Morocco Itinerary 7 Days: The Best One-Week Route

Most flights into Morocco land at Casablanca Mohammed V Airport. Rather than treating Casablanca as a transit city to get through as quickly as possible, spend the first afternoon and evening there. The Hassan II Mosque — built partly over the Atlantic Ocean and one of the largest mosques in the world — is genuinely worth two hours. The Old Medina is smaller and less overwhelming than Fes or Marrakech, which makes it a good introduction to medina navigation. The Corniche waterfront is where Casablancans actually spend their evenings — good seafood restaurants and a very different atmosphere from the tourist-oriented medinas further south.

An early departure from Casablanca heads north along the Atlantic coast to Rabat, Morocco’s capital. The Hassan Tower and Chellah necropolis are the main stops — allow 90 minutes in the city. The road then continues east through Meknes, one of Morocco’s four imperial cities and the least visited of the four. The Bab Mansour gate is one of the finest pieces of Islamic architecture in Morocco and a 30-minute stop is enough to take it in properly. Meknes also sits next to the Roman ruins of Volubilis — if archaeology interests your group, add an hour here. The day ends in Fes, arriving in time for dinner in the medina.

Fes el-Bali — the ancient walled city — is one of the most extraordinary urban environments in the world. Settled in the 9th century and largely unchanged in its basic structure since the medieval period, it contains over 9,000 streets and alleys in an area of around 900 hectares. Without a guide, navigation is genuinely difficult and most of the significant sites are easy to miss. With a guide, a full day covers the Chouara tanneries (best viewed from the leather shop terraces above), the Bou Inania Madrasa, the Al-Attarine Souq, the Maison Bleue, and the Nejjarine fountain and woodworking museum.

The afternoon is the best time for the tanneries — the light falls directly into the vats from early afternoon. Book a guide the evening before through your riad rather than accepting offers on the street.

The long drive south to the Sahara, and one of the most varied days of the itinerary. The road leaves Fes heading south through the Middle Atlas Mountains. The first stop is the cedar forest near Azrou, home to a large colony of Barbary macaques — the only wild primates in Africa outside sub-Saharan Africa. They are habituated to people and will approach the vehicle for food. Allow 30 to 45 minutes here.

The road continues south through Ifrane — a Swiss-style mountain town that surprises every visitor who has not heard of it — and over the high plateau to Midelt, where lunch is typically taken. The final stretch descends into the Ziz Valley, one of Morocco’s great date palm oases: a long corridor of palms running between ochre cliffs before opening onto the pre-Saharan plain. Merzouga appears on the horizon long before you arrive — the first sight of the Erg Chebbi dunes in the late afternoon light is one of those moments that photographs attempt but cannot fully prepare you for. Sunset camel trek into the dunes, dinner at the camp, Gnawa music around the fire.

Wake before dawn for the desert sunrise — the sand shifts from grey to gold to burning orange in about 20 minutes and the silence at that hour is total. After breakfast at the camp, the drive heads west through Rissani and continues to Todra Gorge. The gorge is a narrow canyon carved by the Todra River through the eastern High Atlas — walls rising 300 metres on either side, pressing to within 10 metres of each other at the narrowest point, with the river running cold between them. Allow 45 minutes to walk through properly.

The road continues west to the Dades Valley, known as the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs — red clay fortresses set against canyon walls in a landscape that looks like it has barely changed in centuries. Overnight in the Dades Valley with time before dinner to walk up into the gorge above Boumalne Dades and watch the light change on the rock faces.

The return to Marrakech via the western route. The first major stop is Ait Ben Haddou — the UNESCO-listed ksar on the Ounila River, built entirely from pisé (rammed earth) and rising in layers of warm red above the riverbank. Cross the river on foot and walk up through the successive levels to the top granary for the view over the valley. Allow 90 minutes. The ksar has been used as a film set for Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and dozens of other productions.

The road continues through Ouarzazate — Morocco’s film capital, worth a brief stop at the Taourirt Kasbah — and then begins the long climb back over the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka Pass at 2,260 metres. The descent from the pass into the Marrakech plain is long and winding. Arrive Marrakech in the early evening, in time for a final dinner in the medina.

A full day in Marrakech before a flight home. The Djemaa el-Fna square is the heart of the medina and the right place to start — the market stalls and musicians arrive in the morning and build through the day to the extraordinary evening chaos of food vendors, storytellers, and acrobats. The Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, and Majorelle Garden are all within reach of the medina and worth allocating time to depending on your interests. The souks north of the Djemaa el-Fna are organised by craft — metalworkers, leatherworkers, spice sellers, textile merchants — and worth at least two hours of unhurried exploration. Evening flights from Marrakech Menara Airport fit naturally at the end of this day.