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10 days in Morocco: how to spend them well
Long enough for two real regions, still tight enough that every day needs a job.
Ten days is the sweet spot for a lot of first and second-time visitors: long enough to combine the desert with either the imperial cities or the coast, without the trip feeling like a checklist of everywhere at once.
A common shape: Marrakech to start, over the Atlas and into the Sahara for two nights, north through the gorges to Fez, with a day or two in the Fez medina before flying home or looping back. That's roughly what our Grand Morocco routes are built around.
An alternative for travellers less drawn to the desert: Casablanca or Rabat, the imperial cities circuit through Meknes and Volubilis, Fez, then south to Marrakech with time for the Atlas foothills: a trip built on architecture and cities rather than landscape.
What we'd avoid: trying to add Chefchaouen or Essaouira on top of a desert-and-imperial-cities route in the same ten days. Either is a full extra region, and squeezing it in usually means shortening the part of the trip that mattered more to begin with.
Planning around Volubilis? Read the Volubilis destination guide or see 4-Day Imperial Cities Tour from Fez, a sample itinerary that includes it.
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4-Day Imperial Cities Tour from Fez
The shortest way to see three imperial cities and the best Roman ruins in the country, without touching the desert or the coast further south: a good add-on to a Fez-based trip rather than a trip on its own.
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Read articleTours that include this
4-Day Imperial Cities Tour from Fez
The shortest way to see three imperial cities and the best Roman ruins in the country, without touching the desert or the coast further south: a good add-on to a Fez-based trip rather than a trip on its own.
5-Day Imperial Cities Tour from Casablanca
All four imperial cities and Morocco's best Roman ruins, in a loop that starts and ends where most international flights land: no desert, no coast further south, just the historic core of the country.
7-Day Imperial Cities Tour from Tangier
Tangier sits closer to Morocco's imperial cities than most people assume: this loop takes in the capital, the Roman ruins at Volubilis, and Fez's medina before returning north.