Morocco for Families: Fes, Marrakech & Essaouira – 15 Days
- 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
- One child-sized wow per day — waterfalls, camels, sandboards, boats
- Cooking workshop in Fes and henna afternoon in Chefchaouen
- The Sahara camp night with a family tent and patient camels
15 days out of Casablanca, fully private, from €2250 per person — your own vehicle, driver and licensed guide, plus every night’s accommodation. Highlights: Chefchaouen, Rabat and Fes.
The grand tour, rebuilt from a child’s-eye view: fifteen days that cover Chefchaouen, Fes, the Sahara, Marrakech and the sea — with the pacing, the beds and the daily highlights chosen for families. Waterfall wading at Akchour, henna afternoons, a kids-first cooking workshop in Fes, the camel-and-camp night every child retells for years, and a hammam day and beach finale that recharge parents too.
The engineering is in the margins: no driving block without a real break, riads with family rooms and pools booked ahead, dinner hours that respect bedtimes, and one wow-moment per day rather than three museums. Ages five and up thrive on this route; tell us your children’s ages and the details tune themselves.
Private vehicle with child seats on request, driver-guide throughout, family-briefed kitchens at every stop.
- One child-sized wow per day — waterfalls, camels, sandboards, boats
- Cooking workshop in Fes and henna afternoon in Chefchaouen
- The Sahara camp night with a family tent and patient camels
- Hammam-and-pool recovery day in Marrakech
- Essaouira beach finale before an easy departure
Photos from the tour
Itinerary
Open a day to see the detail: transport, accommodation, meals and activity time.
Day 1 Arrival in Casablanca
A gentle start: airport pickup in Casablanca, a look at the Hassan II Mosque's vast esplanade (children rate the ocean spray highly), and an easy first night — pool if the hotel allows, early dinner guaranteed.
Day 2 Rabat — Chefchaouen
North in two friendly bites: Rabat at midday for the Oudayas' blue lanes and a picnic on the ocean wall, then the Rif road to Chefchaouen — a town coloured, as far as any child is concerned, specifically for them.
Day 3 Akchour waterfalls and henna
The morning belongs to Akchour: an easy stretch of the waterfall trail with pools to wade and cafés selling orange juice mid-hike. Back in town, a henna afternoon — hands painted, mint tea poured, photographs mandatory.
Day 4 Volubilis — Meknes — Fes
The travel day that teaches: Volubilis' mosaics turn into a Roman treasure hunt, Meknes' gate wins the 'biggest door' contest, and Fes arrives by evening with a riad courtyard to reclaim.
Day 5 Fes with a guide
Fes with a guide who knows how to pitch a medina to mixed ages: donkeys given right of way, the tanneries' rainbow pits from a terrace, a madrasa's carved courtyard, and gains measured in wonder rather than kilometres.
Day 6 Cooking workshop in Fes
Aprons on: a family cooking workshop — bread kneaded, tagines assembled, mint tea poured from as high as small arms dare — then lunch eaten with the pride of authorship. The afternoon stays soft: gardens or the pool.
Day 7 Over the Atlas to the desert camp
The big crossing, broken properly: monkeys at the cedar forest (guaranteed hit), lunch at Midelt, the dunes rising after Erfoud — and then the trip's crown: camels at sunset into the Erg Chebbi, a family tent, drums by the fire, stars past counting.
Day 8 The Todra Gorge
Dunes at dawn for the early risers, sandboards after breakfast, and a gentle exit via the Todra Gorge — a canyon walk sized for young legs — to a Tinghir-side hotel with a pool that has been earned.
Day 9 To Aït Ben Haddou
Kasbah day: the Dadès valley's mudbrick castles (imaginations run free), Ouarzazate's film studios for the movie-minded, and Aït Ben Haddou climbed like the fortress it is, golden light included.
Day 10 Over the mountains to Marrakech
Over the Tizi n'Tichka with viewpoint stops and mint tea, down into Marrakech by afternoon — and an evening introduction to Jemaa el-Fna from a rooftop, where the square performs and dinner watches.
Day 11 Marrakech with a guide
Marrakech with the guide, family edition: the Bahia's courtyards for hide-and-seek-adjacent exploration, souk lanes with small-purchase budgets deployed, and the Koutoubia gardens for a running finish.
Day 12 Hammam day
The recovery day parents secretly rank first: a family-friendly hammam or spa morning, pool afternoon, ice creams as diplomacy — Marrakech at zero miles per hour.
Day 13 Marrakech — Essaouira
West on the argan road (goats in trees: photographic proof required) to Essaouira, where the wind flies kites without asking and the blue boats bob on cue. Ramparts walk, sardine dinner, seaside sleep.
Day 14 Essaouira by the sea
Essaouira by the sea: beach games on the long sand, a camel or horse amble for the willing, gallery lanes for the browsers — then back to Marrakech for the final night, salt-scrubbed and content.
Day 15 Return and departure
Departure with the easy logistics this route promises: airport timing built around family speed, and a car quiet with the good kind of tired. Fifteen days, one wow per day, zero museums-too-many.
Best from age five; the desert leg adapts for younger travellers. Child seats, family tents and connecting rooms are arranged at booking — the earlier we know ages, the better the tuning. Spring and autumn are the family sweet spots.
Included in your tour
- Private air-conditioned 4×4 or minivan with English/French-speaking driver-guide — 15 days
- Pickup at Casablanca airport or your hotel
- Night 1: Casablanca hotel — half-board
- Nights 2–3: Chefchaouen riad (2 nights) — half-board
- Nights 4–6: Fes riad (3 nights) — half-board
- Night 7: luxury ensuite desert camp — half-board
- Night 8: Tinghir hotel — half-board
- Night 9: kasbah hotel, Ait Ben Haddou — half-board
- Nights 10–12: Marrakech riad (3 nights) — half-board
- Nights 13–14: Essaouira riad (2 nights) — half-board
- Guided visit of Fes with a licensed local guide (Day 5)
- Guided visit of Marrakech with a licensed local guide (Day 11)
- Guided visit of the Aït Ben Haddou ksar (UNESCO)
- Camel trek in the dunes
- Traditional hammam session
- Drop-off at your Marrakech hotel or at the airport
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)
Questions travellers ask
What makes Essaouira special?+
An 18th-century fortified port where the fishing fleet still lands beside the ramparts, gulls own the sky and the medina is calm enough to wander without a map. It is where our long routes go to exhale.
How far is Essaouira from Marrakech?+
About 3 hours through argan country — with a women's argan-oil cooperative stop that most travellers rate among the trip's best half-hours. It works as a day trip, but an overnight is kinder.
Why is it called the wind city?+
The trade winds blow hard and often — glorious for kitesurfers and summer freshness, relevant if you dreamed of towel-on-beach days. For swimming calm, Oualidia's lagoon up the coast is the answer.
What should I eat in Essaouira?+
Sardines grilled at the port stalls, chosen straight off the boats — one of Morocco's great cheap feasts — plus the fish tagines and the local argan-and-almond amlou at breakfast.
More answers in the “Essaouira & the Atlantic coast” chapter of our Travel FAQ →
