12-Day Morocco Imperial Cities and Desert Tour: Tangier to Marrakech Itinerary

After breakfast, drive into the Rif Mountains toward Tetouan, a city with a strong Andalusian imprint left by Muslims and Jews who resettled here after being expelled from Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is smaller and quieter than Fes or Marrakech, with whitewashed houses and wrought-iron balconies. From there, continue to Chefchaouen, the town everyone knows from photos of blue-painted alleys. Nobody agrees on why the color started, a Jewish tradition and a way to keep mosquitoes away are both offered as reasons, but wandering the old town in the late afternoon light is one of the calmer stops on this trip. Overnight in Chefchaouen.

Leave Chefchaouen this morning and head south to Volubilis, Morocco's best-preserved Roman site. It was once a provincial capital, and you can still make out mosaic floors, a triumphal arch, and the outlines of houses that belonged to wealthy olive-oil merchants nearly 2,000 years ago. From there, continue to Meknes, the smallest of Morocco's four imperial cities and, for that reason, one of the more overlooked. Sultan Moulay Ismail built it as his capital in the 17th century, and the scale still shows in Bab Mansour, a gate covered in green and white zellige tile, and in El Hedim Square. By late afternoon, arrive in Fes and check into your riad.

A full day in Fes, guided by someone local enough not to get lost in it (the medina has around 9,000 alleys, so this matters). Fes el Bali is the oldest part of the city and one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban centers in the world. You'll see the outside of the Royal Palace, walk through the old Jewish quarter, and pass through souks organized by trade the same way they've been for centuries: leather here, metalwork there, wood carving somewhere else. The tanneries, where hides are still dyed in stone vats using methods that go back to medieval times, are one of the more memorable, and frankly pungent, stops. In the afternoon, visit a ceramics workshop to see the hand-cut mosaic tilework Fes is known for, then finish at a viewpoint over the city before heading back to your riad.

This is the longest driving day of the trip, and also the one where the landscape changes the most. You'll pass through Ifrane, a mountain town the French built in a European alpine style that still looks slightly out of place until you remember it sits at 1,600 meters. Past Azrou, keep an eye on the road: Barbary macaques often come right up to the cedar forest's edge. After lunch around Midelt, the terrain opens into rocky plains, mountain passes, and eventually the Ziz Valley, a corridor of date palms running for kilometers along the river. By evening, you'll reach Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara.

Spend the morning exploring around Merzouga by 4x4, with stops that might include Khamlia, a village known for Gnawa music with roots in West Africa, and a visit with a nomad family living much the way their families have for generations. Then, in the late afternoon, the trip's centerpiece: a camel trek into the Erg Chebbi dunes. The sand shifts from gold to orange to deep red as the sun drops, and by the time you reach camp, it's dark enough to see more stars than most people see in a year. Dinner, drumming, and a night in the desert camp follow. This is usually the part of the Tangier to Sahara desert 12-day trip that people remember most.

If you're up for it, watch the sunrise over the dunes before breakfast. It's worth losing the extra sleep. Then leave the desert for Rissani, once a stop on the old trans-Saharan caravan routes and still home to a working market. From there, drive to Todra Gorge, where limestone walls rise up to 300 meters on either side of a narrow canyon, a favorite with rock climbers and anyone who likes dramatic scenery. Continue along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs to Dades Valley, known for rock formations that look like folded fabric and old fortified villages built into the hillsides.

This morning, drive through the Valley of Roses, where much of Morocco's rose water and rose oil comes from, then continue to Ouarzazate, sometimes called the gateway to the desert and home to several of the film studios where movies like Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia were shot. The main stop today is Ait Ben Haddou, a fortified ksar built from red earth that's been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. From there, cross the High Atlas Mountains on the Tizi n'Tichka Pass, the highest road pass in North Africa, before arriving in Marrakech by evening.

A full guided day in Marrakech, another of Morocco's imperial cities and the busiest stop on the trip. You'll see the Koutoubia Mosque (its minaret was the model for Spain's Giralda Tower), the Bahia Palace with its carved cedar ceilings, and the Saadian Tombs, rediscovered in 1917 after being sealed off for centuries. Walk through the souks for spices, leather, and lamps, then end the day at Jemaa el-Fna, the main square, which turns into an open-air food market and street performance space every evening. It's one of the few places you can watch snake charmers and eat grilled sardines within the same ten minutes.

After a slower morning, drive to Casablanca, Morocco's largest city and its financial hub, which feels almost like a different country after the historic centers you've just come from. The main stop is the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, built partly on land reclaimed from the Atlantic so that worshippers could pray over the water. Depending on timing, you can visit the interior, which is open to non-Muslims. Afterward, walk the Corniche or the Habous Quarter, a colonial-era neighborhood built to look like an older medina.

Today's day trip goes to Rabat, Morocco's capital and its calmest imperial city. You'll see the Hassan Tower, an unfinished 12th-century minaret, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and the Kasbah of the Oudayas, a blue and white fortified neighborhood overlooking the river mouth. It's a quieter counterpoint to Fes and Marrakech, and a fitting place to close out the imperial cities side of the trip before heading back to Casablanca for your last night.

Transfer to the airport, port, or your next stop in Casablanca. Your 12-day Moroccan cultural and desert adventure ends here, though most people leave already planning when they'll come back.