When you’re on the road for an extended period of time, you miss out on family time back home that quite often we take for granted. Sunday roast dinners with the family, Thursday pizza and wine night with friends… these are pretty hard to organise in hostels where you’ve only known your new friends for a few days.
But on my very first night in Equity Point Marrakech I realised that family time wasn’t something we needed to organise. The sunset did that for us.
I’m not too sure when the tradition began. The group of friends I made on my first day at Equity consisted of a few old timers (read: long-stay guests of two-three weeks) who simply migrated to the roof top just before sunset every evening to capture the incredible colours that radiated over the city as the sun descended below the horizon.
The most beautiful thing about the routine? No matter what our plans during the day, who we decided to spend the day with or without, or if we had to be somewhere later in the day – family time at sunset was a constant.
Once on the roof top terrace we would discuss what adventures we got up to in and around Marrakech and what our plans were for the next day, with everyone in the crowd being offered an open invitation to join in. It was like your average evening meal at home with the family, just with less food, more beer, and a lot more photography action!
Why am I telling you this?
Hostels can often seem daunting for solo travellers, especially if you are staying in a larger hostel. Meeting new people, and getting to know groups who have already grown close seems like a much bigger challenge than it actually is.
Hostels such as Equity Point Marrakech, with fabulous common areas such as the rooftop terrace and the lounge room on the second floor offer great meeting points in which to gather – and invite others to join you! Even in our ‘family’ group we would continue to invite others to join us on the rooftop at sunset because it was just too beautiful not to share.
Creating your own family time whilst travelling is important. Hostels aren’t lonely places – they are full of travellers just like you looking for somewhere to call home on the road.
Sharing time together in the evening at Equity Point Marrakech, no matter what we did in the day, brought us all closer – and I can’t wait to see our Marrakech family again, wherever in the world we might be now!
Interested in staying at Equity Point Marrakech? Remember that I always suggest booking direct through the hostel website for the best available rates, so click below to book now!
My stay at Equity Point Marrakech was in exchange for a review soon to be live on budgettraveller.org. However, as always, all thoughts and opinions are all my own and I wasn’t commissioned in anyway for this article – I just want to share how fabulous hostel life can be in the right hostel at the right time!
Lots of love,
