Western Palearctic: design my itinerary... (1 Viewer)

Dear All,

I have a short amount of time and some frequent flyer miles to use, so I am thinking about my options for 4 or 5 day trip in early July, so I am throwing my options open for suggestions from the forum.

I know July is not a great time to go, and have ruled out Finland which otherwise would probably be top of my list.

In the Western Palearctic I have birded a fair bit in Spain and also done trips to Poland and a short trip to Eastern Austria. Highest density of new and/or quality birds for me would be Morocco or Turkey I guess, but eastern eurpoe still holds some potential lifers for me. I have ruled out Canaries which otherwise might be ideal, because my BA miles won't get me there.

So can anyone suggest a 4 day itinerary for me, probably to either Turkey or Morocco with a good density of local specialties? What would be your ideal trip in these circumstances?

Cheers, Ian

For Morocco I can offer this:

http://www.birdtours.co.uk/pdf-area/Morocco and Western Sahara trip report 2010.pdf

I did a quick 5-day Morocco trip a couple of weeks ago, which was very enjoyable. Standard stuff - flew into Marrakech and did Imlil, Oukaimedan, Rissani, Zeida, Ifrane etc.

As you would expect, the mountains were superb while the desert was a bit on the warm side.

Have you checked the cost of using your BA miles? You certainly don't get a free flight, and you might find it's cheaper to fly with one of the low-cost carriers.

DMW said:

I did a quick 5-day Morocco trip a couple of weeks ago, which was very enjoyable. Standard stuff - flew into Marrakech and did Imlil, Oukaimedan, Rissani, Zeida, Ifrane etc.

As you would expect, the mountains were superb while the desert was a bit on the warm side.

Have you checked the cost of using your BA miles? You certainly don't get a free flight, and you might find it's cheaper to fly with one of the low-cost carriers.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I was of course expecting the desert to be hot, and even slow birding, as long as it's not completely birdless and I still have chances for the key targets.

Do you have a trip report?

I have checked the award flight situation and it's a lot better than it used to be. When BA switched from "miles" to "avios" several months ago they also introduced a new way of pricing short-haul award flights: pretty much anywhere within 3-4 hours of UK is a flat £27 charge plus the airmiles (and this includes relevant taxes). In contrast, long-haul you still pay the cumulative taxes, fees and charges. The biggest single factor here is not tax, but the so-called "fuel surcharge". I used miles to travel to Venzuela in January. I saved 400 quid, but the ticket still cost me over 300, most of which was the fuel surcharge. This pricing system used to make short-haul award flights uncompetitive with the no-frills carriers, but not any more . Sadly, this will be probably my last opportunity to use it before leaving the UK/Europe after 24 years here...

Cheers, Ian

Hi Ian
I haven’t done a trip report, and to be honest there wouldn’t be much information in it that isn’t already well-covered in the numerous existing on-line reports. We used the Gosney guides, which we found to be very good.
We did a loop from Marrakech out east to Rissani, then north up to Ifrane, and back to Marrakech via Beni Mellal. This wasn’t our first trip to Morocco, and our itinerary was based on filling in a few gaps rather than a comprehensive trip. It involved a lot of driving for relatively few target species, and not one I would necessarily recommend for a first visit to the country – for example, we drove past the Tagdilt Track without stopping, which borders on criminal.
If you do decide to go and want more specific info on these areas, let me know.
Cheers
Duncan