Morocco: the imperial cities, the Atlas and the Sahara
Fez and Marrakech, the High Atlas passes, the Todra gorge and a night in the Erg Chebbi dunes — the classic Moroccan loop done at a pace that leaves time to sit still.
Fez
Fes el-Bali is the largest car-free urban area in the world and it is genuinely disorienting — around 9,000 alleys, no logic to them, and a phone map that will not save you. Hire a guide for the first day and wander alone on the second, which is when the city starts making sense.
Fez: tanneries, madrasas and the mellah
The Chouara tanneries have worked the same way since the eleventh century and smell like it; you are handed mint at the terrace and you will use it. The Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas are open to non-Muslims and are the best zellij tilework in the country.
Over the Middle Atlas to Merzouga
A long driving day south — cedar forest above Ifrane with Barbary macaques in it, then the ziz valley of date palms, and finally the desert edge. The last hour into Merzouga runs alongside dunes that appear out of flat hammada without warning.
Erg Chebbi
The dunes reach about 150 metres and run 22 kilometres. Ride or drive in for the night at a camp, which is the point of coming — the silence after the generators go off is total. Camps range from basic to absurd; the middle ones are the good ones.
The Todra gorge
West along the desert road to Tinghir, where the Todra river has cut a slot 300 metres deep and in places only 10 metres wide, with a road through the bottom of it. Climbers use the walls; everyone else walks up and back in an hour.
The Dades valley and the road of a thousand kasbahs
The Dades gorge road climbs a set of hairpins so tight they are on every Moroccan tourism poster, and the valley below is lined with earthen kasbahs in various states of collapse and restoration. Pisé — rammed earth — needs constant maintenance and stops existing without it.
Skoura and Ouarzazate
The Skoura palm grove holds Kasbah Amerhidil, one of the largest earthen structures in the country. Ouarzazate is the film town — Atlas Studios has the sets from Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven standing in the desert behind it.
Aït Benhaddou
A fortified village of stacked earthen houses on a hillside above a river, UNESCO-listed and used as a location so often that it is now partly maintained by the film industry. Go at first light: the coaches arrive at ten and it is a different place before them.
Over the Tizi n'Tichka to Marrakech
The High Atlas crossing at 2,260 metres — recently rebuilt and much easier than it used to be, though still four hours with stops. The argan cooperatives on the far side are worth one visit and not four; the Berber villages on the pass are the reason to go slowly.
Marrakech
Jemaa el-Fna fills with food stalls, musicians and storytellers every evening and empties every morning. Around it: the Koutoubia, the Saadian tombs, the Bahia palace and the souks, which are more aggressive than Fez's and easier to navigate. Two nights minimum.
Marrakech: gardens and the new city
The Majorelle garden and the Yves Saint Laurent museum next to it are the busiest ticket in the city — book the timed slot. Le Jardin Secret in the medina is quieter and better. In the evening, a hammam, which is a genuine institution rather than a spa treatment.
The Ourika valley or Imlil
An hour into the High Atlas. Imlil is the trailhead for Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak at 4,167 metres, and a day walk from it to Aroumd and the Azzaden valley gives you the mountains without the two-day summit push. Ourika is closer and busier.
Essaouira
Three hours west to the Atlantic — a walled fishing port with ramparts, blue boats, gulls, and wind that makes it a kitesurfing town and a relief after the interior heat. Orson Welles filmed Othello here and the medina is UNESCO-listed.
Back to Marrakech
Return for the flight, or continue north to Casablanca if that is the departure point. If there is a spare afternoon, the Marrakech photography museum and a last circuit of the souks with a firm idea of what you actually want to buy.
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A hire car works well on this route and Moroccan roads are better than expected, but many people take a car with a driver for a modest premium and it removes the parking, the navigation and the police checkpoints as problems. Checkpoints are frequent, routine and polite — slow down, stop if waved, have licence and papers ready. The dirham is a closed currency: it cannot legally leave the country, so convert back before departure and keep exchange receipts. Ramadan changes everything — restaurants close by day, the pace shifts and the evenings are wonderful; check the dates before booking. In the medinas, unofficial guides attach themselves to visitors and the persistence wears people down; a firm repeated no works and engaging does not. Riads are the accommodation to book — courtyard houses, usually a fraction of hotel prices and much better. Best months are April–May and September–October; July and August are punishing inland.
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Two days north of Fez to the blue-painted Rif town — four hours each way by bus or car, and the most photographed place in Morocco after Aït Benhaddou. Best combined with Tangier if arriving by ferry from Spain.
Two extra days from Imlil: a hut night at 3,200 metres and a pre-dawn summit push to 4,167 metres. A licensed guide has been mandatory since 2018. Crampons and axe needed from roughly November to April.
Trains link Fez, Casablanca and Marrakech well and CTM and Supratours coaches cover the south. You lose the Dades and Todra flexibility but the desert can still be reached on an organised trip from Marrakech or Fez.