MEL_Traveller
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- Apr 27, 2005
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Some notes from a recent trip to Mauritius, Morocco and Egypt which might be of use if anyone is doing the same, or considering airline and transport options.
PER-MRU was served by an Air Mauritius a330neo. We connected to PER on VA, which was much simpler given the international terminal was co-located. Lounge was OK. Crew on MK fine, food not great. Entertainment is dire! BYO, seriously. Avoid the seats hard against the aisle, they are angled slightly in the direction of the aisle, and boy do you feel exposed. The QF aisle seats are 1000% better by comparison.
MRU to LGW same style seating. Food better. Crew was great, but let down by the poor soft and hard products. Note that bulkhead seats on the 330/350 have no additional legroom or wider footwells. 1A/K are aisle seats and you do feel like you’re actually sitting in the aisle, rather than beside it. This flight had mattress toppers, which the PER flight did not.
Eurocar in Mauritius thanks to Elite status via Velocity. Slowest check-in ever and elite benefits not recognised. Had to pay for additional driver. Reserved and given a Renault Kwid. No upgrades despite status. Dreadful car. It retails for just AUD9000 in India and you can see why. Woefully underpowered, revs over 9000 just to reach 80km/hr on the freeway! To be fair, in follow-up with Europcar they investigated the extra driver charge and faulty fuel gauge and have refunded us the extra charges (well done EC!).
Swissport handled both Air Mauritius and TAP at LGW. MK had tagged our bags all the way to LIS but Swissport said this was not possible, should never have been done etc etc. Said star alliance airlines can only transfer to other star alliance airlines and cannot transfer - despite any interline agreements - to any other airline outside star.
We nodded politely while they tracked our bags. Apparently Swissport staff at the arrival terminal had two bags they didn’t know what to do with and were ‘confused’. Luckily for us - we were informed - swissport was handling both airlines so they’d bring the bags over for us.
The takeout is that if you have bags through-checked at LGW, might pay to recheck at the counter of your connecting flight to make sure the bags are tracked.
Portugalia flights on behalf of TAP were ‘ok’. Food was fine. Cold meals despite a 2.5 hour flight. E190/195 aircraft with no blocked seats in business class. Row 2AB is the way to go as there is unlimited legroom. Board early as the overhead bins for row 1CD and 2AB are filled with emergency equipment.
Stayed pretty much in the centre of old Lisbon. Long queues - 1 hr or so - for the 28 tram which winds it’s way through much of the old town.Would probably recommend walking to the other end of the line and catching the tram back, rather than out. Queues were very short at the other end.
Immigration queues on arrival into Marrakesh were stretching to the 1-2 hours. Your business class boarding pass however gets you - unofficially - into the fast track lane. You simply show it to the person monitoring the line and they let you through. None of this is really marked, just look for the immigration booth at the far right of the hall as you approach from the bus drop off point. We were through in 10 mins. Our friends on another flight arriving at the same time in economy waited two hours. Upshot… if you can get a cheap BA club, or business class on another airline is only $100-200 more it’s worth the money for the time saved at immigration.
We engaged a guide on our first day in Marrakesh, pricey through the riad but with three of us it wasn’t so bad. We got our bearings and felt comfortable on our own after that.
Google maps worked well in the medina and other cities we visited. There really was no hassling by vendors, a simple ‘we’re fine’ was enough. Of course they wanted ridiculous prices, but walking away was always easy. And i guess we weren’t looking to buy a carpet so saved a lot of grief there!
Best restaurant was a little hole in the wall with just two tables. Recommend Travelan (can buy from Chemist Warehouse). Not cheap but seems to do the trick protecting against upset tummies whether it be Bali, India, Morocco or Egypt. I would seriously consider foregoing the top restaurants on tripadvisor… maybe try them for one night as an ‘experience’, but otherwise you’re going to get the best food at little places where the locals go.
We stayed at Dar Izza, found thanks to an article in the Qantas magazine. Stunning. And simply superb service. (In fact all the staff at all the hotels in Morocco were amazing.)
Took the train from Marakesh to Tangier. You can book directly on the ONCF site by using a VPN set to Morocco. One third the price of booking via 123go or similar as you can select non-refundable tickets if you want. First class was very comfortable, and you change in Casablanca for the ‘Al Boraq’ TGV. Identical to the one in France with a top speed of 320km/hr. Same seating too. Bathroom on all trains spotlessly clean. Tickets can be paid by foreign credit card and you get a e-ticket with QR code which worked seamlessly.
The Hilton Tangier is right by the station and was a great hotel. Full Diamond benefits. Breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor where you can look directly over to Spain. The executive lounge was on the ground floor with hot food, sandwiches and full bar. (Note that most restaurants outside hotels, even the pricy ones on tripadvisor all mention ‘coughtails’ on their menus, but once seated you’ll find they are mocktails. We didn’t actually find a place outside a hotel in Morocco where we could find alcohol.)
Europcar again in Morocco. This time no issues with status and free additional driver, but again no upgrade. Car was a Kia picanto.
Driving is easy, pretty good roads. However… I’ll link this video to driving in Morocco…
Yes, well… the same thing happened to us despite being careful. At our first stop the police asked where we were going and said ‘oh, the route shown by your GPS is very dangerous, you need to go this way’. Of course going the way they advised encountered more police traps, including one where there was a brand new ‘stop’ sign in the middle of nowhere! They’d actually moved it 10 metres before the line on the road where another road merges and where you’d normally expect to stop. Going over the crest you guess it… got pulled over. ‘Failing to stop’. They couldn’t even see the sign but knew. While we were waiting another 4 cars were pulled over for the same thing. Of course no paper records issued. Anyway… watch the video and you’ll understand.
The only time we needed cash in Morocco was for the fines. Luckily I’d seen the video the before we went driving and went to an ATM
Chefchaoun is well worth visiting. You only need an afternoon. Recommend the Taj Chefchaoun (no relation to Taj india). Stunning hotel, exceptional attention to detail, and brand new. So new it isn’t really on tripadvisor yet. It’s perched high on the hill overlooking the medina and there is parking just on the other side of the medina wall.
Departure from Casablanca not nearly as scary as bloggers would have you believe. Maybe we were just lucky. If you are flying business class or higher I would probably aim for two hours before departure, not three or more.
Egyptair used Royal Air Maroc’s ‘zenith’ lounge. It was huge, and had a dedicated sleeping room. Nothing fancy but it did the trick. Hot coffee and a bar. Tried the Moroccan red which was quite nice. After a while to breath.
Picked up a couple of pieces of pottery at the souvenir shop at the airport. Fixed prices. A large bowl set us back €13, or around 130 dirhams. This was way cheaper than we would ever have been able to get it in the medina. Sometimes over-priced airport shops can have their advantages!
Egyptair was fine, 2+2 seating on their a321 neo, 49 inch pitch and generous recline. Amenity kits and menus distributed, with choice of 3 mains. IFE terrible, just single episodes of random tv shows, and a handful of movies. On the plus side, the movies being B- or C- grade, you’ve unlikely ever heard of them or seen them, so at least there’s something ‘new’ to watch!
Recommend row 9 on MS’s narrow body fleet. Row 8 is the bulkhead and suffers from limited legroom. Row 9 has mountains, and because of the generous pitch you’re not hemmed in if at the window. You’ll also be among the first to get your drinks and meal orders taken.
Arrival into T3 at Cairo so easy and simple. Barely any lines. Departure was the same. While MS is a way behind in soft product - although to be fair the food and service wasn’t bad - the big advantage seems to be their dedicated terminal at Cairo and very comfortable seating on board. Visa on arrival took 2 seconds, paid by card. Lounges at CAI T2 were busy. We were initially directed to an overflow lounge that tried hard, but failed. On returning to the proper MS lounge a while later it was much better.
Highly recommend you have your hotel pick you up at CAI. Once you have the lay of the land Uber is really easy, and would probably suggest an uber back to the airport. Our 43km trip from Giza to the airport would have been a little over AUD10 compared to the USD25 the hotel wanted.
Staying at Giza we took the plunge on our second night and went looking for the local Carrefour on Al Haram Street. Well… after walking on a footpath-less main road for about 300 metres - I think we mentioned a couple of times we were happy to have travel insurance! - we were plunged into a local shopping strip and a world of noise, colour and sound. We were the only tourists. This is the sort of thing most people are going to miss out on and really it was worth it. We ended up with bags of spices and other things which - all commercially packaged - we declared without issue on arrival. Egypt is really cheap, a fraction of the price back home.
MS to DXB was fine. A 737 this time but same 2+2 seating with 49 inch pitch. The hotel of course recommended we leave 4 hours before departure, which - flying MS in their dedicated terminal - meant we had two hours to wait for our flight. I’d probably leave a little later next time.
Rest of the flights were on SQ which are the subject of another thread here on AFF. The new seat belt protocols mean pax are left wondering whether they’ll ever get their meals, or whether you can get a hot beverage before landing after an overnight flight.
SQ uses the Ahlan lounge in Dubai, which also accepts priority pass. Overall the lounge was pretty good, reasonable selection of food even though the quality wasn’t that good. Seating was comfortable and there was an open bar. The good thing was that the shower suites were air-conditioned! Unlike in the Singapore SQ lounge where as soon as you’ve showered you’re sweaty again
PER-MRU was served by an Air Mauritius a330neo. We connected to PER on VA, which was much simpler given the international terminal was co-located. Lounge was OK. Crew on MK fine, food not great. Entertainment is dire! BYO, seriously. Avoid the seats hard against the aisle, they are angled slightly in the direction of the aisle, and boy do you feel exposed. The QF aisle seats are 1000% better by comparison.
MRU to LGW same style seating. Food better. Crew was great, but let down by the poor soft and hard products. Note that bulkhead seats on the 330/350 have no additional legroom or wider footwells. 1A/K are aisle seats and you do feel like you’re actually sitting in the aisle, rather than beside it. This flight had mattress toppers, which the PER flight did not.
Eurocar in Mauritius thanks to Elite status via Velocity. Slowest check-in ever and elite benefits not recognised. Had to pay for additional driver. Reserved and given a Renault Kwid. No upgrades despite status. Dreadful car. It retails for just AUD9000 in India and you can see why. Woefully underpowered, revs over 9000 just to reach 80km/hr on the freeway! To be fair, in follow-up with Europcar they investigated the extra driver charge and faulty fuel gauge and have refunded us the extra charges (well done EC!).
Swissport handled both Air Mauritius and TAP at LGW. MK had tagged our bags all the way to LIS but Swissport said this was not possible, should never have been done etc etc. Said star alliance airlines can only transfer to other star alliance airlines and cannot transfer - despite any interline agreements - to any other airline outside star.
We nodded politely while they tracked our bags. Apparently Swissport staff at the arrival terminal had two bags they didn’t know what to do with and were ‘confused’. Luckily for us - we were informed - swissport was handling both airlines so they’d bring the bags over for us.
The takeout is that if you have bags through-checked at LGW, might pay to recheck at the counter of your connecting flight to make sure the bags are tracked.
Portugalia flights on behalf of TAP were ‘ok’. Food was fine. Cold meals despite a 2.5 hour flight. E190/195 aircraft with no blocked seats in business class. Row 2AB is the way to go as there is unlimited legroom. Board early as the overhead bins for row 1CD and 2AB are filled with emergency equipment.
Stayed pretty much in the centre of old Lisbon. Long queues - 1 hr or so - for the 28 tram which winds it’s way through much of the old town.Would probably recommend walking to the other end of the line and catching the tram back, rather than out. Queues were very short at the other end.
Immigration queues on arrival into Marrakesh were stretching to the 1-2 hours. Your business class boarding pass however gets you - unofficially - into the fast track lane. You simply show it to the person monitoring the line and they let you through. None of this is really marked, just look for the immigration booth at the far right of the hall as you approach from the bus drop off point. We were through in 10 mins. Our friends on another flight arriving at the same time in economy waited two hours. Upshot… if you can get a cheap BA club, or business class on another airline is only $100-200 more it’s worth the money for the time saved at immigration.
We engaged a guide on our first day in Marrakesh, pricey through the riad but with three of us it wasn’t so bad. We got our bearings and felt comfortable on our own after that.
Google maps worked well in the medina and other cities we visited. There really was no hassling by vendors, a simple ‘we’re fine’ was enough. Of course they wanted ridiculous prices, but walking away was always easy. And i guess we weren’t looking to buy a carpet so saved a lot of grief there!
Best restaurant was a little hole in the wall with just two tables. Recommend Travelan (can buy from Chemist Warehouse). Not cheap but seems to do the trick protecting against upset tummies whether it be Bali, India, Morocco or Egypt. I would seriously consider foregoing the top restaurants on tripadvisor… maybe try them for one night as an ‘experience’, but otherwise you’re going to get the best food at little places where the locals go.
We stayed at Dar Izza, found thanks to an article in the Qantas magazine. Stunning. And simply superb service. (In fact all the staff at all the hotels in Morocco were amazing.)
Took the train from Marakesh to Tangier. You can book directly on the ONCF site by using a VPN set to Morocco. One third the price of booking via 123go or similar as you can select non-refundable tickets if you want. First class was very comfortable, and you change in Casablanca for the ‘Al Boraq’ TGV. Identical to the one in France with a top speed of 320km/hr. Same seating too. Bathroom on all trains spotlessly clean. Tickets can be paid by foreign credit card and you get a e-ticket with QR code which worked seamlessly.
The Hilton Tangier is right by the station and was a great hotel. Full Diamond benefits. Breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor where you can look directly over to Spain. The executive lounge was on the ground floor with hot food, sandwiches and full bar. (Note that most restaurants outside hotels, even the pricy ones on tripadvisor all mention ‘coughtails’ on their menus, but once seated you’ll find they are mocktails. We didn’t actually find a place outside a hotel in Morocco where we could find alcohol.)
Europcar again in Morocco. This time no issues with status and free additional driver, but again no upgrade. Car was a Kia picanto.
Driving is easy, pretty good roads. However… I’ll link this video to driving in Morocco…
Yes, well… the same thing happened to us despite being careful. At our first stop the police asked where we were going and said ‘oh, the route shown by your GPS is very dangerous, you need to go this way’. Of course going the way they advised encountered more police traps, including one where there was a brand new ‘stop’ sign in the middle of nowhere! They’d actually moved it 10 metres before the line on the road where another road merges and where you’d normally expect to stop. Going over the crest you guess it… got pulled over. ‘Failing to stop’. They couldn’t even see the sign but knew. While we were waiting another 4 cars were pulled over for the same thing. Of course no paper records issued. Anyway… watch the video and you’ll understand.
The only time we needed cash in Morocco was for the fines. Luckily I’d seen the video the before we went driving and went to an ATM
Chefchaoun is well worth visiting. You only need an afternoon. Recommend the Taj Chefchaoun (no relation to Taj india). Stunning hotel, exceptional attention to detail, and brand new. So new it isn’t really on tripadvisor yet. It’s perched high on the hill overlooking the medina and there is parking just on the other side of the medina wall.
Departure from Casablanca not nearly as scary as bloggers would have you believe. Maybe we were just lucky. If you are flying business class or higher I would probably aim for two hours before departure, not three or more.
Egyptair used Royal Air Maroc’s ‘zenith’ lounge. It was huge, and had a dedicated sleeping room. Nothing fancy but it did the trick. Hot coffee and a bar. Tried the Moroccan red which was quite nice. After a while to breath.
Picked up a couple of pieces of pottery at the souvenir shop at the airport. Fixed prices. A large bowl set us back €13, or around 130 dirhams. This was way cheaper than we would ever have been able to get it in the medina. Sometimes over-priced airport shops can have their advantages!
Egyptair was fine, 2+2 seating on their a321 neo, 49 inch pitch and generous recline. Amenity kits and menus distributed, with choice of 3 mains. IFE terrible, just single episodes of random tv shows, and a handful of movies. On the plus side, the movies being B- or C- grade, you’ve unlikely ever heard of them or seen them, so at least there’s something ‘new’ to watch!
Recommend row 9 on MS’s narrow body fleet. Row 8 is the bulkhead and suffers from limited legroom. Row 9 has mountains, and because of the generous pitch you’re not hemmed in if at the window. You’ll also be among the first to get your drinks and meal orders taken.
Arrival into T3 at Cairo so easy and simple. Barely any lines. Departure was the same. While MS is a way behind in soft product - although to be fair the food and service wasn’t bad - the big advantage seems to be their dedicated terminal at Cairo and very comfortable seating on board. Visa on arrival took 2 seconds, paid by card. Lounges at CAI T2 were busy. We were initially directed to an overflow lounge that tried hard, but failed. On returning to the proper MS lounge a while later it was much better.
Highly recommend you have your hotel pick you up at CAI. Once you have the lay of the land Uber is really easy, and would probably suggest an uber back to the airport. Our 43km trip from Giza to the airport would have been a little over AUD10 compared to the USD25 the hotel wanted.
Staying at Giza we took the plunge on our second night and went looking for the local Carrefour on Al Haram Street. Well… after walking on a footpath-less main road for about 300 metres - I think we mentioned a couple of times we were happy to have travel insurance! - we were plunged into a local shopping strip and a world of noise, colour and sound. We were the only tourists. This is the sort of thing most people are going to miss out on and really it was worth it. We ended up with bags of spices and other things which - all commercially packaged - we declared without issue on arrival. Egypt is really cheap, a fraction of the price back home.
MS to DXB was fine. A 737 this time but same 2+2 seating with 49 inch pitch. The hotel of course recommended we leave 4 hours before departure, which - flying MS in their dedicated terminal - meant we had two hours to wait for our flight. I’d probably leave a little later next time.
Rest of the flights were on SQ which are the subject of another thread here on AFF. The new seat belt protocols mean pax are left wondering whether they’ll ever get their meals, or whether you can get a hot beverage before landing after an overnight flight.
SQ uses the Ahlan lounge in Dubai, which also accepts priority pass. Overall the lounge was pretty good, reasonable selection of food even though the quality wasn’t that good. Seating was comfortable and there was an open bar. The good thing was that the shower suites were air-conditioned! Unlike in the Singapore SQ lounge where as soon as you’ve showered you’re sweaty again
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