Luxury Private Tour of Morocco – 12 Days: Imilchil, Sahara & the Cedar Forests
- Private vehicle & driver — Pick-up at your riad, pace set by you
- Local licensed guide — Licensed guide nº2898 · since 2011
- Book on WhatsApp — Reply within 1 hour · no payment at this stage
- Jemaa el-Fna on night one — a hundred grills firing at once
- El Badi, 'the Incomparable', and its gold-and-silver 12th-century minbar
- Aït Ben Haddou glowing red to gold from the hilltop granary
The 12-day Luxury Private tour of Morocco costs from $4500 per person — a restored 19th-century mansion in the Marrakech medina, desert-view riads, a luxury Erg Chebbi camp, mountain lodges and luxury Fes riads, with your own 4×4 and driver-guide throughout. It is the route the highway skips: after Marrakech, Aït Ben Haddou, a Gnaoua music evening and the camel-caravan camp night, the itinerary turns into the Middle Atlas back country — Imilchil’s lake plateau at 2,119 m, vivid Lake Isli, Azrou’s cedar forest where most of the world’s Barbary macaques live — before Fes, Volubilis, Meknes and Rabat close the arc. September travellers may catch Imilchil’s famous betrothal festival. The luxury is split deliberately: gold-standard nights in the great cities, characterful lodges where character is the point. Written quote within the hour on WhatsApp.
| Duration | 12 Days |
| Price | From $4500 per person — car, driver and accommodation included |
| Departures | Your dates — every departure is private, never a shared group |
| Languages | English- and French-speaking driver-guides; licensed city guides where included |
| Booking | WhatsApp +212 661 454 738 — written quote within 1 hour, no payment at this stage |
Most 12-day circuits connect the same six postcards by the same two roads. This one spends its middle third where tour buses cannot: the Middle Atlas back country between the Sahara and Fes, where Imilchil holds its betrothal festival at 2,119 m, Lake Isli sits improbably blue in a ring of peaks, and the cedars above Azrou shelter most of the world’s Barbary macaques. The luxury is split deliberately — gold-standard nights in Marrakech, the desert and Fes; characterful lodges where character is the point.
Against our other 12-day route: the Complete Circuit (also 12 days) runs the classic coast-and-cities loop; this luxury private version trades the coast for the high country and the crowds for none.
- Jemaa el-Fna on night one — a hundred grills firing at once
- El Badi, 'the Incomparable', and its gold-and-silver 12th-century minbar
- Aït Ben Haddou glowing red to gold from the hilltop granary
- A Gnaoua music encounter in the desert villages, then a camel caravan to a luxury camp
- Erg Chebbi's 28-kilometre dune sea at sunrise
- Imilchil, the lake-plateau village of the betrothal festival, and vivid Lake Isli
- Azrou's cedar forest — home to most of the world's Barbary macaques
- Fes's 1,200-year-old lanes, tanneries and Jewish heritage sites
- Volubilis and Meknes on the homeward arc
Itinerary
Open a day to see the detail: transport, accommodation, meals and activity time.
Day 1 City of wonder
From Casablanca — the Hassan II minaret and Art Deco blocks in passing — the private road runs to Marrakech. The evening lands in Jemaa el-Fna as its hundred cooks fire their grills among henna artists, storytellers, jugglers and snake charmers.
Day 2 Inside the Red City
A private tour based from your restored 19th-century mansion in the medina's heart: artisans at work, spice pyramids in the bazaar, and El Badi — the 16th century's 'Incomparable', once paved in gold, turquoise and crystal, keeping its 12th-century minbar of gold and silver calligraphy.
Day 3 Antique imagery: Aït Ben Haddou
Over the Tizi n'Tichka at 2,260 m, past Toubkal's national park, to the oldest of Morocco's great kasbahs. Aït Ben Haddou shifts from red to gold as the light moves; the granary at the summit holds the full panorama.
Day 4 Desert guidance: the Todra to Merzouga
East through the Todra Gorge — 160-metre walls closing to a ten-metre slot — then Rissani and Erfoud to the golden edge of the Sahara. Mint tea on arrival at a riad whose terrace looks straight into the desert.
Day 5 Remnants of paradise: Gnaoua, then the dunes
A meeting with a Gnaoua community — descendants of Sudanese migrants whose music binds story, prayer and trance across drums, lute and iron krakebs. At dusk, the camel caravan walks you into a luxury camp and a silence that startles.
Day 6 Nomadic allure
Sunrise turns the erg from deep blue to gold. Before Merzouga reclaims you, the full measure of Erg Chebbi: a 28-kilometre sea of dunes rising past 160 metres, still crossed by nomads near the old Mefis mines.
Day 7 The winding trail to Midelt
North into the Middle Atlas cedar country to Midelt, Morocco's apple capital, and the neighbouring village of Berrem: an ancestral walnut tree, clay walls, and the old mule path above the turmeric-coloured Berrem gorge.
Day 8 Making clans: Imilchil and Lake Isli
Up to Imilchil at 2,119 m on the plateau of lakes — famous for its September betrothal festival and its costume and cooking traditions. A 4×4-and-foot excursion reaches Lake Isli's vivid blue, ringed by mountains, for an unhurried hour at the water.
Day 9 Visiting the locals: Azrou
Across the range to Azrou at 1,200 m, the resort town under its black volcanic crag, alive on souk day with cherries, hand-woven carpets and wool caps. In the neighbouring cedar forest — trees to 35 metres — live most of the world's Barbary macaques.
Day 10 The trail's edge: Fes
A guided day in the imperial city's medieval air: the blue-tiled Bab Bou Jelou, lanes twelve centuries old, the historic tanneries and coppersmiths — and the Jewish cemetery's whitewashed tombs with the Habarim synagogue and its community museum.
Day 11 Following the foothills: Volubilis and Meknes
The Roman stones of Volubilis — laid from 25 BC — under the Rif's first hills, then Meknes, the 17th century's capital: the monumental Bab Mansour, a spice-laden medina, and the Bou Inania madrasa's hypnotic zellige under carved olive-wood ceilings.
Day 12 The path's end
A peaceful Rabat morning on the palm-lined boulevards, then the coastal run to Casablanca for the flight home — the Berber trail complete, mountains to desert, valleys to sea.
This is the connoisseur's routing: between the Sahara and Fes it abandons the highway for the Middle Atlas back country — Imilchil's lake plateau at 2,119 m, Azrou's cedar giants, villages that see few foreign vehicles. Night stops there are characterful lodges rather than palaces; the luxury is the access. September travellers may catch Imilchil's famous betrothal festival. Expect real variety in the walking, always optional.
Included in your tour
- Private air-conditioned 4×4 with English/French-speaking driver-guide — 12 days
- Pickup and drop-off at Casablanca Mohammed V airport
- Nights 1-2: restored 19th-century mansion in the Marrakech medina — half-board
- Night 3: guesthouse facing the Aït Benhaddou ksar — half-board
- Night 4: desert-view riad in Merzouga — half-board
- Night 5: luxury desert camp at Erg Chebbi — full board, camel caravan included
- Night 6: mountain lodge in Midelt — half-board
- Night 7: guesthouse in Imilchil — half-board
- Night 8: lodge in Azrou — half-board
- Nights 9-10: luxury riad in Fes — half-board
- Night 11: riad in Rabat — half-board
- Guided days in Marrakech and Fes; Gnaoua music encounter; Lake Isli 4×4-and-walk excursion
Not included
- International flights
- Lunches and beverages
- Entrance fees to monuments and historical sites (optional — pay directly)
- Tips for guide and driver
- Personal expenses
- Travel insurance (recommended)
Explore more
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Questions travellers ask
How much does Luxury Private Tour of Morocco – 12 Days: Imilchil, Sahara & the Cedar Forests cost?+
From $4500 per person, per person. The price includes private air-conditioned 4×4 with english/french-speaking driver-guide — 12 days, pickup and drop-off at casablanca mohammed v airport, nights 1-2: restored 19th-century mansion in the marrakech medina — half-board. You receive a written itemised quote before paying anything — no hidden fees.
How long is this tour and when does it depart?+
12 Days, departing on the dates you choose — there is no fixed schedule, because every departure is arranged for you alone.
Is this a group tour or private?+
Fully private: your own vehicle, driver and licensed guide, never seat-in-coach and never mixed with other travellers. The daily pace flexes around you.
What exactly happens in a hammam?+
Steam room, black-soap lather, a serious kessa-glove scrub by an attendant, rinse, and often a rhassoul clay or argan finish — 45 minutes to an hour, and you emerge polished. Spa hammams are private and bookable; neighbourhood hammams are cheap, sociable and bring-your-own-kit.
Is the hammam mixed or separated?+
Public hammams are strictly separated by sex (by room or by hours). Private spa hammams offer couples sessions — the honeymoon favourite — and single sessions with same-sex attendants on request.
What should I bring or wear?+
In a spa hammam everything is provided, with disposable underwear the norm. In a public one, bring underwear to wear, a towel, flip-flops and your own soap and glove — buying the kit at any corner shop is part of the fun.
What are Morocco's signature treatments?+
Argan-oil massages, rhassoul clay wraps (the mineral clay of the Fes region), rose-water everything from the Dades valley, and orange-blossom scents from the south. Our luxury and honeymoon routes weave them in at the right pauses.
More answers in the “Wellness & hammams” chapter of our Travel FAQ →
Itinerary and prices last updated October 2026.
