9-Day Private Morocco Tour from Casablanca

What you see and do

• The one thing nine days adds to eight: a guided day in Marrakech, with two nights in the city in place of one.
• A first night in Casablanca, with the Hassan II Mosque and the Corniche if your flight lands early enough.
• Rabat as a stop on the road north: the Hassan Tower, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Kasbah of the Udayas.
• An evening and a morning in the blue lanes of Chefchaouen.
• Roman Volubilis and Meknes on the way to a guided day in the Fes medina.
• One night at Merzouga: a camel ride into Erg Chebbi at sunset, dinner at camp and sunrise from a dune.
• Todra Gorge, the Dades Valley and Ait Ben Haddou on the two-day drive to Marrakech.

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day 1Arrival in Casablanca45 km

   Airport transfer and a short city drive. Night in a hotel in Casablanca.

   Your driver is waiting at Mohammed V Airport, which sits well outside the city. How much you see today depends on your landing time. With an afternoon free, the plan is the Hassan II Mosque on its platform above the Atlantic, followed by a slow drive along the Corniche and past Mohammed V Square, the centre of the French-era city.

   A late flight simply means the hotel and an early night. Tomorrow is one of the longer road days, so nothing is lost by resting.

   
2. Day 2Casablanca to Chefchaouen with a stop in Rabat365 km

   About 5 to 6 hours of driving plus stops. Night in a riad or hotel in Chefchaouen.

   This is the day the ten-day tour cuts in half. Here it is done in one piece, so expect a long one. The first hour follows the coast to Rabat, the capital. You stop at the Hassan Tower, a 12th-century minaret that was never finished, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V beside it, and the Kasbah of the Udayas, a walled quarter of white and blue lanes with a garden and a view over the river mouth.

   Lunch is in Rabat at your own cost. The afternoon is driving, inland across farmland and then up into the Rif. You reach Chefchaouen towards evening, in time for a first walk through the blue medina and dinner on a terrace.

   
3. Day 3Chefchaouen to Fes by Volubilis and Meknes285 km

   About 5 hours of driving plus stops. Night in a riad or hotel in Fes.

   With only one night in Chefchaouen, the early morning is your best time there. The lanes are quiet before the day visitors arrive, and the light is good for photographs. Ask your driver how late you can leave.

   The road south reaches Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman site in Morocco and a UNESCO site since 1997, with floor mosaics still in place and a triumphal arch standing over the plain. A short drive on is Meknes, the capital of Sultan Moulay Ismail in the 17th century, where the stop centres on the Bab Mansour gate. Some monuments in Meknes have been closed for restoration in recent years, so what you enter depends on the day.

   Fes is less than an hour further. You arrive in the evening.

   
4. Day 4Guided day in Fes

   Night in a riad or hotel in Fes.

   No driving today. A local city guide takes you through Fes el Bali, the old walled city, which is closed to cars and a World Heritage site since 1981. A guide earns the fee here more than anywhere else on the route, because the lanes number in the thousands and few are signed.

   The usual circuit takes in the brass gates of the Royal Palace, the carved cedar and tilework of the Bou Inania Madrasa, the outside of the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and university, and the Chouara tanneries seen from a leather shop terrace. Between them you pass through the souks, each trade in its own street. It is several hours on foot over uneven stone.

   
5. Day 5Fes to Merzouga over the Middle Atlas465 km

   About 8 hours of driving plus stops. Night in a desert camp in the Erg Chebbi dunes.

   The longest drive of the nine days, and the one that makes the desert night possible. You leave Fes early and climb to Ifrane, a mountain town built in the French period with pitched roofs and tidy parks. Beyond it the road passes through cedar forest near Azrou, where Barbary macaques gather at the roadside.

   After Midelt the land dries out. The road drops through a pass into the Ziz Valley, a long strip of date palms and mud-walled villages between bare cliffs.

   At Merzouga you leave the vehicle and ride camels into the Erg Chebbi dunes in the last light. Dinner is at camp. This is your only night in the Sahara on this itinerary, so stay up for the stars if the sky is clear.

   
6. Day 6Merzouga to the Dades Valley by Rissani and Todra Gorge275 km

   About 5 hours of driving plus stops. Night in a hotel or guesthouse in the Dades Valley.

   Get up before dawn and climb the nearest dune for sunrise. After breakfast you return to Merzouga and the vehicle. On the ten-day tour this would be a day of rest at the dunes. Here you are back on the road by mid-morning.

   The first stop is Rissani, an old caravan town with a covered market that is busiest on its market days. Then the road runs west to Tinghir and its palm grove, and into Todra Gorge, a narrow cut between limestone cliffs with a stream along the bottom. You have time to walk its length.

   The day ends in the Dades Valley, among red rock and small fields, with dinner at your hotel.

   
7. Day 7Dades Valley to Marrakech by Ouarzazate and Ait Ben Haddou350 km

   About 7 hours of driving plus stops. Night in a riad or hotel in Marrakech.

   The morning follows the route often called the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, past the Skoura palm grove to Ouarzazate. The town has hosted film productions for decades, and you can visit a studio if you want to, paying the entrance yourself.

   Ait Ben Haddou comes next: a fortified village of earth and straw on a hillside, listed by UNESCO in 1987. You cross the riverbed and walk up through its lanes to the old granary at the top.

   The afternoon is the High Atlas crossing over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, at about 2,260 m. The bends are slow going. You come down into Marrakech in the evening.

   
8. Day 8Guided day in Marrakech

   Night in a riad or hotel in Marrakech.

   This is the day that separates nine days from eight. On the shorter tour you arrive in Marrakech in the evening and fly out the next morning. Here you get the city in daylight with a local guide.

   The walk covers the Koutoubia Mosque from outside, as non-Muslims may not enter, then the courtyards of the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs and the souks north of the main square. Entrance fees are paid at each door. The guide finishes around lunchtime or early afternoon, and the rest of the day is yours. Many people use it for the Majorelle Garden or simply to shop. Return to Jemaa el-Fna after dark, when the food stalls are set up and the crowd gathers around the musicians.

   
9. Day 9Departure from Marrakech or Casablanca

   Airport transfer.

   Your driver takes you to Marrakech Menara Airport after breakfast. A departure from Casablanca is also possible. That transfer is about two and a half to three hours by motorway, so book a flight that leaves in the afternoon or later.

   

Price and what changes it

This 9-day private tour costs €2,700 to €4,900 per person. Every trip is tailored, so the final price depends on your group size, hotel and camp level, and what you add.

• Group size. The vehicle and driver cost the same whether two or six people travel, so the price per person falls as the party grows. A solo traveller pays the most.
• Accommodation level. Eight nights at standard, comfort or luxury level. This is the main reason for the gap between the bottom and the top of the range.
• The desert night. A standard or a luxury camp. Our page on desert camps in Merzouga shows what changes between them.
• Changes to the route. A departure transfer to Casablanca, an extra night, or desert activities. See what a Morocco tour costs for how the ranges work.

Other lengths are priced on the Morocco tour cost page.

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