Casablanca → Rabat → Chefchaouen
Your driver meets you in Casablanca in the morning. Before you leave, you can see the Hassan II Mosque on the edge of the Atlantic. Then you drive to Rabat, the capital, to see the Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and to walk in the white and blue Kasbah of the Udayas above the ocean.
In the afternoon the road turns north-east and climbs into the green Rif Mountains. You arrive in Chefchaouen, the blue town, in the early evening. Drop your bags at your riad and walk to the Outa el Hammam square for dinner under the walls of the old kasbah.
Key stops
Hassan II Mosque · Rabat · Hassan Tower · Kasbah of the Udayas · Chefchaouen
Stay
Traditional riad in Chefchaouen
Exploring Chefchaouen
Today there is no driving. Wake up slowly and walk through the blue lanes of Chefchaouen in the morning, when the town is quiet and the light is soft. Visit the old kasbah with its garden and small museum, and look at the local crafts: wool blankets, goat cheese and woven hats from the Rif.
In the afternoon you can walk to Ras el Maa, the spring at the edge of town where women still wash clothes in the cold mountain water, and then up to the Spanish Mosque for sunset over the blue houses. If you like nature, your driver can also take you to the Akchour waterfalls in the nearby Talassemtane National Park.
Key stops
Blue medina · Kasbah · Ras el Maa · Spanish Mosque · Akchour (optional)
Stay
Traditional riad in Chefchaouen
Chefchaouen → Volubilis → Meknes → Fes
After breakfast you leave the Rif and drive south through farmland and olive groves to Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco and a UNESCO site. Walk among the columns of the basilica, the triumphal arch of Caracalla and the floor mosaics of old houses, with wide green hills all around.
Next is Meknes, the imperial city of Sultan Moulay Ismail. See the huge Bab Mansour gate and the old granaries and stables, then continue to Fes. You arrive in the evening and check in to your riad in the medina.
Key stops
Volubilis · Arch of Caracalla · Meknes · Bab Mansour · 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 → Ifrane → Azrou → Midelt → Ziz Valley → Merzouga
You leave Fes in the morning and climb into the Middle Atlas. The first stop is Ifrane, a clean little town with red roofs and parks that people call the Switzerland of Morocco. Then the road enters the cedar forest near Azrou, home to the Barbary macaques, small wild monkeys that live only in Morocco and Algeria. After the forest come wide high plains, and you stop for lunch in Midelt, the apple town under the snowy peak of Jbel Ayachi.
In the afternoon you cross the Ziz Gorges and pass the Tunnel du Légionnaire, then follow the Ziz Valley, a long green river of date palms below the road. At Erfoud the sand begins. In Merzouga you meet your camels and ride into the dunes of Erg Chebbi for sunset. At the camp you have mint tea, dinner and music by the fire, and then the sky fills with stars.
Key stops
Ifrane · Azrou cedar forest · Midelt · Ziz Gorges · Ziz Valley · Erg Chebbi
Stay
Desert camp in Merzouga
Merzouga → Rissani → Erfoud → Tinghir → Todra Gorge → Dades Valley
Wake up for sunrise on the dunes, then ride back for breakfast. You drive through Rissani, the heart of the Tafilalet and the old land of Sijilmassa, and Erfoud, where workshops cut black marble full of 350-million-year-old fossils. Then you cross the open hamada, flat and dark, with small oases here and there.
At Tinghir the green palm grove appears, and you walk into Todra Gorge between walls of rock about 300 metres high. After lunch you continue to Boumalne and into the Dades Valley, where the soft red rocks look like giant fingers. Your guesthouse waits by the river, and dinner is a warm tagine as the cliffs go dark.
Key stops
Rissani · Erfoud fossils · Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Dades Valley
Stay
Kasbah hotel or riad in Dades
Dades Valley → Valley of Roses → Skoura → Ouarzazate → Aït Ben Haddou → Marrakech
Today you follow the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs. You pass Kelaat M'Gouna, the town of roses, and stop in the Skoura palm grove to see Kasbah Amridil, which was once printed on the 50-dirham banknote. Then you reach Ouarzazate and continue to Aït Ben Haddou, the UNESCO clay ksar. Walk up through the narrow lanes to the granary at the top, where the view goes all the way to the mountains.
After lunch, the road climbs the High Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, at 2,260 metres. It twists and turns past small Berber villages built from the same red earth as the mountain. In the evening you come down into the warm air of Marrakech, and your driver drops you at your riad or hotel.
Key stops
Valley of Roses · Kasbah Amridil · Ouarzazate · Aït Ben Haddou · Tizi n'Tichka
Stay
Tour ends in Marrakech
