We Don't Just Show You Morocco. We Share It With You
Since 1994, Sarah Tours has created thoughtful journeys rooted in culture, human connection, and responsible travel, inviting our guests to experience Morocco as it is lived, not simply as it is seen.
WHERE IT BEGAN
I grew up in the old city of Fez, surrounded by artisans, storytellers, merchants, scholars, and travelers. Long before I understood tourism as a profession, I knew Fez as a living community, its narrow streets, workshops, markets, neighborhoods, and, above all, its people. I learned early that a place is more than its monuments. Its true character lives in the people who inhabit it, the stories they carry, and the relationships that bind them together.
Travel entered my life almost by accident when I was still a teenager. One morning, I woke to find young European travelers camping in their cars at the entrance to our family farm. We welcomed them, friendships followed, and before long word began to circulate among overland travelers passing through Fez that they could camp at our farm and simply “ask for Hamid.” Around the same time, I began accompanying visitors through the Medina, at first to practice my French and English and later as a young guide. Without realizing it, I was discovering the kind of travel that would shape the rest of my life, not tourism built around seeing places from a distance, but travel built around meeting people, sharing cultures, and walking beside one another.
By the early 1970s, I had become fascinated by the overland trucks arriving at Bab Khokha near my high school, carrying young travelers across countries and continents. In 1974, I became a licensed guide, and before long I was no longer guiding only in Fez but accompanying overland journeys throughout Morocco and eventually across Africa. Some lasted weeks, others months. The road became my first school of anthropology. Long before I studied the subject at university, travel was teaching me to observe, listen, adapt, and understand cultures through the people who lived them. I discovered that the farther I travelled, the more I understood both the world and my own country.
In 1994, after years of guiding, traveling, and studying anthropology, I founded Sarah Tours in Alexandria, Virginia, naming the company after my wife and daughter, both named Sarah. I wanted to create the kind of travel I had come to believe in: personal, curious, responsible, and deeply connected to the people and places we visit. Sarah Tours was never meant simply to take travelers from one attraction to another. It grew from a much simpler idea, that the best journeys happen when we stop being spectators and begin meeting one another as human beings. More than thirty years later, that idea still guides everything we do.
Warm regards,
Hamid Mernissi
President, Sarah Tours, Inc.
Our Values
Authenticity
We believe authentic travel begins with people. Our journeys are designed to bring travelers into meaningful contact with the cultures, communities, and everyday life of the places they visit, not as spectators looking in, but as respectful guests invited to listen, learn, and participate.
Sustainability
For us, sustainable travel means leaving a place richer, not poorer, because we visited it. We design our journeys so that travelers gain meaningful experiences while local communities, guides, artisans, farmers, small businesses, and other suppliers share fairly in the benefits of tourism. At the same time, we seek to respect the landscapes, natural resources, cultural heritage, and ways of life that make each destination unique. Travel should create opportunity without consuming what future generations will need.
Community Impact
We believe local people should be participants in tourism, not simply part of the scenery. Whenever possible, we work with local guides, family-owned accommodations, artisans, farmers, drivers, cooks, and small businesses so that the value created by travel remains within the communities that welcome us. Tourism succeeds when it creates dignified opportunities, strengthens local knowledge and traditions, and allows hosts and travelers to benefit from meeting one another.
What Travelers Say
"My trip was beyond expectations. The local guides showed us places I never would have found on my own. It wasn't just a vacation - it was a transformative experience."
Emma Thompson
Morocco Historical Royal Cities
Let’s Begin With a Conversation
Every meaningful journey begins with listening. Tell us what interests you, how you like to travel, and what you hope to discover. Whether you already have a journey in mind or are just beginning to explore the possibilities, we would be delighted to listen, share our knowledge, and help you create an experience that feels genuinely your own.