6-Day Morocco Tour from Tangier to Marrakech

Your driver-guide meets you at Tangier port or airport. You walk through the old medina and the Kasbah above the straits, then drive out to Cap Spartel, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and the Caves of Hercules with their sea opening shaped like Africa. In the afternoon the road climbs into the Rif to Chefchaouen. Evening walk through the blue lanes to Place Outa el Hammam.

Morning in the quiet blue medina before the drive south. At Volubilis a local guide walks you through the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco, with mosaics still in place. In Meknes you see Bab Mansour, the grandest gate in the country, and El Hedim square. You reach Fes in the late afternoon.

A full day in Fes el-Bali, the largest car-free medina in the world, with an official local guide. Bou Inania madrasa, the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and university founded in 859, the Nejjarine fountain, the Chouara tanneries seen from a leather-shop terrace, and the golden gates of the Royal Palace. Free time in the souks before dinner.

A long and beautiful drive across the Middle Atlas: Ifrane with its alpine roofs, the cedar forest of Azrou where Barbary macaques live, lunch in Midelt below the High Atlas, then the Ziz Gorges and a ribbon of date palms down to Erfoud. At Merzouga you swap the car for a camel and ride into the dunes of Erg Chebbi for sunset. Dinner, Berber drums by the fire and a night in your private tent.

Sunrise from the top of a dune, then breakfast at camp. In Rissani, the old caravan capital of the Tafilalet, you walk the local souk. The road follows palm oases to the Todra Gorge, where you walk between cliffs up to 300 m high. Evening in the Dades Valley among red rock formations.

The Road of a Thousand Kasbahs: the Roses Valley, the palm oasis of Skoura and Kasbah Amridil, then Ouarzazate, Morocco's film capital. At Aït Benhaddou you climb through the UNESCO-listed ksar seen in Gladiator. In the afternoon you cross the High Atlas by the Tizi n'Tichka pass (2,260 m) and reach your riad in Marrakech by evening, where the tour ends.