Family stays

Diversity Excursions and Jnane Tamsna specialise in exploring the culture, ecology, history and contemporary trends of Marrakech and southern Morocco. We offer special programmes for all generations during holiday breaks and family reunions, allowing children and adults to experience Morocco in the way our family has over the last ten years. Although you can book directly through us for a customised séjour, Jnane Tamsna is exploring the possibility of offering these family stays through a number of specialised agencies. Stay tuned to learn about our future partners in this endeavour. ~ MLM

Arts and crafts workshops: With a specialist English art teacher, children and adults can explore a range of activities linking local culture and environment to their individual creative work. The Jnane Tamsna gardens and the surrounding palmgrove are an exciting field for discoveries to enrich workshops on plant collecting, pressed flower art work, photography and paper making. The making of paper incorporates plants of your choice, including lavender, rosemary and scented geranium freshly picked from the garden. Children can create puppets and other craft objects with their own homemade paper. Scour the marketplace in search of simple objects that can be used as models to sketch, draw or paint still lives. Explore Arabic calligraphy and integrate it in art work, making beautiful souvenirs that resonate with local culture. The creative art of collage blooms with an unlimited source of materials. Students can draw inspiration from the photographs and prints in Jnane Tamsna, and from visits to art galleries in Marrakech.

Introduction to gardening and landscaping: Jnane Tamsna is surrounded by over five acres of orchards, vegetable patches, ornamental flower gardens and natural landscaping. Without leaving the grounds, children and adults can discover xeriscaping (the art of gardening in arid zones), integration of native plants in ornamental gardens, traditional cultivation techniques of the Palmeraie and many other aspects of local landscape architecture. All year long, you will be able to discover the diversity of traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables, comparing the look and taste of dozens of varieties of root crops, salad greens and tomatoes. For amateurs and avid gardeners who can't keep their fingers out of the soil, we offer mini-sessions on plant propagation, seed saving and vegetable harvesting. On a free afternoon, we can take you to visit the plant nurseries of the Ourika valley, stopping off to see an organic aromatic herb garden in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains. Or just stay at home and learn about Moroccan cuisine.

Local crafts, interior design and other creative arts: Explore Marrakech through its rich cultural traditions. Meryanne Loum-Martin, the contributing editor to Susan Sully’s The New Moroccan Style (Random House, 2003), will take you on an insider tour of private homes to discover contemporary interpretations of crafts and decorative arts. Drawing on over fifteen years of experience in architecture and interior design, she will explain how Moroccan style has been inspired by the skills of various craftspeople - including  metalworkers, plasterers and zwak wood painters - as well as contemporary Moroccan architects and artists. She can arrange visits to crafts museums, private textile collections and workshops to observe firsthand pottery, weaving or zellige mosaique manufacture. For those who want to plunge into Moroccan culture, we invite local artists to give demonstrations and lessons on Henna bodypainting, belly dancing and Moroccan music.

Natural history, local culture and community development: Diversity Excursions offers a window on conservation, community development and research projects carried out by The Global Diversity Foundation. Through a fascinating exploration of local marketplaces, guests interested in natural history can discover how local people use plants and animals. Guests are invited to contribute to the projects, either by giving donations or by getting involved in hands-on work. Lanie Goodman described this aspect of Diversity Excursions in her article for the Wall Street Journal Europe (October 2002). Quoting Gary Martin, she wrote: “That's why we've added a community service component. It's a small contribution. But when you roll up your sleeves and plant some zucchini or weed a bean patch, you're not just watching from afar, you're taking action.”