The nice things people said

We picked the car up at Menara and were parking outside the medina walls fifteen minutes later. Nobody mentions how close that airport is until you do it yourself.

Booked an automatic three weeks ahead because this site said not to leave it late. Good advice. Half the cars on the lot were manual.

The Ourika road on a Friday morning was the best hour of our week, and we were back for lunch at the riad.

Four hours to Ouarzazate over the Tizi n Tichka, exactly as warned here rather than the two and a half my phone promised. Glad we left at six.

The little Sandero was nothing special and completely right for the job. It went everywhere we asked, including the track out to Agafay.

Our riad sent a porter to meet us at the edge of the medina and took the bags in. Worth asking about before you arrive with a boot full of luggage.

Three checkpoints on the way to Essaouira and every one of them waved us straight through. Not the ordeal I had read about online.

Air conditioning that actually worked in August, which mattered far more than the badge on the bonnet. The guardian near Gueliz watched the car all week.