10-day Morocco tour from Casablanca

A local guide takes you through Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, and past the Koutoubia Mosque, which you view from outside since it's an active place of worship. The afternoon can include the Jardin Majorelle if you want it, although that one has its own entrance fee on top of the tour price. In between, you'll walk through the medina and the souks, which is where most people end up buying more than they planned to.

Day 3 is where the Atlas Mountains and desert experience really begins. The road climbs out of Marrakech through Asni, with a detour up to Imlil, a Berber village at the foot of Mount Toubkal where the air turns noticeably cooler and walnut trees line the valley floor. Back on the main road, you cross the Tizi n'Tichka pass, the highest paved pass in Morocco's Atlas range, with switchbacks the rest of the way down. Ait Ben Haddou, the walled village you might recognize from Gladiator or Game of Thrones, is the reward at the bottom, right before Ouarzazate for the night.

The road south from Ouarzazate follows the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest river, past kilometers of palm groves and old kasbahs slowly crumbling back into the mud they were built from. In Zagora you switch to 4x4 vehicles or camels for the final stretch to Erg Chigaga, one of the largest dune fields in the Moroccan Sahara. Camels carry you in for sunset, and camp is a cluster of Berber-style tents (not the pop-up glamping kind, unless you've booked the luxury option), with dinner cooked over a fire and, on a clear night, more stars than you'll know what to do with.

Sunrise over the dunes is worth setting an alarm for. After breakfast at camp, it's back through Zagora and up toward Skoura, an oasis town with a dense palm grove and a handful of old kasbahs you can still walk into. The drive continues to Boumalne Dades for the night, so it's a long day in the vehicle, broken up by stops rather than one straight run.

The Dades Valley is known for rock formations that look almost carved on purpose, including a stretch locals call the Monkey Fingers. From there it's on to the Todra Gorges, where sheer limestone walls close in on a narrow river, tight enough in the narrowest stretch that you can see both sides without turning your head much. The drive north continues to Midelt for the night, at the edge of the Middle Atlas.

The road crosses the Middle Atlas, a different Morocco altogether, with pine and cedar forest instead of desert or red rock. Ifrane looks like it was airlifted in from the Alps, with sloped roofs and stone chalets that don't look like anywhere else in the country. Just outside, the cedar forest around Azrou is home to Barbary macaques, the only wild monkey species in North Africa, and they're used enough to visitors that they'll come fairly close if you sit still. You'll reach Fes by evening.

Fes el Bali, the old medina, is one of the largest car-free urban areas anywhere, which in practice means goods still move by handcart and mule through alleys that are sometimes barely a meter wide. Your guide will take you to the tanneries (the view from the terraces beats the smell up close, and someone will hand you a sprig of mint for your nose), the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and university complex, and the Bou Inania Madrasa, with its carved cedar and zellige tilework. It's easy to get turned around in the medina on your own, which is the real argument for having a guide here.

Meknes, the smallest of Morocco's four imperial cities, gets skipped by a lot of itineraries, which doesn't seem fair given that Bab Mansour is one of the most striking gates in the country. From there it's a short drive to Volubilis, the Roman ruins where full mosaic floors are still visible after close to two thousand years. You'll finish the drive in Rabat, where the unfinished Hassan Tower and the Kasbah of the Udayas make a good last stop before dinner.

If your flight isn't too early, there's time for a quick stop at Chellah, the walled Roman and medieval necropolis just outside central Rabat, before the drive back to Casablanca. Otherwise it's a direct transfer, about an hour and a half, to the airport or your hotel.