6 Day Tour from Casablanca to Marrakech

Your driver picks you up from your Casablanca accommodation at 8:00 AM. The drive heads north across the Atlantic plain before the road begins climbing into the Rif Mountains. The landscape shifts from open farmland to cedar and pine forest as we gain altitude. The air cools noticeably on the climb and stays cool in Chefchaouen, which sits at around 600 metres in a sheltered valley against the mountain face.

We arrive in the early afternoon. The main square, Place Uta el-Hammam, has a restored kasbah on one side and a line of cafe terraces on the other. The blue medina streets behind it run in every direction. Most day-trip visitors from Fes leave in the late afternoon, and the medina after 5 PM is a noticeably different place from the midday version. Quieter, more personal, and with better light for photographs. The Spanish Mosque hike above the town takes 30 to 40 minutes each way and gives the best elevated view of the city against the Rif backdrop. Worth doing before dark if the energy is there after the drive.

After breakfast we descend from Chefchaouen through the Rif Mountains toward the Saiss plateau. The drive southwest toward Meknes takes about two hours before we turn south toward the Zerhoun foothills and Volubilis.

Volubilis is the most significant Roman site in Morocco and one of the best-preserved in all of North Africa. The settlement was a provincial capital of the Roman Empire from the 1st century AD and remained occupied long after Roman withdrawal. What makes it unusual among Roman ruins is the setting: the site sits in open farmland with no modern development around it, and the scale only becomes apparent once you are inside. The Triumphal Arch at the entrance is the most photographed structure, but the in-situ mosaic floors in the residential district are the real reason to come. Detailed narrative scenes from Roman mythology, preserved at ground level in rooms you walk into directly. We allow 90 minutes here. It takes at least that to cover the main structures and the mosaic houses properly.

After Volubilis we continue east toward Fes, stopping in Meknes for a brief look at Bab Mansour, the ornate 18th-century ceremonial gate at the edge of the medina built by Sultan Moulay Ismail. We arrive in Fes in the afternoon and check in to your riad. Tomorrow is the full guided day in the medina, so the evening is at your own pace.

A full day in Fes el-Bali with a licensed local guide. The medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most intact medieval cities in the world. Your guide meets you at the riad after breakfast.

The morning covers the Bou Inania Madrasa, the finest example of Marinid-era carved cedarwood and zellige tilework in Fes, and the Chouara tanneries, where leather has been processed in the same open stone vats using the same plant-based dyes for over 1,000 years. The view from the terraces surrounding the tanneries is one of the most consistently striking sights in Morocco. The afternoon continues through the spice and copper souks, Nejjarine square with its cedar-framed fountain, and the Andalusian quarter across the river. The guided tour ends around 4:00 PM. The evening in Fes is yours.

Having two nights in Fes means Day 3 does not carry the pressure of a same-day departure. The guide can take the pace the medina deserves and you have the evening to revisit any section on your own or to simply eat well in the medina restaurants without a schedule overhead.

After breakfast your driver picks you up early. Day 4 is the longest drive of the tour and the window to reach the desert before the sunset camel trek depends on leaving on time. The road south from Fes crosses the Saiss plateau before climbing into the Middle Atlas.

Ifrane is the first stop, the French protectorate-era town with its tiled-roof chalets and stone lion at the main square that looks more like a Swiss mountain village than any Moroccan city you have been in so far. We continue into the cedar forest above Azrou, where Barbary macaques move freely through the trees and around any stopped vehicle. These are entirely wild animals. We allow 20 to 30 minutes here before continuing south.

We stop in Midelt for lunch, a market town between the two Atlas ranges with honest local food and no tourist pricing. After Midelt the road enters the Ziz Valley, where the road rises above the valley floor and the date palm oasis stretches south as far as you can see, flanked by old ksour and red-clay cliffs. We stop for photos before the final push through Erfoud and into Merzouga.

We arrive at the camp in the late afternoon in time for the sunset camel trek. The ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes takes about an hour each way at the pace the camels set. Dinner at the camp under open sky, Gnawa music around the fire, overnight in a private tent with en-suite bathroom.

The light outside the tent changes before sunrise. Step outside and find a spot near the camp to watch the sky above the Erg Chebbi dunes turn from dark to gold. The sand is still cold and the shadows run long and sharp at this hour. Most people count this as the best moment of the six days. Breakfast at the camp before we load the vehicle and head west.

Our first destination is Todra Gorge, about two hours from Merzouga. The canyon at its tightest section is only 10 metres wide, with walls rising 300 metres on either side and the river running along the floor year-round. We walk the tightest section before the organised tour groups fill it. After the open desert of the day before, the scale of the enclosed gorge is hard to absorb quickly.

After Todra we head west toward the Dades Valley. The road approaching from the east gives the best first view of the monkey finger formations, the columns of folded limestone that jut from the canyon walls above the hotel cluster in a way that looks geological rather than random. We stop at the zigzag road viewpoint above the gorge, where the hairpin bends cut into the canyon wall give a view back down the valley and toward the Atlas behind it. We descend to the valley floor and check in to the hotel. Dinner and overnight.

After breakfast we head west along the pre-Saharan corridor. The road passes through the Rose Valley between Kelaat M’gouna and Boumaln Dades, where Damascus roses are grown for cosmetics and rose water. In April and May the roadside is planted in pink and the distilleries are running. The valley is worth the drive in any season for its terraced gardens and the old kasbah walls above the river.

We arrive in Ouarzazate around midday and stop briefly at Kasbah Taourirt. We then continue west to Ait Ben Haddou, the UNESCO-listed ksar whose earthen towers rise above the Ounila River. The fortified village has appeared in Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and Babel. We give you a full 90 minutes to walk from the river crossing at the base to the granary at the summit and to understand the scale of the settlement from above.

After Ait Ben Haddou we begin the climb into the High Atlas. The Tizi n’Tichka Pass at 2,260 metres is the highest paved road in Morocco. The road switchbacks up through the southern mountain face before the long descent into the Marrakech plain. We arrive in the late afternoon and drop you at your riad or the nearest accessible point. Six days, the Blue City, two Roman capitals, Fes properly, the Sahara, the gorges, and the High Atlas.