Gite Tizi Mizik

We stayed here the night before our climb up Toubkal earlier this month. Hassan, the host, also organised our trip up the mountain and I would recommend anyone interested in the hike to do so through him. We booked with an agency in Marrakesh that also put us on a very poor Merzouga tour (see another of my reviews) and I would advise contacting Hassan directly for the mountain trip if possible. We paid 50 euros each per day which included transfers, accomodation, a private guide and meals. We did hear another traveller dealing directly with Hassan for a cheaper price than we paid through the agency. The place - We had a private room, which came with an ensuite. The room and bathroom was very clean. There is a lovely sitting area outside the rooms with lots of books and maps of Toubkal. We also had mint tea on arrival. Dinner was lovely, with massive portions. For just two of us there was more than enough food, we had moroccan soup, tagine and fruit. It is some of the best food we had during our 2 weeks in Morocco. There is also a nice terrace with tables where you can look down on the town. The bedroom and sitting area were extremely cold when we arrived. A heater was put on in the sitting area later on which helped but it did not reach the bedroom. Temperature was fine for sleeping though and we were offered extra blankets. If worried bring an extra jumper and you will be fine. The Trek - Hassan has a shop in Imlil where you can hire equipment. We had come quite unprepared, and for us both to hire trousers, shoes, anoraks, hats, gloves, crampons, sleeping bags and rucksacks for 3 days came to 900dhs (90 euros). We definitely needed all of this equipment. We had Hamid as our guide. Very nice guy, and spoke enough English that we could have conversations with him and he told us lots of interesting things about the area and the Berber people. Day 1 consisted of a trek around the mountains surrounding Imlil, including up to a height of 2500m for lunch (Picnic) and then down to the Toubkal Waterfall. We felt this was a great way to adjust to the altitude, despite not making progress up Toubkal as we went back down at the end of the day. If you are an experienced climber then you probably can easily do it in two days, but this first day still gave us a great look into the Berber villages and Atlas Mountains. Day 2 we began the trek from Gite Tizi Mizik up to the refuge. We were on the slow end of the spectrum as we are not very experienced hikers, and left at about 10am. We would say to future travellers this was far too late (this wasn't our guide's fault, we were a bit late getting our stuff together) as it was extremely hot during the walk. We stopped for lunch for an hour where Hamid made us an amazing lunch of a Moroccan salad and Berber omelette. We arrived at the refuge at around 5pm. There are a few cafes on the way to buy snacks and water but they are relatively expensive compared to the cities (15dhs for water, mars bar, etc) and same at the refuge. The refuge was fine, we had a double bunk bed for the two of us. Western toilets, fires to keep the cold out and hot showers. Day 3 we woke up very early (4am) and began our climb to the summit with Hamid. We did feel we were a bit rushed on our last day than the previous two, though we suspect this may have been because Hamid knew we were quite slow and wanted us to reach the top before it got too hot, and still had the walk down. We left at 5am and arrived at 9am, again this is a bit slow. Top was amazing and Hamid was happy to take plenty of pictures for us! We then walked back down, had a quick stop at the refuge, had another great lunch, and arrived in Imlil at around 5pm. Overall, Hassan and Hamid made us feel extremely welcome in the Atlas Mountains. A great place to stay if you are climbing Toubkal, and we would recommend Hamid as a guide, though we wish we had booked directly through them instead. Thanks both from Sam and Mia!