Get a guide for the Marrakech medina

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When I hit the ground in Marrakech, Morocco, last week, I wasted no time in passing through the gate and heading into the medina (the old part of the city). After all, I’m a seasoned traveler, and I know how to read a map. If I did get lost, I reasoned, I could see the Koutoubia Mosque from just about anywhere in the city — it’s the tallest building around (by law) at 77 meters high. Less than an hour later, I was in a covered, narrow alley and couldn’t see natural sunlight, let alone Koutoubia’s minaret. My map, which only showed streets, was worthless. Even on the streets, the map was little help, as there is a dearth of street signs.

Suddenly, I realized I shouldn’t have dismissed the hotel manager’s suggestion that I hire a guide for the day.

Several hours later, I found my way outside the medina, only to realize I was on the wrong side of the city, and walked around the outside back to my hotel. My wife was furious. I was irritated. And, I realized what my plan for the next day would be. It involved the experience of a local pro, Mustapha. I don’t regret paying the $25 for his extremely helpful services.

I know what you’re thinking … it’s what I thought. Guides are scammers. You feel that you can navigate a city on your own. If you’ve read any travel literature on Marrakech, you know that the guides exist only to bring you to the souks (shops) that pay them the highest commission. So, you’re being guided right into a high-pressure sales situation. In reality, all these perspectives hold a bit of truth.

As soon as I walked into the medina the first day, I was pestered pretty regularly by many “freelance” guides, some of whom claimed to work for major hotels. He was incredibly persistent, offering to take me around the city. Here’s a hint. If you don’t meet your guide in the hotel, he doesn’t work for one. As you get deeper into the city, they drop the hotel charade but have plenty of other stories. One explained that he just wanted to practice his English. In fact, when I responded to him in French, he kept going in English. I knew the situation but applaud his tenacity (now, at least). Avoid these guys. They will take you directly into the souks, and that’s all you’ll see.

When I met Mustapha at the Hivernage Hotel and Resort, he was clad in a jacket and tie. His English and French were heavily accented but more than sufficient. And, he smiled. He asked what I wanted to see. I listed off places like the Saadian tombs, Bahia Palace and Jemaa el Fna (the medina’s main square), and he dutifully noted them. When I finished, he added, “And the souks?” Yes, the souks …

Immediately, I saw a difference. Mustapha hailed a taxi and got us a good price. We went directly to the spots I wanted to see, and his explanations brought them to life. It turns out that I was near every major attraction on my list the previous day, but I never would have found them. With my guide, it was quick and painless. He also pointed out the differences among the people who walked by, providing some insights into the ethnic groups of Morocco. Buildings without exterior windows or balconies, for example, were from Berber inhabitants, while those with windows and balconies facing the streets were built by Jewish settlers. I never would have figured this out on my own.

The little touches were nice, as well. As we approached the Saadian tombs, Mustapha saw a large tour group approaching. Instead of taking us to the window to pay our admission fee, he nodded in its direction and led us straight into the building. He took us to the prized places quickly. When I turned around, I saw a large crowd behind me. I would have spent plenty of time waiting but instead had a prime position for as long as I wanted. On our way out, we went over to the window and settled up. If I had tried to pull this off on my own, I don’t think I would have gotten far (had I even thought to try).

When I saw what looked like rather ordered graffiti on the walls throughout the medina, all I had to do was ask. Mustapha explained that there are 32 political parties in Morocco, and each is allotted a specific space on the wall to use for campaigning. I didn’t understand the message at all, but at least I got the drift.

As we navigated Marrakech’s winding streets and narrow alleys, I did notice that fewer of the freelance guides approached us. A few of the bolder ones did make the effort, but Mustapha dismissed them quickly. Also, he let me know how I could break the rules. Most of the hard-core locals don’t like having their pictures taken, but he’d give me a look when their heads were turned, so I could get the shots I wanted.

Of course, you know where we wound up …

A good portion of our day was spent in the souks, which are intricate mazes of small shops located all over Marrakech. I don’t enjoy shopping, so I was bored to tears, but I did find some of the presentations (and that’s what they were) insightful. My wife enjoyed the experience thoroughly. I do think that these were Mustapha’s favorite spots — that’s just the cynic in me. But, since there was a trusted relationship, you didn’t feel worried using a credit card or having goods sent to your hotel (or shipped home) later. Morocco’s is a selling culture. You just have to accept that when you step inside the city’s walls. The trick is to find any advantage you can. In this regard, having a guide helps. A lot.

When I let Mustapha know that I was finished shopping, he brought us by Jemaa el Fna for some photo opportunities and then promptly back to Hivernage. The time had come to pay the piper, and like every interaction, it was a negotiation. I asked how much, and he replied that I should pay whatever I liked. Eh, I kicked the rate quoted by the hotel up 20 percent. He earned it.

Product review – Lonely Planet guides for Nokia mobile phones

by Scott Carmichael on

Earlier this week I posted the announcement of a new initiative by Lonely Planet and Nokia to bring the famous travel guides to GPS enabled Nokia phones. One of the big questions I had, is whether these new phone based guides could actually replace your trusty paper Lonely Planet.

So, in this review, I’m going to give you a closer look at how the Lonely Planet guides work, how they can help you find nearby recommended points of interest, and whether they really can help save some trees.

The Lonely Planet guides are part of a larger collection of guides available for Nokia Maps 2.0. Maps 2.0 is available on most recently released Nokia phones running the Symbian S60 operating system. To learn whether your phone runs Maps 2.0, check out the list on the Nokia site.

For the purpose of this review, I tested the Lonely Planet guides on a Nokia N78 smartphone. You’ll get a closer look at this phone in an upcoming review, but I can already reveal that it is absolutely perfect for travelers. It has outstanding battery life, 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, an FM radio and FM transmitter as well as superb music/video support.

To download a guide to your phone, you simply open the Maps application, then point the phone to the “Extras” menu, then “Guides”. In this menu, you are presented with a list of all available countries to select. You can then see all the available guides for that country.

In my case, I have the Lonely Planet guides installed for Chicago and Honolulu. The guides vary in size, the Chicago guide is 172kB. Using the speedy 3G connection on the phone, I was able to download other guides in about 7 seconds.

%Gallery-30290%Each guide costs $13.95, but a trial is available. That trial is only valid for 10 minutes, after this (very limited) time, you will have to enter a license code. The license can be purchased directly on the phone using Visa, Master Card or American Express. The entire license activation process is handled on the phone, which is actually very convenient, especially if you suddenly need access to a guide away from home.

Now on to the guide itself. I’ll let you know right away; these guides are not the same as a “regular” Lonely Planet guidebook. The Chicago Lonely Planet guide for Nokia phones only covers a limited amount of information.

The “regular” Lonely Planet city guide for Chicago is 280 pages, it contains maps, event guides, history and culture, information on day trips and more. The Nokia Lonely Planet guide covers 75 attractions, 76 shopping destinations, 75 hotels, 74 restaurants and 11 “general” locations, mainly consulates and embassies.

So, does this make the guide useless? Certainly not! The information provided in the guide itself may be fairly limited, but the combination of this information, on a phone with GPS navigation really does prove to be quite powerful.

You can lookup Lonely Planet recommendations, read their description, and then add it to your “My Places” address book in the map application. The paper Lonely Planet guide is great if you are sitting on a bus, or in your hotel room, but if you are out and about, being able to lookup the things you want to do, and have your phone tell you exactly how to get there is fantastic.

When browsing the information, I did come across one very annoying issue; many of the phone numbers listed in the guides are not correctly displayed, making it impossible to call them from the maps application.

Each guide entry contains some basic information; the address, their phone number, website address and a brief description. Once you find an entry, you can:

  • show it on the map
  • navigate to it with the “walk to” or “drive to” option
  • add it to the “My Places” address book
  • add it to an existing route
  • show the details
  • call the listed phone number
  • browse to the listed web site address
  • send it another phone using Bluetooth or an MMS message

Final thoughts: It would have been a little more honest (in my opinion) if the press announcement by Lonely Planet had been more descriptive. The initial announcement made it sound like a complete city guide would be available for the phone, when in reality all you get is a list of locations. The price is fairly reasonable, but you do need to take into account the additional cost involved with using the navigation feature on a Nokia phone (starting at EUR70 per year for drive/walk turn by turn guidance in a local region). If you are traveling to multiple cities, you’ll also be spending $14 on each city, which can add up very quickly.

In the end, you need to ask yourself whether the convenience of easy access to Lonely Planet listings on your phone is worth $13.99. As a geek, I can certainly appreciate the ease of use, and the ability to plan a day in advance right on my handset, but if you are already carrying a Lonely Planet guide, you may want to spend that $14 on souvenirs and enter the address by hand, as I just don’t see the phone guides making the books obsolete. Another option you could consider, is the ability to purchase individual chapters from Lonely Planet guides, and download them in PDF format, ready for you to print.

Mahalo: How to Sleep on a Plane

by Justin Glow on

I’ve never been able to sleep on planes. Sure, I doze off occasionally, snapping my head forward every few minutes in a shot of confusion — but I’ve never truly slept in a way that leaves me feeling refreshed upon landing. It’s either too crowded, too loud, too hot, too cold, too comfortable; I can always find a reason to toss and turn. One of the only times I was able to really fall asleep was on an Alitalia flight to India, but that was because they served unlimited, free beer and wine. You get the picture.

The “human powered search engine” Mahalo has a handy how-to on sleeping on a plane. A lot of the info is obvious if you’re a semi-regular flier, but there are some tips that I hadn’t heard before. For instance, did you know the National Sleep Foundation says alcohol prevents sleep? I beg to differ. PLEASE let me differ. PLEASE.

Anyway, the how-to is broken up into 6 helpful steps:

  1. Book the right seat
  2. Prepare before your flight
  3. Use accessories to increase your comfort
  4. Warn people you plan to sleep
  5. Use sleep medications
  6. If money is no object, fly business or first class

Overall, it’s another great guide from the folks over at Mahalo. It should have you sleeping on planes in no time. But since it is a human-powered search engine, I, as a fellow human, would like to offer up a piece of advice for addition. The how-to warns that both the last row and the rows in front of the exit seats often do not recline, so you shouldn’t sit there unless you plan on sitting upright the entire time. Fair enough. However, if your seat does recline, mind the person sitting behind you. Even though the seats are designed to recline with minimal intrusion of your backseat neighbor’s personal space, it doesn’t always work that way — especially if they’re eating. So do everyone a favor, and communicate with the person behind you. Is he or she eating, or working a laptop perhaps? Don’t recline your seat quite yet. Instead, turn around and ask, “I’d like to recline my seat when you’re finished eating. Is that a problem?” Nobody likes a head of hair in their lap as they try to choke down the already-questionable food.

Or you could always just buy the Knee Defender.

Learn About Cultures’ Cultural Guides

by Willy Volk on

Learn About Cultures produces downloadable books that detail the important cultural “dos and don’ts” you should be aware of before embarking on an international trip. Designed with both the business and leisure traveler in mind, the books — covering 16 of the world’s “most popular” travel destinations — are filled with information ranging from business dress to dining etiquette, from negotiation strategies to gift-giving protocols.

If you’re interested, you can see a sample of the China guide (PDF). Each Culture Guide-To-Go is only $19.95; order three or more at a time, and get a 10% discount.

They also produces a few broader “global guides to etiquette,” which cover entire continents. Interestingly, these books, sold through Amazon, are nearly half the price of the click-n-print PDF versions available for download.