Cairo to Morocco

If I were to plan my trip again, knowing what I know now, there are certain things I would do differently.

The biggest one would be to minimize my reliance on the round-the-world ticket. Yes, it can save you money, and yes you can change the travel dates, but its biggest drawback is that you’re locked into a fixed itinerary. And things change.

Initially, my plan after West Africa had been to fly to Egypt, then cross overland from Cairo all the way to Casablanca in Morocco. Not going to happen. The visa was too difficult to get on short notice for Libya, and I only found out later that even if I could have gotten a visa to Algeria, and even if the security situation there was tolerable, that crossing overland from Algeria to Morocco is not possible. The borders have been closed for decades. Well then.

With my youngest brother Anatole meeting me in Morocco (hehe), my only option was to purchase an additional ticket to fly there. Had I not been locked into the RTW ticket, I could have gone directly from Ghana to Morocco, instead of crossing the African continent twice. Ah well.

The RTW ticket is valuable on routes that are non-competitive. In other words, for those obscure destinations served only by a few airlines, then bundling the one-way fares as part of a RTW ticket is ideal. Where it breaks down in value is for popular travel destinations such as Egypt and Morocco, where any number of airlines can provide good deals, even on short notice. Doing it over again, I would only have used the RTW ticket for some of the off-the-beaten-path destinations, and purchased the rest, probably more cheaply, and certainly more flexibly, as I went.

Anyway, off to Morocco!