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Kefta Lunch. "The hippies come here for the pot, of course," says a young visitor from New York—and indeed Morocco is a hashhead's delight. Kif, raw leaf marijuana, is openly (although illegally) sold for $4.50 a pound and widely smoked in public in clay pipes that can be bought for 100 a dozen in any souk, or shop. With or without the assistance of kif, Morocco is a delight. In winter, a venturesome visitor can swim in the morning off the beach at Essaouira on the Atlantic, lunch on kefta (skewered minced steak with herbs) in Marrakesh, and ski the afternoon away at Oukaïmeden in the High Atlas Mountains. He can be back in Marrakesh in plenty of time to catch the show at Ksar el Hamra (the Red House) and dine on magnificent bstilla (a flaky, cinnamon-sprinkled pie stuffed with pigeon livers and eggs). He can accompany this with a bottle of Boulaouane rose, or any one of several inexpensive Moroccan red wines. (They are far superior to their middle-class French cousins and deserve to be exported.)
Nongastronomic tourists may settle for sightseeing: hiring a car and guide (average rate: $25 a day) to visit the ancient walled city of Taroudant with its elegant Moorish Dar Baroud Palace, or crossing over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, a three-hour drive from Marrakesh, into the picturesque "casbah country" with its fortified villages built of clay that melts like chocolate in a heavy rain. Or they may spend the day shopping in the souks of Fez or Marrakesh, haggling for bargains in brightly patterned Moroccan rugs, ornate silver jewelry or silk brocade caftans—the flowing, T-shaped garment traditionally worn by Moroccan women relaxing at home.
Dancing Girls, Fat. For total relaxation, few hotels in the world can compare with La Gazelle d'Or in Taroudant, where seclusion and discretion are maintained with almost maniacal determination. At $30 a day per person, a maximum of 40 guests sleep in cottages covered with bougainvillea and liana and surrounded by vegetation so dense that it is impossible to see from one cottage to the next. There are no radios at La Gazelle d'Or, no television sets; phones can be switched off, and the only prod to physical activity is a swimming pool—unheated. Compare that with the kind of activity available at the Club Mediterranee's 650-guest "vacation village," 45 miles away at Agadir on the Atlantic. "You name it, we do it," says Manageress Marcelle Fayt. "Sailing, riding, tennis, yoga, judo, camel riding, Scrabble, swimming, sunning, pingpong, desert safaris, deep-sea fishing, drinking, eating, kissing and frugging." All in two weeks, for $240 a person, including round-trip air fare from Paris.