13-Day Rabat to Casablanca Tour via Merzouga & Marrakech

Your journey begins in Rabat, the calm and green capital of Morocco. Your driver-guide meets you at Rabat-Salé Airport with a sign bearing your name, or at Rabat Agdal station if you arrive by train, and drives you to your riad or hotel, about twenty minutes away.

If you land in the morning or around midday, the afternoon is free for a first look at the city: the blue-and-white lanes and Andalusian garden of the Kasbah of the Udayas above the mouth of the Bou Regreg, then the unfinished Hassan Tower and the white marble Mausoleum of Mohammed V, guarded by horsemen in red.

With a later flight, you go straight to your accommodation to rest. In the evening, walk along the river or through the relaxed medina, where shopkeepers rarely press you, and have dinner before the drive north into the Rif tomorrow.

After breakfast at your riad, your driver-guide loads the luggage and you leave the capital, turning inland across the Gharb, one of the most fertile plains in Morocco.

The road passes Ouezzane, home of a famous Sufi brotherhood and a busy olive market, and climbs into the Rif Mountains between terraced fields and small hamlets.

You reach Chefchaouen in the afternoon, with time for a first stroll through the blue medina before dinner.

Today is yours to enjoy the blue town. Explore the lanes at your own pace, browse the weavers' shops for woollen blankets and visit the kasbah and its small ethnographic museum.

For a short hike, a path leads up from Ras el Ma past the Spanish Mosque and on into the hills of the Talassemtane, with wide views over the town and the valley.

In the evening, enjoy dinner on a terrace overlooking Outa el-Hammam square as the lights come on.

You leave Chefchaouen and drive south through the Rif foothills to Volubilis, the Roman city, where a guide shows you its mosaic floors and triumphal arch.

After a viewpoint above Moulay Idriss, you have lunch in Meknes and see Bab Mansour and the vast imperial granaries.

You arrive in Fes in the late afternoon for two nights in a traditional riad.

With your guide you spend the day in Fes el-Bali, entering through Bab Boujloud and exploring its souks, fountains and old caravanserais.

Highlights include a madrasa decorated with cedar and stucco, the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque and university, the brass workshops of Seffarine and the Chouara tannery.

In the afternoon you see the Royal Palace and the Mellah, then watch the sun set over the medina from the Merinid tombs.

A long but beautiful day takes you from Fes to the Sahara, by Ifrane and the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas.

You have lunch in Midelt and follow the Ziz River through its gorges and palm groves to Erfoud.

In Merzouga, camels carry you into the dunes for sunset and on to your camp for dinner and the night.

Wake up to the sunrise over the dunes and return to Merzouga for breakfast and a rest.

A 4x4 excursion takes you to a nomad family's tent, across the hamada with its fossils, and on to Khamlia for Gnawa music and a glass of mint tea.

The afternoon is free, and you spend a second night in Merzouga close to the sand.

Leaving the desert, you drive west through Rissani and the oasis of Tinejdad to Tinghir.

You walk into the Todra Gorge, one of the most spectacular canyons in the Atlas, before lunch nearby.

In the afternoon you continue up to the Dades Valley for the night in a kasbah guesthouse.

This morning the road follows the Dades downstream through Kalaat M'Gouna, where rosebushes line the fields and small distilleries make rosewater each spring, then through Skoura, whose palm grove shelters old family kasbahs.

You skirt Ouarzazate and turn off to Ait Ben Haddou. With a guide you cross the river and climb through the earthen lanes of the ksar to the ruined granary at the summit, then have lunch in the village with the towers in front of you.

The afternoon drive takes you over the Tizi n'Tichka, through the Berber villages and terraces of the High Atlas, and down to Marrakech. You arrive in the early evening and check in to your riad for two nights.

A licensed guide shows you the highlights of Marrakech: the Koutoubia minaret, the Bahia Palace with its painted ceilings and the Saadian Tombs.

After lunch you explore the souks, where each lane belongs to a different craft, from leather and metal to carpets and spices.

As evening falls, Jemaa el-Fna comes alive with food stalls, musicians and storytellers.

Today you head west to the Atlantic through the argan country, stopping at a women's cooperative to watch argan oil being ground and pressed.

Along the road you may spot goats balancing in the branches of the argan trees.

In the afternoon you arrive in Essaouira, a walled port of white houses and blue boats, and walk along its sea ramparts.

After breakfast you leave Essaouira and follow the coast north to Safi, known for its potters' quarter.

You stop in Oualidia, a peaceful lagoon famous for its oysters, for lunch by the water, then visit the Portuguese City of El Jadida.

You reach Casablanca in the early evening and check in to your hotel for the last night of the tour.

On your final morning you visit the Hassan II Mosque, built over the Atlantic, on a guided tour if your flight time allows.

Afterwards there may be time for a coffee on the Corniche or a walk through the arcades of the Habous quarter.

Your driver then takes you to Mohammed V Airport for your flight home.