Ten days from Casablanca is the format we recommend most often to first-time visitors landing at Mohammed V: enough time for the imperial cities and a real Sahara night, without a single brutal driving day. Here is the skeleton we actually run, with honest hours.
Days 1–4: the imperial arc
Day 1, Casablanca: land, Hassan II Mosque, sea air, early night. Day 2, Rabat to Fes: the Udayas and Hassan Tower in the morning calm, then the motorway east (about 2½ hours). Days 3–4, Fes: one full guided medina day — tanneries, madrasas, the lanes — and one flexible day for Volubilis and Moulay Idriss or simply a rooftop and a slow lunch.
Days 5–7: over the mountains to the sand
Day 5: the long, beautiful haul south — Ifrane’s alpine oddness, the cedar forests and their monkeys, the Ziz valley palm river — to Merzouga (7–8 hours with real stops; the one long day, and it earns its length). Day 6: Erg Chebbi — camels at golden hour, a private camp, drums and a sky with no competition. Day 7: dawn on the dunes, then kasbah country: Todra gorge, the Dades valley for the night.
Days 8–10: kasbahs and the red city
Day 8: Skoura’s palm oasis and UNESCO-listed Aït Ben Haddou in the late light. Day 9: over the Tizi n’Tichka to Marrakech, afternoon in the medina. Day 10: Jemaa el-Fna’s morning, the souks, departure. The loop lands you where the flights are.
The real numbers
This is, almost stage for stage, our 10-day imperial cities and desert circuit (from €1500 per person) — private car, driver and guides throughout, never a group, every stage adjustable because nobody else is in the vehicle. Shorter on time? The 7-day version (from €1050) keeps the shape and trims the valleys. Cost-planning questions are covered honestly in our budget breakdown and the booking FAQ.
Tarik Ziani — Tarik builds itineraries. Give him a number of days and an arrival airport and he will fight for every hour of it — fewer hotels, better sequencing, drives placed where the scenery earns them. His route pieces are the skeleton of many of our circuits, and they share a conviction: a good Morocco itinerary is measured in moments per day, not miles.
