"A private beach picnic on the two-hour drive from the Casablanca airport, the landscape doesn’t change much. Not that I’m complaining. There’s something otherworldly about Morocco’s sea of caramel-colored sand dunes. The driver takes a quick right turn and starts off-roading, weaving around rocks on a narrow dirt path. When he suddenly stops, I blink my jetlagged eyes. A Moorish, stone-covered fort—the village’s only luxury hotel, palace-style La Sultana Oualidia—stands guard in front of a lagoon, the sea roaring with foam-topped waves in the distance." - Lane Nieset