8-Day Marrakech Loop Tour via the Sahara, Fez and Chefchaouen

Marrakech to the Dades Valley

We leave Marrakech through the High Atlas foothills and climb the Tizi n'Tichka pass, 2,260 metres at the summit and the highest paved mountain road in Morocco, with views over the ranges in both directions. At Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO ksar used as a set for Gladiator and Game of Thrones, a local guide leads you across the river and up to the granary tower. We continue through Ouarzazate, the Skoura oasis and the rose-growing valley of Kelaat M'Gouna to the Dades Valley as the canyon walls glow red.

About 6 hours on the road, roughly 310 km, plus stops

Dades Paradise or similar, Dades Valley

Dades Valley to Merzouga via Todra Gorge

The morning starts with a walk among the Monkey Fingers, the eroded limestone pillars of the Dades Gorge. We drive east to Todra Gorge, where 300-metre walls close to about 10 metres apart over a clear river, and walk its length. Along the way we pass the fossil marble workshops of Erfoud and the covered souk at Rissani, birthplace of Morocco's ruling Alaouite dynasty. At sunset you ride a camel into the Erg Chebbi dunes to a luxury Berber camp for a tagine feast, drumming and stars.

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

Tiziri Desert Camp or similar, Erg Chebbi

Off-Road Sahara Discovery

We climb a dune before dawn to watch the sunrise, then ride back for a nomad-style breakfast of Berber omelette, fresh bread, amlou and mint tea. A morning 4x4 trip takes you to Khamlia, a village of Gnaoua musicians whose guembri and krakeb ceremonies are UNESCO-listed intangible heritage, and to a nomadic family's tent for tea and stories of desert life. The afternoon is for fossil riverbeds and hidden oases, with optional sandboarding, quad biking or a second camel ride.

Short 4x4 excursion only

Tiziri Desert Camp or similar, Erg Chebbi

Merzouga to Fez via the Middle Atlas

North of Merzouga the road follows the Ziz Valley, a 70-kilometre ribbon of date palms between ochre canyon walls watered by khettara tunnels dug over a thousand years ago. It then climbs through the Ziz Gorges and Midelt, known for its apples and carpets, to the cedar forest at Azrou, where wild Barbary macaques come to the roadside. We pass through Ifrane, a mountain town of alpine-style chalets, and reach Fez for an evening walk through the lantern-lit medina.

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

Riad Fez Mahal or similar, Fez medina

Guided Day in the Fez Medina

With a licensed guide we spend the day in Fez el-Bali, the world's largest car-free medina, founded in the late 8th century. We visit Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri and widely regarded as the oldest continuously operating university, and the carved cedar and zellige of the Bou Inania Madrasa. We look down on the Chouara Tanneries from a rooftop, pass the brass doors of the Royal Palace and walk through the Mellah, finishing at Borj Nord for a view of the whole city.

No driving today

Riad Fez Mahal or similar, Fez medina

Fez to Chefchaouen via Volubilis and Meknes

We drive west to Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco and a UNESCO site, where a local guide explains the mosaics, the triumphal arch of Caracalla and the olive presses. At Meknes, the imperial capital of Sultan Moulay Ismail in the late 17th century, we see the Bab Mansour gate, built with columns taken from Volubilis, and the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, which non-Muslim visitors can enter. We arrive in Chefchaouen as the blue lanes deepen in the evening light.

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

Dar Echchaouen or similar, Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen to Casablanca via Rabat

We start with a last walk through Chefchaouen: the Kasbah museum on Uta el-Hammam square, workshops weaving wool djellabas and blankets, and the climb to the Spanish Mosque for a view over the blue rooftops. We then drive to Rabat for the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, the unfinished 12th-century Hassan Tower and the blue-and-white Oudaya Kasbah above the Bou Regreg estuary, and on to Casablanca for an evening on the Corniche, where the Hassan II minaret is floodlit over the Atlantic.

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

Hôtel Club Val d'Anfa or similar, Casablanca

Casablanca to Marrakech

The morning is a guided visit inside the Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993, with a 210-metre minaret, a prayer hall built partly over the Atlantic and a retractable roof, decorated by some 10,000 Moroccan craftspeople. We then drive south across the Haouz plain to Marrakech, where there is time for the Majorelle Garden, the Koutoubia minaret or Jemaa el-Fna before the tour ends.

About 3 hours on the road, roughly 250 km