6 Days From Casablanca — Imperial Cities and the Sahara

Day by day

1. Day 1

   Casablanca → Rabat → Meknes → Fes

   Casablanca to Fes · approx. 330 km · 5h with stops

   Collected from Casablanca airport or your hotel. The Hassan II Mosque first — the only mosque in Morocco non-Muslims may enter — then north to Rabat for the Oudayas kasbah above the river mouth, the Hassan Tower and the Chellah necropolis. Lunch, then Meknes and the Bab Mansour gate before arriving in Fes in the evening.

   Night: Riad in Fes

2. Day 2

   Fes: Volubilis and the medina

   Fes and Volubilis · approx. 130 km · 2h, plus walking

   A morning at Volubilis, where the mosaics of the Roman provincial capital sit open to the sky beneath the holy town of Moulay Idriss. Back to Fes for the afternoon in Fes el-Bali — the tanneries, the Al-Qarawiyyin university, the Attarine madrasa — with a local medina guide, because nobody finds their own way through nine thousand lanes on the first attempt.

   Night: Riad in Fes

3. Day 3

   Fes → Ifrane → Azrou → Midelt → Ziz Valley → Merzouga

   Fes to Erg Chebbi · approx. 470 km · 8h with stops

   The long southern day, and a spectacular one. Ifrane, the cedar forest and its macaques, lunch at Midelt, then the Ziz gorges and the descent into date-palm country. You reach Erg Chebbi in the late afternoon and ride camels over the dunes to camp for sunset, dinner and the night sky.

   Meals: Lunch, Dinner Night: Desert camp at Erg Chebbi

4. Day 4

   Erg Chebbi → Rissani → Todra Gorge → Dades Valley

   Erg Chebbi to Dades Valley · approx. 300 km · 5h with stops

   Sunrise from the dunes and camels back for breakfast. West through Rissani's souk and the fossil country, to the Todra Gorge for a walk along the river, and on into the Dades Valley with its switchback road and eroded rock formations.

   Meals: Breakfast, Dinner Night: Hotel in Dades Valley

5. Day 5

   Dades → Valley of Roses → Skoura → Ouarzazate

   Dades Valley to Ouarzazate · approx. 130 km · 3h with stops

   A deliberately light day after two long ones. The Valley of Roses and its distilleries, the Skoura palmeraie and the Amridil kasbah, then Ouarzazate — the Taourirt kasbah and, if you want it, the film studios. Overnight in Ouarzazate or in the palm grove at Skoura.

   Meals: Breakfast, Dinner Night: Hotel in Ouarzazate or Skoura

6. Day 6

   Ouarzazate → Aït Ben Haddou → Tizi n'Tichka → Marrakech

   Ouarzazate to Marrakech · approx. 200 km · 4h with stops

   Aït Ben Haddou first thing, when the light is on the ksar and the coaches have not arrived, with time to climb to the granary. Then the Tizi n'Tichka pass over the High Atlas, an argan cooperative on the descent, and Marrakech by mid-afternoon — dropped at your riad or the airport.

   Meals: Breakfast