Grand Morocco tour · From Casablanca
A grand tour with time built in: three nights in Marrakech, two by the sea.
About this tour
Seventeen days gives you something rare on a tour: free time. This itinerary covers the whole country, from Tangier in the north to the dunes of Merzouga in the south-east, yet it includes six days with little or no driving.
You have two nights in Chefchaouen, two in Fes and two in the desert. In Marrakech you stay three nights, with a guided day in the medina and a day in the Berber villages of the High Atlas. The trip ends with two nights in Essaouira, where the only plan is to walk, eat and watch the ocean.
It is a good choice for a honeymoon, a retirement trip or a family holiday, and for anyone who wants to come home rested rather than exhausted.
Best for: Couples, families and slower travellers who want the whole country with real downtime.
Casablanca airport · Corniche · About 1 hour of driving
Your driver-guide is waiting when you come through customs. Check in to your hotel and, if you are not too tired, take a drive along the Corniche to the lighthouse of El Hank and back through the villas of Anfa.
Tomorrow begins with the Hassan II Mosque, so tonight is for rest. The restaurants by the port serve excellent fish.
Casablanca · Hassan II Mosque · Rabat · About 1.5 hours of driving
Join the first guided visit of the Hassan II Mosque. Inside, the scale is softened by detail: columns of pink granite, chandeliers of Venetian glass and a cedar ceiling painted by hand.
Drive to Rabat for lunch and the afternoon. See the Hassan Tower, the mausoleum and the necropolis of Chellah, and walk down the Rue des Consuls, the medina street where diplomats once had to live, to the kasbah.
Rabat · Asilah · Cap Spartel · Tangier · About 3.5 hours of driving
Take the coast motorway north to Asilah. The little town is at its best at midday, when the white walls are dazzling and the restaurants by the gate are grilling sardines.
Continue to Cap Spartel and the Caves of Hercules, then into Tangier. In the evening, walk from the Grand Socco down the Rue Siaghine to the Petit Socco, and up to the kasbah for the view over the lights of the port.
Tangier · Tetouan · Chefchaouen · About 2.5 hours of driving
The road to Tetouan runs inland through hills planted with eucalyptus. Explore the medina with its seven gates, its Andalusian fountains and its market of country women in striped cloth and straw hats.
An hour and a half further on, Chefchaouen is waiting. The first evening is for getting pleasantly lost; the town is small, and every lane leads back to the square.
Chefchaouen · Akchour (optional) · No driving (1.5 hours if you visit Akchour)
Enjoy a day in the Rif. Photographers should be out by eight, before the shops open and the first visitors arrive. Later, sit on the square with a bowl of bissara, the local broad-bean soup, and watch the town go about its day.
For walkers, the national park of Talassemtane begins at the edge of town, and the waterfalls of Akchour are a short drive away. Your driver is at your disposal.
Chefchaouen · Volubilis · Moulay Idriss · Meknes · Fes · About 4.5 hours of driving
A day of history on the road to Fes. Volubilis shows the Roman chapter: baths, bakeries, an aqueduct and floors of coloured stone. Moulay Idriss, on the hill behind, marks the beginning of the Islamic one.
In Meknes, see the monumental gate and the mausoleum of the sultan who made the city his capital. Arrive in Fes as the lamps are lit in the medina.
Fes el-Bali · Fes el-Jdid · potters' quarter · Walking tour
A full day in the medina with a local guide. Fes is best understood through its crafts, so the route links the places where things are made: the tanneries, the looms, the forges of Seffarine and the potters' quarter outside the walls.
Between them lie the monuments, including the Bou Inania Madrasa and the Nejjarine caravanserai. You will walk four or five kilometres, mostly downhill, with plenty of stops.
Fes · Ifrane · Azrou · Midelt · Ziz Valley · Erfoud · Merzouga · Erg Chebbi · About 7 hours of driving
Set off early for the Sahara. The route passes Ifrane, the cedar forest and its monkeys, the plateau of the Middle Atlas and the market town of Midelt. After lunch, descend through the Ziz Gorges to the oases of the Tafilalet.
At the end of the road lies Erg Chebbi. Mount a camel and ride out to camp, stopping on the crest of a dune as the sun goes down. The night is quiet, cool and full of stars.
Erg Chebbi · Hassi Labied · Khamlia · M'ifis · nomad camps · Merzouga · About 2 hours of off-road driving
After the sunrise, return to the village and set out by 4x4 on the tracks that circle the sand. Visit the Gnawa of Khamlia and the nomads of the plain, and look for desert birds and, with luck, a fennec's footprints.
Lunch is a Berber pizza in Khamlia or Merzouga. In the afternoon, rest at your hotel by the dunes; tonight's dinner is served on the terrace when the weather allows.
Merzouga · Rissani · Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Dades Valley · About 5 hours of driving
Drive west by Rissani and Tinejdad. The oasis of Tinghir is one of the most beautiful in the south; a path from the road leads down through gardens of maize, figs and roses to the river.
See the Todra Gorge at its narrowest, then continue to the Dades Valley, where you spend the night among orchards beneath cliffs of red sandstone.
Dades Gorge · Kalaat M'Gouna · Skoura · Ouarzazate · About 3 hours of driving
Begin with a drive up the gorge to the viewpoint above the hairpins, then turn west. The Valley of Roses and the palm grove of Skoura fill the morning.
Ouarzazate is reached by lunchtime. The afternoon offers the Taourirt Kasbah, the film museum opposite it or the studios outside town, where sets from Egyptian temples to Tibetan monasteries stand in the desert.
Ouarzazate · Aït Benhaddou · Tizi n'Tichka · Marrakech · About 4.5 hours of driving
Visit Aït Benhaddou in the morning. Guides from the village can show you inside one of the tower houses, with its stable on the ground floor, kitchen above and terrace on top.
Then cross the High Atlas. On the northern slopes the villages are built of stone rather than earth, and the terraces grow barley and walnuts. Marrakech is your base for the next three nights.
Marrakech medina · palaces · souks · Walking tour
Your guide shows you the essentials of the Red City: the Koutoubia, the kasbah quarter with the Saadian Tombs, the Bahia Palace and the Mellah. Then come the souks, a covered market the size of a small town.
In the afternoon, visit the Ben Youssef Madrasa or one of the city's museums, or simply return to your riad for a swim and a rest before dinner.
Marrakech · Asni · Imlil · Marrakech · About 3 hours of driving
Leave the city for the mountains you have been looking at from the rooftops. The road climbs through Asni to Imlil, a village of walnut trees and mule tracks at 1,740 metres, beneath Jbel Toubkal.
Walk with a mountain guide to the village of Aroumd or to a waterfall, as far as you feel like going, and have lunch on the terrace of a family house. You are back in Marrakech by late afternoon.
Marrakech · argan forest · Essaouira · About 3 hours of driving
Drive to the Atlantic, stopping at an argan cooperative on the way. Essaouira welcomes you with gulls, salt air and a temperature ten degrees cooler than Marrakech in summer.
Check in to your riad inside the walls. A first walk takes in the main square, the harbour gate and the bastion above the rocks.
Essaouira · beach · Diabat (optional) · No driving
A day by the sea with nothing scheduled. Walk the long beach to the mouth of the river and the ruined fort in the sand, ride a horse or a camel along the shore, or take a kitesurfing lesson.
In town, visit the Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah Museum, the synagogue of Haim Pinto and the workshops where thuya wood is inlaid with lemon wood and mother-of-pearl.
Essaouira · Safi · Oualidia · El Jadida · Casablanca · About 6 hours of driving
Follow the Atlantic north. Stop at the potters of Safi, eat seafood beside the lagoon of Oualidia and see the old Portuguese town of El Jadida.
The tour ends in Casablanca in the evening. If your flight leaves today, we take the faster motorway route instead; tell us your departure time and we will plan accordingly.
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
What makes each of the four royal capitals different, and how to link them in one journey.
Where the dunes are, the best season to visit and what a night in Erg Chebbi is really like.
When to go, how long to stay, how to get around and how to build a route that fits your time.
Related tours
Morocco's essentials in under a week: Roman Volubilis and Meknes, a guided day in the Fes medina, two nights in the Sahara, then the gorges and kasbahs on the road to Marrakech.
An imperial-cities journey with no long desert drives: Rabat, Meknes and Volubilis, guided days in Fes and Marrakech, and the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas in between.
Imperial cities and two nights at the dunes in eight days: Casablanca, Rabat and Meknes, a guided day in Fes, Merzouga with a camel trek and a 4x4 day, the Dades Valley and guided Marrakech.
The classic first trip in nine days, with pick-up at Casablanca airport or your accommodation: Rabat, blue Chefchaouen, Volubilis and guided Fes, a night in the Merzouga dunes, the Dades Valley and two nights in Marrakech.
