Morocco Grand Tour

Morocco is a spring and autumn country. In March to May and again from September to November the inland heat is bearable, the desert nights are cold rather than freezing, and the Atlas passes are open and clear. High summer bakes Marrakech and Fes, and deep winter closes the mountains, so the shoulders are where the trip belongs.

Thirteen nights, a loop through the four registers of the country. Marrakech and its medina, the High Atlas, the desert beyond the mountains, then Fes in the north and the Atlantic wind of Essaouira to finish. It is a driving journey by nature, and the road over the Atlas is part of the point rather than a transfer to be endured.

The medinas are the heart of it. Marrakech with a guide who opens the right doors, and the tanneries and the ancient university quarter of Fes, still the most complete medieval city in the Arab world. Between them, the kasbah country and the film town at Aït Benhaddou, a night in a private camp among the dunes with nothing on the horizon, and the ramparts and the gulls of Essaouira on the coast.

The flying is for the long legs and the road is for the good ones. Marrakech and Fes both take business jets, Ouarzazate serves the desert side, and Casablanca is the long-range gateway. The Atlas crossing is best driven for the scenery, and the desert leg can be shortened by helicopter when time is tight.

Among our preferred hotel partners we use La Mamounia and Royal Mansour in Marrakech, Kasbah Tamadot in the Atlas, a privately held camp in the Chigaga dunes, and a riad within the walls of Fes.

Ask your advisor about the Marrakech medina with the right guide, a private camp in the dunes rather than a roadside one, and the Atlas taken by helicopter if the road cannot be spared the time.