Would you travel with your 7 year old in Morocco as the only adult?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp here. I'd like to add that it doesn't matter whether you are "intimidated" or not. If you travel to a country like that as a woman, alone, most likely you will be subjected to people staring at you incessantly in the street, catcalling you, possibly even touching you, possibly in front of your son. It's more demeaning than unsafe, really. Your call.

I've been to Morocco (woman traveling alone) and certainly there was unwanted attention but not nearly as much as in Italy. No one came up and touched me. Far more irritating was the incessant attempts to get me to enter stores and buy goods. I think it depends OP on what kind of trip you want to do, how much traveling you have done and how confident / prepared you feel to deal with unwanted attention. If this is your first international trip and you are a nervous traveler then I would say no. If you have traveled extensively then go for it.

OP here - I am well-travelled and I have been to Italy! It sounds like Morocco would be fine.

[Anonymous]

I agree, OP. Go for it!

[Anonymous]

For the people who say they would only take their child to an english speaking country, I feel sorry for your kids. Really. OP If you speak french, you will be fine in all but the most remote parts of Morocco. No one will bother you with a child. Cover your arms and shoulders in public--and your head in places of worship, I've had white frat boys in Georgetown grope my bare arms on M street. It can happen anywhere. Omg, this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp here. I'd like to add that it doesn't matter whether you are "intimidated" or not. If you travel to a country like that as a woman, alone, most likely you will be subjected to people staring at you incessantly in the street, catcalling you, possibly even touching you, possibly in front of your son. It's more demeaning than unsafe, really. Your call.

This is me. I am Middle Eastern. I've lived in the ME, traveled there, and know the culture too well. And yeah, I wouldn't go anywhere without my husband, or take my child alone, and I don't care if a bunch of tourists or foreigners who lived there a couple years had a nice time. If something bad happens, you're screwed, and it's not worth the risk. That's the reality of being a woman in that region. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the people who say they would only take their child to an english speaking country, I feel sorry for your kids. Really. OP If you speak french, you will be fine in all but the most remote parts of Morocco. No one will bother you with a child. Cover your arms and shoulders in public--and your head in places of worship, I've had white frat boys in Georgetown grope my bare arms on M street. It can happen anywhere. Omg, this thread.

if you pay attention, I posted the note about not taking a child to a non-English speaking country before she posted that her son speaks french.

I'm all for giving kids cultural experiences, especially when they're a little older (teens).

And it has nothing to do with not respecting nonEnglish speaking people or assuming all English-speaking people are good. the issue is a practical one -- if the kid gets separated, it's going to be hard for him to communicate with people to help him find his mother. But obviously, if he speaks french, that's a different story.

And frankly OP should have posted in her opening thread.

But i find people naive when they feel so certain their kid will never get lost or separated. But if she's so confident and has traveled to the Dominican Republic and other places with her child, why is she even asking the question? Unless she's trying to drum up trouble or perhaps her bias is toward Muslims.

I think most average people in most countries are just living their lives. But I still think it is unwise to travel with young children to places where the child doesn't speak the primary language.

That's my opinion, and I don't think it is an unreasonable one. You don't have to "feel sorry" for my children.

[Anonymous]

I say, Rock the Casbah!

Marrakesh is really amazing (and quite Western). There are potential dangers in traveling with kids anywhere. I think you'll have a great time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the people who say they would only take their child to an english speaking country, I feel sorry for your kids. Really. OP If you speak french, you will be fine in all but the most remote parts of Morocco. No one will bother you with a child. Cover your arms and shoulders in public--and your head in places of worship, I've had white frat boys in Georgetown grope my bare arms on M street. It can happen anywhere. Omg, this thread.

if you pay attention, I posted the note about not taking a child to a non-English speaking country before she posted that her son speaks french.

I'm all for giving kids cultural experiences, especially when they're a little older (teens).

And it has nothing to do with not respecting nonEnglish speaking people or assuming all English-speaking people are good. the issue is a practical one -- if the kid gets separated, it's going to be hard for him to communicate with people to help him find his mother. But obviously, if he speaks french, that's a different story.

And frankly OP should have posted in her opening thread.

But i find people naive when they feel so certain their kid will never get lost or separated. But if she's so confident and has traveled to the Dominican Republic and other places with her child, why is she even asking the question? Unless she's trying to drum up trouble or perhaps her bias is toward Muslims.

I think most average people in most countries are just living their lives. But I still think it is unwise to travel with young children to places where the child doesn't speak the primary language.

That's my opinion, and I don't think it is an unreasonable one. You don't have to "feel sorry" for my children.

lol. You're new to DCUM, bless your heart.

[Anonymous]

damn OP. I would love to be you or your 7 yr old child

Go already

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the people who say they would only take their child to an english speaking country, I feel sorry for your kids. Really. OP If you speak french, you will be fine in all but the most remote parts of Morocco. No one will bother you with a child. Cover your arms and shoulders in public--and your head in places of worship, I've had white frat boys in Georgetown grope my bare arms on M street. It can happen anywhere. Omg, this thread.

if you pay attention, I posted the note about not taking a child to a non-English speaking country before she posted that her son speaks french.

I'm all for giving kids cultural experiences, especially when they're a little older (teens).

And it has nothing to do with not respecting nonEnglish speaking people or assuming all English-speaking people are good. the issue is a practical one -- if the kid gets separated, it's going to be hard for him to communicate with people to help him find his mother. But obviously, if he speaks french, that's a different story.

And frankly OP should have posted in her opening thread.

But i find people naive when they feel so certain their kid will never get lost or separated. But if she's so confident and has traveled to the Dominican Republic and other places with her child, why is she even asking the question? Unless she's trying to drum up trouble or perhaps her bias is toward Muslims.

I think most average people in most countries are just living their lives. But I still think it is unwise to travel with young children to places where the child doesn't speak the primary language.

That's my opinion, and I don't think it is an unreasonable one. You don't have to "feel sorry" for my children.

This is the OP. No I don't have a bias against Muslims and no I was not trying to stir up trouble!

Did you mean I should have posted that we speak French in my original post? I didn't ask about whether Morocco would be difficult to navigate and I didn't ask about what I should do if he got lost. Language wasn't relevant to my question.
I only asked whether it would be safe because when I was travelling in my 20s, I had heard it wasn't a good idea to travel alone as a woman in Morocco. I thought it was a reasonable question! I'm well-travelled and I have no worries about travelling alone with my son but I'm not foolish - it's always a good idea to investigate potential dangers when travelling to a new place. By the way, this would go for cities in the US also. I was in LA recently and hadn't been there for decades. So before going, I looked up which neighborhoods were considered shady, by what time at night it was best to be in.

Re the risk of losing your child - I guess you have to know your child to determine how likely that risk is, and judge whether your child would know what to do if he or she did get lost.

Anyway, I just bought a travel guide on Morocco today. Thanks for everyone's input!

[Anonymous]

In my experience, English is almost as widely spoken there as french; that is certainly the case in Marrakech. Have a great time.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who asked if she spoke the local language - the reason is that it's relevant for safety and awareness of your surroundings. It's a lot safer/easier to get around as a woman in the ME if you know what people around you are saying when they think you won't understand.

OP - Sounds like you're likely to have a great time!

[Anonymous]

Hi, this is the OP - just posting a follow-up. We just got back from the trip and ended up going to a few places in Morocco - the cities of Marrakesh, Fez, and Chefchaouen, and also went through the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert, where we stayed one night. It was an amazing trip! I felt completely safe travelling alone with my son, and the only type of harassment was the typical "Where are you from, do you want to see my father's shop, just look, you don't have to buy....?" in the souks to try to sell things to tourists. No one tried to grab me at any point! I was asked once by a hotel manager whether my husband was working back home but it seemed he was more curious than anything more sinister.
Language wasn't an issue - French is spoken widely and if the person didn't understand it well enough, someone else nearby could. English was also frequently spoken. The only point where we got lost was in the new part of Fez where the street signs were mostly in Arabic and we had to ask someone for directions.
I found Moroccans to be very kind with my son and felt that if he were to get separated from me, he would more likely be helped by someone. (He didn't get lost).
Finally, I was surprised to see that free Wi-fi is everywhere in Morocco - it was easy to book hotels, look up information online, stay connected etc. So, it turned out to be much easier to get around in Morocco than I thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp here. I'd like to add that it doesn't matter whether you are "intimidated" or not. If you travel to a country like that as a woman, alone, most likely you will be subjected to people staring at you incessantly in the street, catcalling you, possibly even touching you, possibly in front of your son. It's more demeaning than unsafe, really. Your call.

This is me. I am Middle Eastern. I've lived in the ME, traveled there, and know the culture too well. And yeah, I wouldn't go anywhere without my husband, or take my child alone, and I don't care if a bunch of tourists or foreigners who lived there a couple years had a nice time. If something bad happens, you're screwed, and it's not worth the risk. That's the reality of being a woman in that region. Sorry.

I'm not Middle Eastern, but have worked there for many years (I'm a woman). I agree with this PP. Some things just aren't worth it.

[Anonymous]

I've been to Morocco, without a child, but with a tourist group. I wouldn't go there again, certainly not with a child. You get unwanted attention even as part of a tourist group, if you wonder too far away. Merchants try to get you to buy stuff all the time, comment loudly all the time, etc.etc. Medinas (old historical centers) are a geographical nightmare, with no street names, narrow alleyways - just a perfect place for a small child to get lost. Traffic is completely chaotic and crossing a street is quite a challenge, can't imagine doing it with a small kid. And that's in addition to risk of stomach troubles, which our entire group got, power outages, which we experienced in Fez, and which we were told was routine, and just general sense of unpleasantness from crowded spaces, dirty streets, camel heads dripping with blood displayed in store fronts... Brrrr....

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't. I had a very bad experience in Tangier as a 10-year old girl while on vacation with my parents. We were with a tour group in the marketplace, and a couple of men tried to pull me away from the group. No kidding.