Arrival in Marrakech → Medina → Jemaa el-Fna
Welcome to Morocco. Your driver meets you at Marrakech airport with a sign and a smile, helps with your bags and takes you to your riad in the old city. A riad is a traditional house built around a quiet courtyard, often with orange trees and a fountain. Outside, the streets are loud and busy, but inside the walls everything is calm. Rest a little, drink a mint tea on the roof terrace and listen to the call to prayer from the mosques around you.
In the late afternoon, walk to Jemaa el-Fna, the most famous square in Africa. During the day it is quiet, but at sunset it comes alive: orange juice stands, snake charmers, Gnawa musicians, storytellers and dozens of smoky food stalls. Find a seat on a café terrace above the square and watch the lights come on, with the tall Koutoubia minaret glowing behind it all. It is the perfect first evening in Morocco.
Key stops
Airport pickup · Riad check-in · Jemaa el-Fna · Koutoubia
Stay
Traditional riad in Marrakech
Marrakech → High Atlas → Aït Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate → Dades Valley
Your driver picks you up in Marrakech in the morning, and soon the city is behind you. The road climbs into the High Atlas through walnut trees, red earth villages and long mountain bends. At the Tizi n'Tichka pass you are 2,260 metres high, and the view goes far across the mountains. On the other side, the land becomes dry and wide, and you reach Aït Ben Haddou, the clay ksar listed by UNESCO. Walk across the river and climb up to the old granary at the top.
After lunch, you pass Ouarzazate, the door to the desert and the home of big film studios. Then the road follows the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs through the palm grove of Skoura and the Valley of Roses at Kelaat M'Gouna, where the small pink Damask roses are turned into rose water. In the late afternoon you arrive in the Dades Valley, with its red cliffs and green fields. Dinner is a warm tagine at your hotel.
Key stops
Tizi n'Tichka · Aït Ben Haddou · Ouarzazate · Skoura · Valley of Roses · Dades
Stay
Hotel or riad in the Dades Valley
Dades Valley → Tinghir → Todra Gorge → Erfoud → Merzouga
After breakfast you drive to Tinghir, a long green oasis full of date palms and old mud villages. A few minutes later the valley closes and you walk into Todra Gorge. The rock walls rise about 300 metres on both sides, and a clear stream runs over the stones at your feet. Climbers hang on the cliffs, and local women wash wool in the water. It is a cool, quiet place before the heat of the desert.
In the afternoon the land opens into the black stony hamada. You pass Erfoud, the town of dates and fossils, and then you see them on the horizon: the orange dunes of Erg Chebbi. In Merzouga your camels are waiting. You ride for about an hour and a half into the sand, while the dunes change from gold to orange to pink. At the camp, the team welcomes you with mint tea, a big dinner and Berber drums under the stars.
Key stops
Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Erfoud · camel trek · Erg Chebbi
Stay
Desert camp in Merzouga
Merzouga → Khamlia → Nomad families → Erg Chebbi
Today there is no long drive. After breakfast, your driver takes you around the dunes by 4x4. First you visit a nomad family in their tent of dark goat hair. They move with their goats and camels to find water and grass, and they will offer you tea and bread baked in the sand. Then you drive to Khamlia, a small village whose people came across the Sahara from West Africa long ago. The Gnawa musicians welcome you with deep drums, iron castanets and old songs.
In the afternoon you see the other faces of the desert: the black volcanic stones of the hamada, the old mining area of Mifis and, after a rainy winter, the lake of Dayet Srji, where flamingos sometimes stop. Before sunset, climb a big dune and watch the sand turn red. You sleep near the dunes again tonight, in a camp or a comfortable hotel with a pool.
Key stops
Nomad family · Khamlia Gnawa music · Mifis · Dayet Srji · sunset dune
Merzouga → Erfoud → Ziz Valley → Midelt
Watch the sunrise over the dunes and then have breakfast in Merzouga. Today you drive north at an easy pace. You pass Erfoud, famous for its fossil workshops, and follow the Ziz Valley, a green ribbon of date palms deep below the road. Stop at the viewpoint near Aoufous for one of the most beautiful photos of the trip.
After Errachidia, the road enters the Ziz Gorges and passes the Tunnel du Légionnaire, then climbs to the wide high plains. In the afternoon you arrive in Midelt, a calm town at almost 1,500 metres, under the snowy peak of Jbel Ayachi. It is known for apples and colourful minerals. You sleep here tonight.
Key stops
Erfoud · Ziz Valley viewpoint · Ziz Gorges · Midelt
Stay
Hotel or riad in Midelt
Midelt → Azrou Cedar Forest → Ifrane → Fes
Today you cross the Middle Atlas. The road leaves the plains of Midelt, passes the Col du Zad and enters the great cedar forest near Azrou. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old. The forest is home to the Barbary macaques, and you can often watch them play near the road. Please do not feed them.
Next comes Ifrane, the little town with red roofs, clean parks and a stone lion, where it snows in winter. Then the road goes down into the Saïss plain, and you arrive in Fes in the early afternoon. Your driver takes you to your riad in the medina, and a porter helps with your bags through the narrow streets.
Key stops
Col du Zad · Azrou cedar forest · Ifrane · Fes
Fes Guided Medina Tour
Today a licensed local guide takes you into Fes el-Bali, the old medina of Fes and one of the largest car-free city areas in the world. It is a maze of more than 9,000 narrow lanes. You see the Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas, with their carved cedar, stucco and colourful zellige tiles, and the outside of Al Quaraouiyine, founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri and known as one of the oldest universities in the world.
In the afternoon you visit the craftsmen: weavers, coppersmiths, and the famous Chouara tannery, where leather is dyed in big stone pits the same way it was done centuries ago. From a terrace above, you see the colours below. You also visit the Royal Palace gates and the old Jewish quarter, the Mellah. In the evening, rest at your riad and enjoy a dinner of pastilla, the famous sweet and salty Fes pie.
Key stops
Fes el-Bali · Bou Inania · Al-Attarine · Al Quaraouiyine · Chouara tannery · Royal Palace
Fes → Rif Mountains → Chefchaouen
This morning you leave Fes and drive north into the Rif Mountains. The landscape changes quickly: green hills, olive trees, small farms and villages on the slopes. The road is slow and beautiful, and your driver will stop whenever you want a photo.
In the afternoon you reach Chefchaouen, the famous blue town. Founded in 1471, it sits under two mountain peaks, and its houses are painted in many shades of blue. Walk through the quiet lanes to the Outa el Hammam square and the red walls of the old kasbah. Before sunset, take the short path up to the Spanish Mosque for a view over the whole town.
Key stops
Rif Mountains · Chefchaouen medina · Outa el Hammam · Spanish Mosque
Chefchaouen → Rabat → Casablanca
After breakfast you leave the blue town and drive south-west to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. You visit the Hassan Tower, the unfinished minaret of a huge 12th-century mosque, and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V next to it, with its guards on horseback and its golden ceiling. Then you walk in the Kasbah of the Udayas, with its white and blue lanes above the ocean.
In the afternoon you continue along the coast to Casablanca, the biggest city in Morocco. Before sunset, visit the Hassan II Mosque, built on the edge of the Atlantic, with one of the tallest minarets in the world. Then walk on the Corniche by the ocean. You sleep in Casablanca tonight.
Key stops
Rabat · Hassan Tower · Mausoleum of Mohammed V · Kasbah of the Udayas · Hassan II Mosque
Casablanca → Marrakech
If you did not see it yesterday, start the morning at the Hassan II Mosque. It is one of the few mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslim visitors on guided tours, and its prayer hall can hold 25,000 people. Then take a short walk through the Habous quarter, with its bookshops and pastry shops.
The highway to Marrakech is easy and takes about three hours. You arrive in the afternoon, with time to enjoy your riad or a last evening at Jemaa el-Fna. Your private journey ends here, after ten days and many roads across Morocco.
Key stops
Hassan II Mosque · Habous quarter · Marrakech
Stay
Tour ends in Marrakech
