CASABLANCA IN MOROCCO

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Day 1: BARCELONA - CASABLANCA

"Tonight is Christmas Eve and tomorrow Christmas ..." This is how the song begins and this is the beginning of what will be our last getaway of the year: the trip to Casablanca, Meknès and Fez 3 of the cities we had the most desire since we were in Marrakech and Essaouira some years ago. We will start with Casablanca in Morocco.

We leave at 6.30 pm from home on the way to airport of Barcelona hoping not to find too much traffic, as it has been in the end.

Barcelona Airport Highway

We arrive at T2 at 8 pm and we only have to wait 5 minutes for Park and Vola to pick up our car to leave it safely these days.

Waiting for Aparca & Vola in the Miró mural of Trat del Prat

We thought that today, being a day in which many people move, we would find a lot of traffic, but nothing is further from reality. We have practically gone alone on the highway and more alone we have been at the airport. It is very clear that day 24 is a perfect day to travel 😉
This getaway is initially proposed by entering and leaving through Casablanca or Fez, according to the prices we found, but after seeing an offer at Skyscanner entering Casablanca and leaving through Fez, the days that interested us and with perfect schedules, we did not think about it Twice and we took out the tickets, taking advantage of half a day more than traveling in and out of the same city we would have lost with the transfer.
We will fly with Air Arabia from Barcelona to Casablanca in Morocco on a flight at 11.20 at night that will leave us in Moroccan lands at 00.40 on December 25.

With Air Arabia we cannot checkin online, even though they advertise it on their website, so we have to go through the check-in counters.
Another thing to keep in mind with this company is that on flights to / from Morocco the hand luggage can only weigh 7 kilos, something that although they do not verify, they say to us that it is necessary to fulfill.
Let's see if one day they agree and combine the measures and weight allowed by the airlines, because they have us crazy!

Prat airport corridors on Christmas Eve with our Gladiator travel bags

And like any Christmas Eve worth its salt you have to have dinner, right? So we do that in the only bar that is open today in T2 after picking up our boarding passes.
Some skewers and some coke after 11 at night we are already sitting in our seats Air Arabia flight that will take us from Barcelona to Casablanca in Morocco.

Flight from Barcelona to Casablanca in Morocco

*** Although this part of the newspaper would already belong on the 25th we continue telling it this day as we think it is more consistent ***
The flight to Casablanca in Morocco It lasts 1 hour 50 minutes and we do it practically without realizing it, more tired than anything else and already looking forward to arriving at our accommodation in Casablanca today, the JM Suites.
As soon as we get off the plane we pass the passport control and add the second stamp of Morocco to that booklet which shows part of our destinations this year 2014 that has been very traveler.

More practical information to prepare your trip to Morocco
- 10 essential places to see in Morocco
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Morocco

Before leaving home we have looked at how the dirham was and seeing that the change at the airport is 10.43 (on the internet it was 1 euro = 11 dirhams) we changed 50 euros to go quieter tomorrow that we will spend the morning in White House.
Currently and after many trips behind our backs, we recommend, if you do not want to pay commissions when taking money from ATMs abroad and always have the current exchange, use the N26 card to pay and the Bnext and Revolut cards to get money in the ATMs They are the ones we use, They are free and will save you a lot.
You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.

Remember also that if you want to have internet in Morocco, in addition to being able to buy a SIM card at the airport, you can buy a Holafly SIM card being in Spain, with which you will have internet from the moment you land, saving you all the time of the negotiations and making the whole process to have internet in Morocco much more comfortable, fast and easy.
In this case, with the Holafly SIM you will have several Gb to surf the Internet (depending on the option you choose), they will send it to you for free at home, you will keep your WhatsApp number and you will have assistance service in Spanish. You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader

More information on the Holafly post, the best prepaid SIM card for travel

Arriving at this time of the morning and not having public transport our idea when we prepared the trip to Casablanca, Meknès and Fez, was to take a taxi, but JMSuites has offered to pick us up at the airport, so it has "saved" us from those minutes of transport search that at this time are worth their seconds in gold.
If you do not have a transfer from the accommodation, tell us that a taxi costs about 300 dirhams, to make sure, while we waited, we asked several times and we looked at the cartels where we saw that it is the official fare.
The journey from the airport to Casablanca We do it wrapped in fog and a mist that does not remind us at all the other time we were in Morocco.
We arrived at our accommodation at 1:30 in the morning and despite finding a suite that would delight anyone, we are so busted that we can only lie down and enjoy a fluffy bed.