Your driver is at your Marrakech riad or hotel at 8:00 AM. The city drops away fast on the N9 heading south-east. Within thirty minutes you are into open country and the High Atlas is rising ahead of you. The road climbs steadily toward the pass.

You stop at the Tizi n’Tichka Pass at 2,260 metres. Berber vendors sell ammonite fossils and carved stone along the roadside. On a clear morning the views stretch far across the plateau. Take your time before the road drops south toward the pre-Saharan plains.

Ait Ben Haddou comes into view around midday, its earthen towers stacked on a ridge above the Ounila River. You have at least 90 minutes here. The walk up through the successive levels of the ksar to the granary at the top gives you the best view on this entire day. Sections will look familiar from Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and a long list of other productions shot here.

After Ait Ben Haddou you continue to Ouarzazate. If you want a look at the Atlas Film Studios, this is the place. The studios have hosted productions from Lawrence of Arabia to Game of Thrones and a short visit gives a surprising sense of the scale of Morocco’s film industry. From Ouarzazate you head east along the Dades river. You arrive in the valley in the late afternoon with time for a walk along the gorge before dinner. The canyon walls close in on three sides and it is quieter here than most people expect.

Breakfast facing the canyon walls. Walk up into the gorge before leaving while the light is still low and the hairpin bends above the guesthouse are quiet. Most people who pass through without stopping never see this part. It is worth the extra thirty minutes.

Todra Gorge is an hour east. You arrive before the day-trip groups and have the tightest section largely to yourself. The limestone walls rise 300 metres and press to within 10 metres of each other. Even in July the air inside stays cool. Walk along the river while your driver waits at the entrance.

Beyond Tinghir the land opens and flattens fast. Vegetation drops away, the soil turns pale, and the road cuts across open hammada. You see the orange wall of Erg Chebbi on the horizon long before you reach Merzouga.

You arrive at the camp in the afternoon and mount your camel for the sunset trek into the dunes. The ride takes around 45 minutes each way at a slow pace. Dinner is under open sky. After dark the Sahara above Erg Chebbi is completely clear and completely silent. Gnawa music follows around the fire. This is your second night.

You wake before dawn. Climb the dune behind the camp and watch the light shift from dark grey to gold as the sun clears the horizon. The Sahara at this hour is completely still. Breakfast is at the camp when you come down.

Early departure is essential today. The drive north to Fes is the longest single day on the whole tour and the morning hours matter. Your driver heads north and the first stop is the Ziz Valley panoramic viewpoint. The valley drops away below the road in a long green corridor of date palms and old ksour stretching far in both directions. Step out of the vehicle and take it in properly.

The route climbs into the Middle Atlas. Lunch is at Er-Rich or Midelt depending on timing and what is open. Both are honest market towns in good farming country, far from the tourist circuit, and a useful stop after a long morning.

After lunch the road continues north into the cedar forest above Azrou. Barbary macaques move freely through the trees and around visitors. From there the road passes through Ifrane, the French protectorate-era town with European-style chalets and tiled rooftops that looks completely out of place until you know its history.

You arrive in Fes in the late afternoon. Your driver drops you at your riad or as close as the narrow streets allow. Have your riad address written in Arabic before you arrive. The streets inside Fes el-Bali follow no grid and navigation apps are unreliable inside the medina.

A full day inside Fes el-Bali with a local licensed guide. The medina of Fes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the world. Without a guide it is genuinely difficult to navigate and most of the important sites are easy to miss.

Your guide meets you at your riad after breakfast. The morning covers the Bou Inania Madrasa, its carved cedarwood and zellige tilework some of the finest in Morocco. From there you walk through the tanner’s quarter to the Chouara tanneries, where leather has been cured in the same open vats using the same methods since the 11th century. The view from the surrounding terraces is one of the most photographed scenes in Morocco.

After lunch, the afternoon continues through the souks. The Nejjarine wood-workers’ square, the brass and copper quarter, the spice market, and the old Andalusian quarter across the river. Fes el-Bali has around 9,000 streets. Your guide will take you through the ones that most visitors never find.

The guided tour ends around 4:00 PM. The rest of the afternoon is yours to wander, return to a favourite section, or simply sit at a cafe and watch the medina move around you.

Breakfast at your Fes riad. Your driver picks you up mid-morning for the drive west into the Rif Mountains. The road from Fes to Chefchaouen takes around three hours and the landscape changes from the flat plains of the Saiss plateau to wooded mountain slopes as you climb into the Rif.

The Rif Mountains are a different Morocco from everything you have seen in the south. The villages are smaller, the houses painted white, the slopes covered in cedar and pine. The light is different up here and the air noticeably cooler than the lowlands.

Chefchaouen comes into view as you descend into the valley. The town sits against the mountain face and the blue of the medina walls is visible even from the road above. You arrive in the early afternoon with plenty of time to explore the medina before it gets dark.

The blue streets of Chefchaouen are as photogenic as any place in Morocco and far less crowded than Marrakech or Fes. The main square, Place Uta el-Hammam, has a restored kasbah on one side and a line of cafe terraces on the other. The walk up to the Spanish Mosque at the edge of town gives you the best view of the medina and the mountains behind it.

Breakfast in Chefchaouen. You leave mid-morning and the road descends back through the Rif Mountains toward the Atlantic coast. The drive from Chefchaouen to Rabat takes around four hours.

Rabat is your first stop. Morocco’s capital is far less visited than Marrakech or Fes and all the more pleasant for it. You spend two to three hours here covering the main sites. The Hassan Tower is a 12th-century minaret that was never completed, standing in an open plaza beside the unfinished columns of what would have been the largest mosque in the world. The Mausoleum of Mohammed V directly opposite is the resting place of Morocco’s king and his two sons, its interior decorated with some of the finest contemporary Moroccan craftsmanship you will see on this trip. The Kasbah des Oudayas sits at the edge of the Atlantic on the estuary of the Bou Regreg river, its whitewashed walls and blue-painted doors an echo of Chefchaouen’s palette by the sea.

From Rabat the coastal road runs south to Casablanca. An hour’s drive. Your driver drops you at your Casablanca accommodation in the early evening. The Marrakech to Casablanca 6 days crossing is complete.