All of which makes travel here an intense and rewarding experience. It's not always easy-going - there can be problems in coming to terms with your privileged position as a tourist, and in dealing with self-appointed guides eager to offer their services. However, in recent years the worst of the hustlers have been cleared off the streets (anyone who visited in the early 1990s will be amazed at the change) and the unofficial guides you encounter are fewer and more discreet. If you find things too much of a struggle, you can take refuge in low-key resorts like Essaouira or Asilah, or in the more cosmopolitan holiday destination of Agadir, built very much in the image of its Spanish counterparts. Or you could make things easy on yourself with a small-group tour, travelling by Landrover or going on an organized trek.

But Morocco is really an ideal place for independent travel. A week's hiking in the Atlas, a journey through the southern oases or into the pre-Sahara, or leisured strolls around Tangier, Fes or Marrakesh - once you adapt to a different way of life, all your time will be well spent. It's also a safe and politically stable country to visit: the death in 1999 of King Hassan II, the Arab world's longest serving leader, was followed by an easy transition to his son, Mohammed VI. And it's difficult for any traveller to go for long without running into Morocco's equally powerful tradition of hospitality, generosity and openness. This is a country people return to again and again