6-Day Morocco Desert Tour from Casablanca

Your driver meets you at Casablanca Mohammed V Airport or your hotel. First stop: the Hassan II Mosque, built on the edge of the Atlantic with the tallest minaret in the world — a photo stop and exterior visit, with a guided interior tour possible outside prayer times if your flight lands early enough.

The motorway runs north along the coast past Rabat — an optional stop at the Kasbah of the Udayas if time allows — before the road turns inland and climbs into the green Rif Mountains. The landscape changes from Atlantic plain to terraced hillsides and cork-oak forest as you approach the blue city.

Arrive in Chefchaouen in the late afternoon and settle into your riad in the medina. The evening is yours: stroll the blue-washed alleyways, photograph the doorways and stairways, and find a rooftop café with mountain views. Dinner at the riad.

A leisurely morning in Chefchaouen in daylight. Climb to the Spanish Mosque viewpoint (about 20 minutes) for the panorama over the blue rooftops, then wander back through the medina — the kasbah square, the artisan shops selling handwoven blankets, the famous blue stairways in morning light.

Drive south through the Rif to Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Morocco's best-preserved Roman city. Walk among intact floor mosaics, the Arch of Caracalla, and the columns of the basilica, with the holy town of Moulay Idriss spread across the hillside opposite. Lunch nearby.

Continue to Fes, arriving in time to settle into your riad in the heart of the medina. Dinner at the riad — and a first glimpse of the lanes you'll explore properly tomorrow.

Meet your licensed local guide after breakfast. Start at the Royal Palace — its brass doors and zellij tilework are the most photographed gates in Morocco — then climb to the Borj Sud fortress for the panorama over the entire walled medina before you enter it.

Into the Fes Medina, the world's largest car-free urban area. Visit Al-Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 AD and the world's oldest functioning university, the Bou Inania Medersa, and the Chouara tanneries, where leather is dyed in stone vats as it has been for centuries. Lunch at a traditional medina restaurant.

Explore the artisan souks — metalwork, leather, ceramics, textiles — and the ornate fountain of Nejjarine Square, with your guide steering you through the labyrinth. Return to the riad in the late afternoon. Dinner tonight is at your leisure: a rooftop restaurant, a return to a lane you liked, or the riad itself.

Depart Fes and climb into the Middle Atlas Mountains. Pass through Ifrane, the alpine-style town Moroccans call "Little Switzerland," then into the cedar forests of Azrou, where wild Barbary macaques come down to the roadside.

Lunch in Midelt, between the Middle and High Atlas, then descend through the Ziz Valley — a corridor of date palms, fortified kasbahs, and dramatic cliffs as the desert approaches. Photo stops at the panoramic viewpoints along the way.

Arrive at Merzouga and meet your camels for a sunset trek across the Erg Chebbi dunes, the sand turning gold, then rose. Your luxury desert camp waits among the dunes — a private ensuite tent with hot shower, real beds, and electricity. Moroccan dinner under the stars, Berber drumming, and crystal-clear night skies.

Wake early for the sunrise camel ride back over the dunes, then breakfast at camp. Drive to Rissani, birthplace of Morocco's Alaouite dynasty, for a look at its dates market and the gateways of the old ksar.

Continue to the Tinghir oasis for a walk along the riverbank through the palm groves, then into Todra Gorge — 300-metre limestone walls above a flat, walkable riverbed. Lunch at the gorge.

Drive the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs into the Dades Valley, its red-rock walls and canyons glowing in the late light. Dinner and overnight at Hotel Babylon.

Drive through the Valley of the Roses — fragrant in April and May — and the Skoura oasis, one of Morocco's largest palm groves. Visit Kasbah Amridil, a perfectly restored private museum of Berber architecture, then continue to Ouarzazate.

Visit the iconic ksar of Aït Ben Haddou — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and filming location for Gladiator and Game of Thrones. Cross the river with a guide, climb to the granary for the view, and take the classic photo from across the riverbed. Lunch nearby.

Cross the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi n'Tichka Pass (2,260m), the afternoon sun throwing long shadows across the valleys. Arrive in Marrakech late afternoon, with drop-off at your hotel or riad — the end of six extraordinary days across Morocco.