6-Day Morocco Desert Tour from Casablanca to Marrakech

Day 1: Casablanca - Rabat - Chefchaouen

Begin your trip with pick-up from Casablanca Airport or your hotel. Our first stop is the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, built on a platform over the Atlantic Ocean and featuring a 210-metre-tall minaret. The interior can hold 25,000 worshippers, and even from the outside the scale is extraordinary.

From Casablanca, you continue to Rabat, Morocco's elegant capital. You will visit the Kasbah of the Udayas, a 12th-century Almohad fortress with whitewashed and blue-painted streets overlooking the Bou Regreg River, then the Hassan Tower and the nearby Mausoleum of Mohammed V, a white marble building housing the tombs of King Mohammed V and his two sons.

In the afternoon, the road takes you north into the Rif Mountains and down into Chefchaouen. Check into your riad and take a walk through the medina before dinner.

Drive: Approx. 340 km, around 5–6 hours with stops

Accommodation: Riad in Chefchaouen

Meals: Breakfast included

Day 2: Chefchaouen to Fes via Volubilis and Meknes

After breakfast, you have a free morning in Chefchaouen. Walk up to the Spanish Mosque above the town for a panoramic view over the blue rooftops and the Rif Mountains before the day-trippers arrive. Back in the medina, stop at Ras El Ma, a natural spring at the edge of the old town where locals come to fill containers and wash textiles, and where the atmosphere is wonderfully unhurried.

In the early afternoon, you will leave the Rif Mountains and head south. The route passes through Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with remarkable mosaics and triumphal arches dating back nearly 2,000 years. From there you continue to Meknes, one of Morocco's four imperial cities, where Bab Mansour, a monumental gate covered in carved marble and zellij tilework, is among the finest examples of Moroccan-Andalusian architecture in the country.

You will arrive in Fes in the evening and settle into your riad in the medina.

Drive: Approx. 200 km, around 3–4 hours with stops

Accommodation: Riad in Fes medina

Meals: Breakfast included

Day 3: Guided Tour of Fes Medina

Today is dedicated entirely to Fes, one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the world. With a licensed local guide, you will navigate the 9,000-plus streets of Fes el Bali, the largest car-free urban area in the world, visiting its most important landmarks.

You will begin at the Royal Palace gates, then walk through the Mellah and visit a traditional pottery cooperative where artisans continue ceramic-making techniques passed down through generations. From a nearby viewpoint, you will have a panoramic view across the ancient rooftops of the medina.

Inside the medina, the tour continues through the souks to Al-Qarawiyyin University, founded in 859 CE and recognized as the world's oldest continuously operating university, and the Bou Inania Madrasa, with its intricate carved plaster, cedarwood screens, and zellij tilework. One of the most memorable sights in Morocco is the Chouara Tanneries, where leather is processed in the same stone vats as it has been for centuries, and the view from the surrounding terraces is unforgettable.

After lunch, the afternoon is yours to explore independently or rest at your riad.

Accommodation: Riad in Fes medina

Meals: Breakfast included

Day 4: Fes to Merzouga via Middle Atlas and Ziz Valley

After breakfast, you leave Fes and head south into the Middle Atlas Mountains. The first stop is Ifrane, a town whose red-roofed houses, manicured parks, and cool climate look so unlike the rest of Morocco that locals have been calling it the Switzerland of Morocco for generations.

From Ifrane, the road continues to the cedar forests of Azrou, where wild Barbary macaques live in the trees and wander down to the roadside. After lunch in Midelt, the landscape shifts dramatically, with green hills giving way to rocky plateaus and then to the Ziz Valley, a long ribbon of palm groves cut through volcanic rock with oasis villages tucked along its edges.

By late afternoon, you will reach Merzouga, where your camel guide will be waiting. You will ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes as the sun drops toward the horizon, the sand shifting from gold to orange to deep red as the light changes. The evening continues at the desert camp with a traditional Moroccan dinner, Berber drumming around the fire, and a night under one of the clearest skies in Morocco.

Drive: Approx. 470 km, around 7–8 hours with stops

Accommodation: Luxury desert camp in Erg Chebbi

Meals: Breakfast and dinner included

Day 5: Merzouga to Dades Valley via Rissani, Erfoud and Todra Gorges

Set your alarm early. The sunrise over the Erg Chebbi dunes moves fast, with the colors shifting from grey to pink to gold in less than twenty minutes. After breakfast at camp, you will ride back to Merzouga by camel or 4x4.

The morning continues through Rissani, built near the ruins of the ancient city of Sijilmassa and home to one of the most authentic traditional markets in the south, before reaching Erfoud, where craftsmen cut and polish ancient ammonite fossils into furniture, tiles, and decorative objects.

From there, the road leads to the Todra Gorges, where cliffs rise 300 meters on either side of a narrow riverbed. The scale catches most visitors off guard, and up close it feels less like a canyon and more like a cathedral. You will have time to walk through the gorge and have lunch in the shade of the cliffs.

The afternoon drive continues through Berber villages into the Dades Valley, where ancient kasbahs and the extraordinary Monkey Fingers rock formations rise from the valley floor.

Drive: Approx. 300 km, around 5 hours with stops

Accommodation: Hotel in Dades Valley

Meals: Breakfast and dinner included