A private 9-day round trip from Casablanca covering Rabat, Chefchaouen, Fes, a night in the Merzouga dunes, the Dades Valley, Ait Ben Haddou, and a full guided day in Marrakech, before returning to Casablanca for departure.
Duration
9 days / 8 nights
Departure
Casablanca
Destination
Rabat, Chefchaouen, Fes, Merzouga, Erg Chebbi, Todra Gorge, Dades Valley, Ouarzazate, Ait Ben Haddou, Marrakech
From
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Giving Marrakech its own day
Our 8-day Casablanca loop reaches Marrakech in the late afternoon on day 7 and leaves the next morning, which is enough time to see the main sights but not much more. This 9-day version adds a full guided day in the city — the Bahia Palace, the souks, and an evening in Jemaa el-Fnaa as the food stalls and performers set up — before the drive back north to Casablanca.
Same route, more time where it counts
Days 1 through 7 are identical to our 8-day tour: Casablanca, Rabat, Chefchaouen, Volubilis, Meknes, Fes, the Merzouga desert camp, and the Dades Valley. If Marrakech isn’t a priority for you and you’d rather spend the extra day elsewhere — an additional desert night, for example — the 8-day version leaves that day free to customize instead.
A guide for the Marrakech medina
Marrakech’s medina is larger and more commercial than Fes’s, with a denser concentration of shops and a layout that can be genuinely disorienting even on a second or third visit. A local guide helps you move through it efficiently — from the quieter Bahia Palace early in the day to the noise and energy of Jemaa el-Fnaa as evening falls.
What nine days of travel actually feels like
By the time you reach Marrakech on day 7, you’ll have covered five distinct regions — the Atlantic coast, the Rif Mountains, the imperial cities, the Middle Atlas, and the Sahara — which is a lot of ground for over a week. The Marrakech day is deliberately less demanding than the days before it: mostly walking rather than long drives, which makes it a natural way to wind the trip down before the final return leg.
Choosing between this and our 10-day tour
If the Sahara is more central to your trip than a full Marrakech day, our 10-day itinerary follows this same route but swaps the extra Marrakech day for a second day around Merzouga instead, spent visiting nomad families and the Gnaoua music village of Khamlia rather than another city’s souks.
Tour Highlights
●Rabat's Hassan Tower, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and the Kasbah of the Oudayas
●A morning in Chefchaouen's blue-washed medina in the Rif Mountains
●The Roman ruins of Volubilis and Meknes' monumental Bab Mansour gate
●A guided walk through the Fes medina, including the Chouara tanneries and the world's oldest continuously operating university
●A crossing of the Middle Atlas cedar forests around Azrou, home to wild Barbary macaques
●One night in a Sahara camp at Erg Chebbi with a sunset camel trek
●The Todra and Dades gorges and the fortified kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou
●A full guided day in Marrakech, from the Bahia Palace to Jemaa el-Fnaa at dusk
●A loop that returns you to Casablanca, so no separate transfer is needed before your flight home
Full Itinerary
Day 1
Arrival in Casablanca
Since the next eight days involve a lot of driving, day one is deliberately light: pick-up at Mohammed V Airport, time to settle in, and only a half-day of sightseeing before dinner. That's enough for the Hassan II Mosque — one of the largest religious buildings anywhere, with a minaret that doubles as a laser beacon aimed toward Mecca after dark — plus a walk through Mohammed V Square. If jet lag isn't too heavy, Rick's Café, built around the film that never actually mentions Casablanca by name inside it, is a popular choice for a first dinner. Overnight in a Casablanca hotel.
Day 2
Casablanca to Chefchaouen via Rabat
Rabat gets a fraction of the visitors that Fes or Marrakech do, which makes the morning here feel noticeably calmer. The stops are still substantial: the unfinished Hassan Tower, standing among stone columns from a 12th-century mosque abandoned after its sultan's death, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V beside it, and the whitewashed Kasbah of the Oudayas overlooking where the Bou Regreg river meets the Atlantic. By afternoon, the road climbs into the Rif Mountains, reaching Chefchaouen as its blue-washed streets catch the last of the daylight.
Day 3
Chefchaouen to Fes via Volubilis and Meknes
A last morning to photograph Chefchaouen's medina before checking out — the light is usually softest before midday, when the shadows haven't yet flattened the color against the stone. The route south passes Volubilis, where excavated mosaic floors still show scenes from Greek mythology laid out by Roman craftsmen roughly two millennia ago, and continues through Meknes for the Bab Mansour gate, considered one of the finest surviving examples of Moroccan monumental gateways. Arrive in Fes for the evening.
Day 4
Fes Medina
The day usually opens at the Royal Palace gate, its seven brass doors polished to a shine but never opened to the public, before heading into the Mellah — Fes's historic Jewish quarter, named for the Arabic word for salt after a trade the community once controlled. From there, a guide navigates toward the Chouara tanneries and the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and university, founded in 859 by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, and still recognized as the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the world.
Day 5
Fes to Merzouga via the Middle Atlas
After the density of the Fes medina, today is almost entirely open road, starting with the pine-covered hills around Ifrane and the cedar forests near Azrou, where a famous centuries-old tree known as the Gouraud Cedar stood until it finally fell in the early 1980s — the forest's macaque population remains, though, and sightings from the road are common. Midelt and the Ziz Valley's palm groves follow as the land flattens toward the Sahara, ending in Merzouga with a camel ride into the Erg Chebbi dunes as the sun sets.
Day 6
Merzouga to the Dades Valley
An optional early climb to a dune crest for sunrise, when the desert is at its coolest and the light most dramatic, before riding back to the village. On the way out, a stop in Rissani for its long-running souk and in Erfoud for its small fossil workshops, cutting marble slabs quarried from the surrounding hills, before continuing west through the Todra Gorge to an overnight in the Dades Valley.
Day 7
Dades Valley to Marrakech
Through the Rose Valley near Kelaat M'Gouna, known for its rose-water cooperatives, Skoura's dense palm groves, and a brief stop in Ouarzazate before visiting the kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou, whose earthen towers have appeared in numerous film productions. From there, cross the High Atlas via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, with switchbacks reaching above 2,200 meters, to Marrakech.
Day 8
Marrakech Medina Tour
Marrakech gets a full day here, starting early at the Bahia Palace before its courtyards and carved cedar ceilings — built for a powerful 19th-century grand vizier, the name means 'brilliance' — fill up with other visitors. From there, a guide leads through the dense souks, where entire lanes specialize in leather, lanterns, or woven textiles, and past the Koutoubia Mosque's gardens, its minaret the model for similar towers built in Rabat and Seville under the same dynasty. The day winds down in Jemaa el-Fnaa as storytellers, musicians, and food stalls set up for the evening.
Day 9
Marrakech to Casablanca
After yesterday's full day on foot in the medina, today is almost entirely passive: a three-hour highway drive back to Casablanca with generous buffer time built in before your flight at Mohammed V Airport. Travelers with a late departure sometimes ask to swing through Marrakech's newer Gueliz district first, for a last coffee somewhere quieter than the medina, before the drive north begins in earnest.
What's Included
✓Private, air-conditioned vehicle for the entire loop, with fuel and toll costs covered
✓English-speaking driver throughout, present for all 9 days rather than swapped between regions
✓Hotel or riad accommodation for all 8 nights
✓One night in a desert camp at Merzouga, including camel trek or 4x4 dune excursion
✓Local guides for the Fes and Marrakech walking tours
✓Dinner and breakfast at the desert camp and in the Dades Valley
✓Bottled water in the vehicle each day
✓Two airport transfers in Casablanca (arrival and departure)
What's Not Included
✕International or domestic flights
✕Most lunches and some dinners
✕Entrance fees to monuments (roughly €75 per person across the whole route)
✕Tips for your driver, guides, and camp staff
Accommodation
Eight nights are included across Casablanca, Chefchaouen, Fes, the Merzouga desert camp, the Dades Valley, and two nights in Marrakech. Hotels and riads default to a comfortable mid-range standard, with any stop upgradeable to a higher category, and the desert night available as either a shared-tent camp or a private tent with an en-suite bathroom.
Important Information
This itinerary adds a dedicated Marrakech city day to our 8-day round trip, so the city gets more than an overnight stop before the drive back to Casablanca.
The Marrakech walking tour is arranged with a local guide, since the medina's souks are dense and easy to lose your bearings in without one.
Nine days of near-daily movement is a real commitment; the Marrakech day is placed near the end specifically so the trip closes on a lighter, more walkable note rather than another long drive.
If you'd rather spend the extra day in the desert instead of Marrakech, this route can be adjusted to swap the Marrakech city day for a second Merzouga night — let us know when booking.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the extra day over the 8-day tour actually add?+
One thing: a dedicated day in Marrakech with a local guide, rather than arriving in the late afternoon and leaving the next morning. Everything else in the itinerary — Casablanca, Chefchaouen, Fes, Merzouga, and the Dades Valley — is identical.
Can the Marrakech day be swapped for more time somewhere else, like the desert?+
Yes, this itinerary can be adjusted — trading the Marrakech city day for a second night at the Merzouga camp is a common request, and it's the basis for our 10-day route, which builds that swap in as a default rather than a custom change.
Is a local guide necessary in Marrakech if we already had one in Fes?+
Marrakech's medina is larger and considerably more commercial than Fes's, with more foot traffic and a layout that can be disorienting even for repeat visitors, so we include a guide there as well rather than leaving you to navigate it solo.
How much walking is involved on the Marrakech day?+
Expect several hours of walking at a relaxed pace across the Bahia Palace, the madrasa, and the souks, with breaks built in. It's comparable to the walking on the Fes medina day, so if that day felt manageable, this one will too.
Book This Tour
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