Becoming Clear

Registration/Booking Details

Update as of 22 Sep 2016

The Retreat is Full

* * * WAIT LIST: For any hoping to register * * *

Please contact Jane Bayley, the registrar, to be put on the Wait List.
In the event of any cancellations, Wait Listed people will be given the first option
to take the open retreat space, according to their order on the Wait List.

£895 for a shared twin/double room
£1,285 for a private room

Contact Jane Bayley, the owner of La Maison Anglaise, the guesthouse in Taroudant where we'll be staying for most of the retreat, to secure your place, and if you'd like to know more about Morocco. Email is always the best method of contact for her:

Retreat spaces often go quickly, since they're limited to the number of beds at La Maison Anglaise, and flight prices are much lower if booked well in advance.

The EasyJet fare of £68 has been increasing by a few pence to almost £1 each day, and will continue to increase until it's no longer a reasonable fare; and at a certain point, the fare increases will become much steeper than a few pence per day. In addition the early price is only the airfare — checking a 20kg bag in the hold, selecting your seat in advance, and "speedy boarding" are extra, and there's also a booking fee of £13.50, which applies to each booking, whether you're booking for one or for several people, so if you aren't traveling alone you'll save on multiple booking fees by including everyone in the same booking.

Why Fly into Marrakech (RAK),
Isn't Agadir (AGA) Closer to Taroudant?

There are 2 good reasons for suggesting that everyone fly into Marrakech (RAK) this year, rather than into Agadir (AGA), like the past 2 years.

While Agadir is the closest airport to La Maison Anglais, in Taroudant, most of the attendees for the past 2 years have come from the north of England, which required the time and expense of a train journey south, plus an overnight stay in a hotel near the Gatwick airport in order to be on time for a 5.30am check-in for the 7am flight from Gatwick to Agadir.

This year again, the 8 folks who've already booked plus Jilani and Muiz, are all coming from the north of England, and taking the EasyJet flight from Manchester, UK (MAN) to Marrakech (RAK). La Maison Anglaise's two mini-vans can carry 8 passengers each, so with 10 of us already in the "Manchester/Marrakech" group so far, we'll need both vans for transport from Marrakech. This may make a mid-day transport from the Agadir airport, using the same vans, challenging or even impossible.

In addition to the logistics of flight times and airport transport, we decided it would be wonderful to take advantage of Marrakech's proximity to the Tizi n'Test Pass (a spectacular pass over the High Atlas Mountains between Marrakech and Taroudant) and the Tinmel Mosque (a beautiful, partially restored, 12th century mosque, proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of only 2 mosques in Morocco that are open to non-Muslims).

Since the Marrakech flight back to Manchester on 17 Dec doesn't depart until 19:55, we can combine the return transport to the airport with a final excursion, via the longer route through the pass, with a stop at the mosque. The cost for this Marrakech transport plus final excursion will only be for the aiport transport (approx £30 per person, return/round trip, or a bit higher if both vans aren't full).

Travel Insurance

It’s absolutely essential that you have travel insurance, and Jane will request your policy details as well as some other info including your passport expiration date, about a month before the retreat, as she needs to confirm that you have a policy and that your passport is valid until after you leave Morocco.

Your travel policy needs to include good Medical and Injury coverage, as well as Cancellation & Trip Interruption coverage, in case the airlines cancel or delay flights, etc, or if you would need to cancel because of illness, hospitalization, or death of you or a close family member, or if your work requires you to cancel your trip.

If your trip is interrupted, delayed, or cancelled for any of the covered reasons listed in your policy, you can get reimbursed by the insurance policy for payments you've made which are non-refundable, and additional out of pocket expenses that are incurred because of the interruption, delay, or cancellation.

While there are certain events and circumstances which are specifically excluded, don't assume that something IS covered if it isn't listed in either section. If you're uncertain, call the company and ask.

You need to carefully read the language for Covered AND Excluded events and circumstances.

One final empahsis: if there's a possibility that you might have to cancel for one or more of the excluded reasons, or for reasons not specifically listed as Covered, you may want to look into a "Cancel for any Reason" policy, which covers any and every reason for you cancelling:

http://www.travelinsurancereview.net/coverages/cancel-for-any-reason/

Here is a link, at NaturallyMoroco.uk (a tour company specializing in Morocco, which Jane founded a number of years ago, and then sold at a later point) to a page with some good information about the situations a suitable travel policy should cover. HOWEVER Naturally Morocco won't sell you the insurance, as they only insure tours which are booked through them, and booking this retreat through them will increase the price because of the commission they will add to the retreat price. The site is for information only.

If you don't carry an annual travel policy, and if your bank/credit card company doesn't offer travel coverage, you can research and compare a variety of different types of coverage from different companies at TravelInsuranceReview.net.

Morocco is included as a "European" destination by many travel policies, so you shouldn't need what's referred to as "world coverage", which is more expensive.

Payment

* If you have a bank account that pays funds in GBP (Great Britain Pounds, £)

Please send Jane 3 (three) cheques, 2 of them post-dated, all payable to Jane Bayley, along with your name, phone number & email address, and that you're booking for "Caravan of the Heart" on 6 December 2016.

Date the 3 cheques as follows for:

• £150 (your booking date);
• £375 (27 Sept 2016) and
• £370 (25 Oct 2016)

and post ALL 3 of THEM to Jane:

Jane Bayley
Estuary View House
Cwmins, St Dogmaels
Wales, SA43 3HF
United Kingdom.

* If your bank account pays funds in any other currency

You can use TransferWise.com to convert your currency into GBP and transfer it directly from your bank to hers. Jane recommends Transferwise.com because they offer the best exchange rate, often lower than using your bank to change the currency and make the transfer, and their commission/fee is quite small.

If you're using TransferWise.com, the same 3 installment amounts and dates apply, as for cheques above. Your 2nd and 3rd installments need to be transfered BEFORE 27 September and 25 October because the transfers take from 1 - 3 banking business days. There will be a £10 late charge for late installments.

Contact Muiz for details, and for help in creating an account at TransferWise.com, adding Jane's bank as a recipient, and making the transfer. You will need to use your online banking login name and password to verify/confirm that you own the bank account that will fund the transfer.

Your bank login details are not saved by TransferWise, so you'll need to enter them each time you make a transfer.

If it would make you feel more comfortable about the transfer, you can temporarily change your online banking password, make the transfer, and then change your bank password back to what it was before ... a bit cumbersome, but not that difficult, and it guarantees that even if your login info were saved, that password would be useless because you would have changed it back, after you make the transfer.

The password is only needed to verify and confirm your access to your bank account while you're setting up and saving your your transfer request. The verification and confirmation process only takes from a few seconds to a minute. Once the transfer request has been confirmed and saved, you can change your online banking password back to what it was before, without interrupting the transfer. Transfers of funds can take 1 - 3 business/banking days to complete.