Culture Smart! Greece and Morocco (Virtual Blog Tour)

I was offered a spot by Kuperard Publishing on their first ever virtual blog tour hosted for Culture Smart! travel series. Culture Smart! is celebrating an amazing milestone - publishing their 100th country in the Culture Smart! collection. They have two new titles in their series that will be coming out soon, and seven new editions - including the two I just finished reading: Culture Smart! Greece, The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, written by Constantine Buhayer, and Culture Smart! Morocco, The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, written by Jillian York. I will be sharing my honest review and a couple of fun facts with you on each new edition.

If you have never been to Greece or Morocco (like me), or any other country - you usually do an abundance of research before you go there, right?! Spending hours upon hours trying to find the exact information you’re looking for while sifting through so much sugar-coated material it can wear you out. Everyone wants the truth and exact facts when it comes to the new faraway world they’re going to visit and, that’s what the Culture Smart! Guides give you. I’ve read several other books in their series before and I feel that these guides thoroughly prepare the first-time traveler for each county, and the new Greece and Morocco editions were no exception.

In both the Greece and Morocco editions you will be provided with essential information about the history of the countries, values, attitudes, and how to travel and stay safe on your expeditions through each country, including learning what to expect and how to deal with unfamiliar situations. Buhayer and York captured the true essence of the people, culture and history of each country beautifully. Knowing all I do now about Greece and Morocco gives me a better understanding of what to expect when I arrive in each country, and not look like a total tourist.

Any country you go to will more than likely be different than the last one you came from. Just like Greece and Morocco - these two countries couldn’t be more different from one another, though they do share a couple of similarities:

Fun Fact: Family comes first. In Greece it stands as an “autonomous state within the state, with its own laws” and statistics show that “72% of Greeks actually desire to live in the same house as their children, and their parents, with an uncle or aunt thrown in.” In Morocco “family is perhaps the most important aspect of Moroccan society and takes precedence over work, friendship, relationships, and sometimes even marriage.”

Fun Fact: Coffee is a staple. In Greece, coffeehouses (kafeneion) are a popular place for many (especially men) to sit around sip coffee and talk politics, local affairs, and playing cards. It was a place first introduced in 1648 where people could drink hot beverages, be kept awake, and debate, as opposed to drinking alcohol, fighting, and passing out. In Morocco you will find at least one cafe in every Moroccan Village, and some Moroccan cities seem to have more cafes than people. Similarly, in Greece men frequent cafes more than women, however in Morocco there are cafes that don’t welcome women at all, but in the larger cities today they are starting to welcome them with open arms.

I love reading the Culture Smart! books and learning so much about these different places around the world. These books are fun and educational, with tons of beneficial advice for your upcoming travels. The Culture Smart! books are an easy read, and can be read countless times over, and the best part is you can take them with you on your travels if you forgot certain essential information for a quick glance; a travel guide and history book all in one.

For more information, visit www.culturesmart.co.uk.

Kuperard is distributed in the USA and Canada by Independent Publishers Group (IPG). To see the full range, visit IPG’s website at www.ipgbook.com.

Sponsored by Kuperard Publishing

Elisabeth is the Founder, Publisher, & Editor-In-Chief of Travel Pass Magazine. A native Kansan who has had a love for travel ever since her first trip to Disney World at four years old, and is an adrenaline junkie who will try almost anything once. She's a full-time adventurer living out all of her life passions. Check out more of her writing and photography at www.elisabethacaraballo.com.