto a vast mountain desert bowl, before returning to lunch at Samra, a candlelit guest douar (Berber dwelling) run by an energetic Swiss woman and a local female staff. The vegetable tagine and coriander-spiced eggplant was outstanding. Six hours later, I was back in Paris, my boots still spattered with mud, my hands smelling faintly of rose water...
...spacious balconies with sweeping mountain views. An indoor pool, a spa, a rooftop restaurant (serving French-African cuisine), and a traditional bathhouse provide further opportunities for self-indulgence. If you insist on being more active, there are two tennis courts and a gym. Riding and hiking at nearby Mount Toubkal are also available. If that doesn't leave you on a holiday high, you can even make a nod to Branson's onetime obsession with circumnavigating the globe?by trying a spot of hot-air ballooning...
...spacious balconies with sweeping mountain views. An indoor pool, a spa, a rooftop restaurant (serving French-African cuisine), and a traditional bathhouse provide further opportunities for self-indulgence. If you insist on being more active, there are two tennis courts and a gym. Riding and hiking at nearby Mount Toubkal are also available. If that doesn't leave you on a holiday high, you can even make a nod to Branson's onetime obsession with circumnavigating the globe - by trying a spot of hot-air ballooning...
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