6 Days Tour from Casablanca: Chefchaouen, Fes, Sahara Camp and Marrakech

Your driver meets you at Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca, or at your hotel. Our first stop is the Hassan II Mosque, which stands over the Atlantic with one of the tallest minarets in the world, and you can see it from outside or, if time allows, take a guided visit inside. We then drive north along the coast. If the clock is on our side, we stop in Rabat at the Kasbah of the Udayas, before the road turns inland and starts to climb into the Rif Mountains. Hills and cork oaks replace the plain, and by late afternoon the blue town of Chefchaouen appears on its slope. You settle into your riad and spend the evening on foot, among the blue doorways and stairways. Overnight in Chefchaouen, breakfast and dinner included.

The morning belongs to the Blue City. Walk up to the Spanish Mosque viewpoint for the view over the blue rooftops, then wander back through the medina, past the kasbah square, the weavers' shops and the blue staircases in the early light. After lunch we drive south through the Rif to Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco. You walk among mosaics, columns and the Arch of Caracalla, and see the holy town of Moulay Idriss across the valley. We reach Fes in the evening and check into a riad in the old medina, where dinner is served. Overnight in Fes, breakfast and dinner included.

A licensed local guide takes you through the old city of Fes today. We start at the Royal Palace, whose brass doors and tile work are among the most photographed in the country, and climb to the Borj Sud fortress for a view over the walled medina. Then we go down into Fes el-Bali, where the lanes are too narrow for cars. You visit the area around Al-Qarawiyyin, the Bou Inania Madrasa and the Chouara Tanneries, where leather is still dyed in stone vats, and have lunch in a traditional restaurant. In the afternoon the guide takes you through the craft souks, including the metalworkers and the weavers, and past the Nejjarine Fountain. The evening is free. Overnight in Fes, breakfast and dinner included.

We leave Fes after breakfast and head up into the Middle Atlas. In Ifrane the houses have steep roofs, and in the cedar forest near Azrou Barbary macaques come down to the road. Lunch is in Midelt, between the Middle and High Atlas. Then we drop into the Ziz Valley, a corridor of date palms, old kasbah villages and red cliffs, with photo stops on the way. In the late afternoon we arrive in Merzouga, where you meet your camel. You ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes as the sun goes down, and sleep in a luxury tent at the Sahara camp. Dinner is served under the stars, with drumming by the fire. Overnight in a luxury tent at the Sahara camp, breakfast and dinner included.

If you wake before dawn, you can ride back across the dunes by camel to see the first light spread over the sand. After breakfast at the camp we drive to Rissani, the old caravan town linked to Morocco's ruling dynasty, for a look at its date market and the gate of the old ksar. Next comes the oasis of Tinghir, where you can walk along the palm-lined river. Then we reach the Todra Gorge, with limestone walls rising about 300 metres above a flat, walkable riverbed. We have lunch by the gorge, and in the afternoon we follow the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs into the Dades Valley, where the red cliffs and rock shapes glow in the evening light. Overnight in the Dades Valley, breakfast and dinner included.

We leave the Dades Valley after breakfast and drive through the Rose Valley, which is fragrant in April and May, and then through the palm groves of Skoura, one of the largest in the country. We stop at Kasbah Amridil, a restored private house that shows how Berber families once built, and pass through Ouarzazate. Ait Benhaddou comes next, the UNESCO-listed village of earthen towers, where a guide walks you across the river and up to the old granary for the view. After lunch we cross the High Atlas by the Tizi n'Tichka pass, at about 2,260 metres, and arrive in Marrakech in the late afternoon. We drop you at your hotel or riad. Breakfast included.