7-Day Family Morocco Tour from Casablanca to Marrakech

Arrival in Casablanca

You are met at Mohammed V Airport and taken to your hotel. In the afternoon we visit the Hassan II Mosque with a guide: one of the largest mosques in the world, with a 210-metre minaret and a prayer hall built partly over the Atlantic, hand-carved stucco and zellige, and a roof that slides open. Children tend to love the sheer scale of it. Afterwards we walk the Corniche seafront with its cafés and Atlantic waves. It is a deliberately easy first day.

Airport transfer only

Hôtel Club Val d'Anfa or similar, Casablanca

Casablanca to Chefchaouen via Rabat

We drive north to Rabat, a calm capital with wide avenues and royal gardens that suits families well. There we see the Hassan Tower, the unfinished 12th-century minaret surrounded by a field of broken columns, the marble Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and the blue-and-white lanes of the Oudaya Kasbah, quiet enough for children to run ahead. The road then climbs into the Rif Mountains and reaches Chefchaouen in the evening, when the blue medina is at its softest.

About 5 hours on the road, roughly 340 km, plus stops

Dar Echchaouen or similar, Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen to Fez via Volubilis and Meknes

The morning is yours in Chefchaouen: the Kasbah courtyard and small museum, workshops weaving wool blankets, and the 20-minute walk up to the Spanish Mosque for a view over the blue rooftops. We then drive to Volubilis, a UNESCO-listed Roman city where mosaics of Orpheus, Bacchus and Hercules still lie where they were laid, and the triumphal arch still stands. At Meknes we see the grand Bab Mansour gate and the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, one of the few shrines in Morocco that non-Muslim visitors can enter, before reaching Fez in the early evening.

About 4.5 hours on the road, roughly 260 km, plus stops

Riad Fez Mahal or similar, Fez medina

Full Day in the Fez Medina

A licensed guide takes the family through Fez el-Bali, the world's largest car-free medina, at a pace that works for all ages. We pass the brass doors of the Royal Palace, enter the carved stucco and cedar courtyard of the Bou Inania Madrasa, and look down on the Chouara Tanneries from a leather shop's terrace, where you are handed mint to hold under your nose. We also see Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 and often described as the oldest continuously operating university, walk through the Mellah, and finish at Borj Nord for a view of the whole city.

No driving today

Riad Fez Mahal or similar, Fez medina

Fez to Merzouga via the Middle Atlas

This is the day the landscape changes. We stop in Ifrane, a mountain town of alpine-style chalets, then in the cedar forest at Azrou, where wild Barbary macaques wander up to the road. Follow local guidance on feeding them. The route drops through the red Ziz Gorges and along the Ziz Valley's 70-kilometre palm oasis to Merzouga. At sunset the family rides camels into the Erg Chebbi dunes to a Berber camp, with a tagine dinner and drumming around the fire.

About 7.5 hours on the road, roughly 460 km, plus stops

Tiziri Desert Camp or similar, Erg Chebbi

Merzouga to the Dades Valley via Todra Gorge

Climb a dune before breakfast for the Sahara sunrise, then eat at camp. We drive west to Todra Gorge, where 300-metre walls close to about 10 metres apart over a shallow river and the shade is a welcome change from the desert. We continue through the Dades Valley past the Monkey Fingers rock formations and the rose-growing valley of Kelaat M'Gouna to our riad for the night.

About 4.5 hours on the road, roughly 280 km, plus stops

Dades Paradise or similar, Dades Valley

Dades Valley to Marrakech via Ait Benhaddou

We drive west through the Skoura palm oasis to Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO ksar of mud-brick kasbahs used as a set for Gladiator and Game of Thrones. With a local guide you cross the river on stepping stones and climb to the granary tower. The road then crosses the High Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, at 2,260 metres the highest paved road in Morocco, and descends through Berber villages to Marrakech. We drop you at your hotel or at Menara Airport, as you prefer.

About 6.5 hours on the road, roughly 320 km, plus stops