Travel Blogging Junkie: Atlas Kasbah In Agadir, Morocco

In Agadir, we drove all the way to the top of a hill set in a mountainous region to stay at Atlas Kasbah Eco-lodge, an eco-friendly bed & breakfast run by a wonderful couple, Hassan and Helene. Hassan is Berber, Helene is French and their meet-cute story of how Helene encountered him on a vacation with her family to Morocco is straight out of a rom-com. They are truly the most delightful people. They engaged us by explaining all about the local customs from the traditional Berber garb to the practice of serving tea (in Morocco, the man makes mint tea and serves it for company), to an amazing presentation all about the local items Berbers use for health and beauty.  I OF COURSE purchased many of these Berber beauty items at the Herboriste I mentioned here, so stay tuned for a video on them and their uses. I also partook in the on-campas Hammam, which is a sort of sauna. And the kasbah itself! It looks like a mini castle and is a riad, derived from the Arabic word "ryad," which  means it features an interior courtyard. It was an important design concern for Islamic customs of privacy for women inside residential gardens.


A video tour of my room!











This place has all you need for a recharging, relaxing, beautiful vaca--Princess Jasmine beds, a Rapunzel tower where the lucky Jordan from Trendhunter got to sleep (let down thine hair, Jord!) delicious organic food prepared by hand AND KITTENS. Yes, Hassan and Helene have a cat and two gray striped kittens, who look exactly alike except one has a shorter tail. All the detail I got on them is that one is named "Chausettes," which is the word for "socks" in French. In the end, I decided that the female was Chaussettes, and the male was Not Chaussettes. Not Chaussettes and I passed a lovely afternoon reading Vogue on a lounge chair poolside. He was especially taken with the Tom Ford ads. Chaussettes and I shared my chicken tagine at lunch made by some other girls in the group during an amazing Moroccan cooking class, of which I caught the tail end.

The salon, where you can relax and drink tea.

The pretty bad picture (please excuse me) of the henna tattoo I got (a few days deep, pardon the fade) at Atlas Kasbah.

The beautiful pool!

Me with Not Chaussettes! You have to speak to indigenous cats in their native language. Otherwise, how can you expect them to understand you? We discussed everything from the selected works of Camus to Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Malle. My favorite is "Invitation Au Voyage," his was "A Une Passante."

The chicken tagine the girls made during the cooking class, before we inhaled it. This one had herbs and lemon--delish!

The ingredients for fresh bread, which we saw made right outside in the wood-burning oven.

Chaussettes wondering where the rest of the tagine is.

In short? Atlas Kasbah rocks the Kasbah, in the parlance of The Clash. With that...










The Sharif WILL like it. Atlas Kasbah is located at Tighanimine El Baz, Agadir 8000, Morocco. Call +212 661.287.327for reservations. Let that raga drop.

Disclaimer: Morocco trip sponsored by the Moroccan Tourism Board. 

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