Grand Morocco tour · From Marrakech
Marrakech, the Sahara, Fes and the blue north, finishing on the Atlantic.
About this tour
Most grand tours of Morocco start in Casablanca and end in Marrakech. This one runs the other way, which suits travellers whose flights arrive in Marrakech and leave from Casablanca, and it puts the desert in the first half of the trip while you are fresh.
After a guided day in Marrakech you cross the High Atlas to Aït Benhaddou and Ouarzazate, follow the Dades Valley and the Todra Gorge to Merzouga, and spend two nights at the dunes. The road north through the Ziz Valley and the cedar forest leads to Fes and a full day in its medina.
The last days belong to the north: Roman Volubilis, a night in Chefchaouen and the monuments of Rabat. The tour ends in Casablanca with a visit to the Hassan II Mosque.
Best for: Travellers flying into Marrakech and out of Casablanca who want the south, the desert, Fes and Chefchaouen in one journey.
Marrakech airport · medina · About 15 minutes of driving
Your driver waits in the arrivals hall at Menara airport and brings you to your riad, a few minutes on foot from where the car must stop. After a welcome glass of mint tea, the evening is free.
A good first walk is to Jemaa el-Fna, never more than fifteen minutes from any riad in the medina. Have a bowl of harira at a food stall, or watch the square from a café terrace while you get your bearings.
Marrakech medina · Bahia Palace · Saadian Tombs · Ben Youssef Madrasa · souks · Walking tour
A licensed guide leads you through nine centuries of history. See the Koutoubia, built by the Almohads, the Saadian Tombs with their columns of Italian marble, and the Bahia Palace, whose rooms open onto courtyards of orange trees.
In the northern medina, visit the Ben Youssef Madrasa and walk back through the souks, stopping where the metalworkers, dyers and woodturners still ply their trades. The late afternoon is free for the Majorelle Garden or a hammam.
Marrakech · Tizi n'Tichka · Aït Benhaddou · Ouarzazate · About 4.5 hours of driving
Head for the mountains. The road to the Tizi n'Tichka pass climbs through terraced villages where women sell argan oil and men lay out fossils and crystals at the roadside. From the summit, the land to the south is drier, redder and emptier.
Spend the afternoon at Aït Benhaddou. Films from 'Lawrence of Arabia' to 'Gladiator' were shot among its towers, and a handful of families still live inside the walls. Ouarzazate, half an hour away, is your stop for the night.
Ouarzazate · Skoura · Kalaat M'Gouna · Dades Gorge · About 3 hours of driving
Drive east along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs. The first great oasis is Skoura, where a walk among the palms brings you to Kasbah Amridil, its towers decorated with patterns in raised mud brick.
Further on, hedges of pink Damask roses line the fields around Kalaat M'Gouna. At Boumalne, turn north into the Dades Gorge and climb between walls of folded rock to your hotel, with time for a walk along the river before dinner.
Dades Valley · Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Erfoud · Merzouga · Erg Chebbi · About 4.5 hours of driving
This morning brings the Todra Gorge, a cleft so narrow that the sun reaches its floor for only a few hours a day. Walk through it beside the stream, then return to the main road and cross the plain towards the dunes.
Reach Merzouga in mid-afternoon. A camel caravan takes you into Erg Chebbi, with a pause on a high dune for sunset, and on to a camp of private tents. After dinner the staff bring out their drums, and the stars do the rest.
Erg Chebbi · Khamlia · nomad camps · Rissani · Merzouga · About 2 hours of driving (optional)
Wake for the sunrise, then decide how to spend the day. The classic choice is a 4x4 loop: a visit to a nomad family, music in the Gnawa village of Khamlia and the market town of Rissani, where you can try medfouna, a bread stuffed with meat, onions and spices.
Others prefer to do very little: a swim at the hotel, a walk on the dunes, a sandboard or a quad bike for an hour. Either way, the second evening in Merzouga is the one guests tell us they enjoyed most.
Merzouga · Erfoud · Errachidia · Midelt · Azrou · Ifrane · Fes · About 7.5 hours of driving
Turn north. The road follows the Ziz upstream, past fortified villages built of the same red earth as the cliffs, and climbs through a tunnel to the high country around Midelt, where lunch is served.
On the far side of the plateau, the cedars of the Middle Atlas appear, and with them the macaques. After a stop in Ifrane, whose clean streets and stone lion feel more Alpine than African, the road drops to Fes.
Fes el-Bali · Fes el-Jdid · Borj Nord · Walking tour
Where Marrakech is open and sunlit, Fes is dense and inward-looking. Your guide takes you through the Blue Gate and down the Talaa Kebira, the main artery of the medina, to the Bou Inania Madrasa, the perfume and henna market and the gates of the Al Quaraouiyine mosque.
See the tanneries from above, the dyers' street beside the river and the workshops of Seffarine Square. Finish at Borj Nord for a view of the whole city in the late light.
Fes · Volubilis · Ouezzane · Chefchaouen · About 5 hours of driving
Leave Fes by the Meknes road and turn north to Volubilis. An hour among the ruins is enough to see the arch of Caracalla, the capitol and the finest mosaics, with storks nesting on the columns overhead.
The afternoon drive climbs gradually into the Rif. Chefchaouen sits beneath two peaks shaped like horns, which give the town its name. Check in and wander the blue streets as the day cools.
Chefchaouen · Ouezzane · Rabat · About 4 hours of driving
The morning is yours in Chefchaouen: photograph the lanes while they are empty, walk to the spring at the top of the town, or shop for woven blankets. Around midday, drive down to the Atlantic plain and on to Rabat.
In the late afternoon, visit the Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, where royal guards in red uniforms stand at the doors, and stroll through the blue and white lanes of the Kasbah of the Udayas to the ocean viewpoint.
Rabat · Casablanca · Hassan II Mosque · airport · About 2 hours of driving
Casablanca is an hour down the coast. Join a guided visit of the Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, where ten thousand craftsmen worked on the carved cedar, marble and mosaic.
Depending on your flight, there may be time for lunch on the Corniche or a look at the Art Deco centre. We then take you to Mohammed V airport, about forty minutes from the city.
Every tent is private. Pick the comfort level that suits you; tell us your choice when you book.
Private tents with their own en-suite bathroom, offering a good balance between comfort and the authentic feel of a Berber camp.
Spacious, elegantly furnished tents equipped with air conditioning and heating, so you stay cool on summer nights and warm in winter. Ideal for couples and families.
Absolutely. Every tour is private, so you can add or remove nights, change the camp style, combine routes or start on a different date. Tell us what you have in mind and we will adapt the plan and price.
A private, air-conditioned minivan or 4x4, depending on group size. Our vehicles are under five years old, regularly inspected and insured for tourist transport.
Yes, families travel with us often. Children love the camel ride and the camp. For young children we usually recommend a longer version of the route, with shorter driving days.
Comfortable clothes, a warm layer for the evenings, a hat or scarf, sunglasses, sun cream and closed shoes. For the desert night, a small backpack is enough; your main luggage stays safely in the vehicle.
Both camps have private tents with en-suite bathrooms, hot showers and comfortable bedding. The mid-range luxury camp offers a good balance between comfort and authenticity. The luxury camp adds air conditioning and heating in every tent, plus more spacious, elegantly furnished tents, so you stay comfortable on hot summer nights and cold winter ones.
Before you go
Where the dunes are, the best season to visit and what a night in Erg Chebbi is really like.
Day trips and short escapes from the city, from mountain villages to waterfalls and kasbahs.
A practical packing list for medinas, mountains and a night in the Sahara, with what to wear in each season.
Related tours
Short on time? Cross the High Atlas, walk the lanes of Aït Benhaddou, follow the palm-lined Drâa Valley and spend a night under Saharan stars near Zagora.
A one-way crossing that turns a long transfer into an adventure: kasbahs, the Dades and Todra gorges, a camel ride into Erg Chebbi, then cedar forests on the road to Fes.
Our most requested route. Two days of mountain passes, gorges and oases lead to a sunset camel trek and a night in a Berber camp beneath the tallest dunes in Morocco.
The same classic crossing at an easier pace, with an extra day in the dunes to explore nomad life, Gnawa music in Khamlia and the oasis around Merzouga.
