8-Day Grand Morocco Tour: Casablanca to Marrakech
Casablanca → Fez → Sahara Desert → Marrakech
The longer, fuller version for a first trip to Morocco: all four imperial cities are not on this route, but the ones that matter most are, plus a proper two-night stop in the Sahara instead of a rushed overnight.
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Highlights
- A short, practical stop in Casablanca before heading inland
- Two full days in Fez, the country's best-preserved medieval city
- The Middle Atlas cedar forests and Ifrane's mountain air
- Two nights camped in the Sahara at Erg Chebbi
- The Dades and Todra gorges, then over the Atlas into Marrakech
Day by day
A working draft: the order and pace are ours to adjust once we know what matters most to you.
Arrive Casablanca
Met at the airport and taken to your riad or hotel. If your flight lands early enough, we can visit the Hassan II Mosque before dinner. King Hassan II laid the foundation stone in July 1986; the mosque opened in 1993 after some 12,500 workers built it to a design by French architect Michel Pinseau. Its minaret is the world's second-tallest at 210 metres, with a laser aimed toward Mecca visible up to 30 kilometres out, and the prayer hall can hold 25,000 worshippers with room for 80,000 more on the esplanade outside.
Just the airport transfer today
Hotel, Casablanca
Casablanca to Fez
A morning drive north-east to Fez, with a stop in Rabat to see the Kasbah of the Udayas if time allows. It's a walled, whitewashed quarter founded in 1146 as an Almohad military base, overlooking the mouth of the Bou Regreg river. The Udaya tribe that gives the kasbah its name were resettled here by Sultan Moulay Ismail in the 17th century.
About 4 hours on the road, roughly 300 km
Riad, Fez medina
Fez medina
A full day with a local guide through the medina's tanneries, madrasas, and souks. The Chouara tannery's stone dye vats were carved into the medina in the 11th century and still work the same way: hides soaked in lime and pigeon droppings, then dyed by foot in vats of saffron yellow, poppy red, and indigo blue. A stop at the Bou Inania madrasa, built in 1350–55 by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, rounds out the day, it's the only madrasa in Morocco ever granted the status of a full Friday mosque.
No driving today
Riad, Fez medina
Fez to Merzouga via the Middle Atlas
South through the cedar forests around Ifrane and Azrou. Ifrane was built during the French protectorate in a deliberately alpine style and sits high enough in the Middle Atlas to see snow in winter, and the cedar forest nearby is one of the more reliable places to see Barbary macaques, the only monkey species native to North Africa. Then down through the Ziz Valley's date-palm oases to the dunes at Erg Chebbi in time for sunset.
About 7-8 hours on the road, roughly 460 km
Desert camp, Erg Chebbi
In the dunes
A full day in the desert. Sandboard, visit a local Gnawa family (Gnawa music traces back to West African communities brought north through the trans-Saharan trade, built around iron krakebs and the guembri lute), or just sit still for once. It's followed by a shared tagine dinner at the camp and a second night under a sky thick with stars.
No driving today
Desert camp, Erg Chebbi
Merzouga to Dades Valley
West across the hamada and into the Todra Gorge, cut by the Todgha River through the High Atlas, its narrowest stretch is only about 10 metres wide, with limestone walls rising up to 160 metres overhead. Then on into the Dades Gorge, driving the switchbacks of the 'Road of a Thousand Kasbahs' past cliffside rock formations known locally as the monkey fingers.
About 3.5 hours on the road, roughly 180 km
Guesthouse in the gorge
Dades Valley to Marrakech
A stop at Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage ksar since 1987 and one of Africa's most-filmed locations, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones among roughly 80 productions shot within its earthen walls, before crossing the High Atlas on the Tizi n'Tichka road, the highest major mountain pass in North Africa, built by the French military in 1936 along an old caravan trail.
About 6 hours on the road, roughly 340 km
Riad, Marrakech medina
Marrakech
A guided morning through the souks and the Bahia Palace, built in 1866–67 by the Grand Vizier Si Moussa and expanded between 1894 and 1900 by his son Ba Ahmed into the carved-cedar, zellige-tiled complex you see today. End at the Jemaa el-Fna as the food stalls and storytellers set up for the evening, then free time before you fly home.
No driving today
Riad, Marrakech medina
Included
- ✓Private car and driver for the full route
- ✓7 nights' accommodation, breakfast included
- ✓1 camel trek and 2 desert camp dinners
- ✓Local guides in Fez and Marrakech
- ✓Airport pick-up in Casablanca
Not included
- —International flights
- —Lunches and most dinners outside the desert camp
- —Entry fees to monuments and museums
- —Travel insurance
- —Tips for driver and guides
Questions about this route
Ask about this route
Send us your rough dates and what you'd want to change, and we'll come back with a real draft, not a form letter.
Tour at a glance
- Duration
- 8 days · 7 nights
- Transport
- Private car/4x4
- Languages
- English, French
- Availability
- Year-round
From the blog
Private or group: what actually changes on the road
The difference isn't comfort so much as control over the day.
By Omar Hafidi
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A first-timer's route through the Marrakech medina
Where to start when every street looks the same as the last.
By Anouar
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How many days do you actually need in Marrakech?
Enough to slow down, not so many that you run out of medina.
By Anouar
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