14 Day Grand Morocco Tour

When you arrive in Marrakech, you will be greeted and shown to your hotel/riad. Take a seat and unwind. Spend the night in Marrakech.

Explore the historic city of Marrakech, Morocco's "southern jewel" and the country's second oldest Imperial city, which has long been a popular destination for traders and tourists. Your itinerary will include visits to the Menara Gardens, the renowned Jardin Majorelle, Bahia Palace, and Saadian tombs. With its 77-meter-high tower, the Koutoubia Mosque dominates the centre of Marrakech. Continue to one of Marrakech's most popular sights, Djemaa el-Fna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the city's most important cultural sites. Relax in one of the many cafés that surround the area and enjoy the scenery. Continue your investigation of the many and vibrant souks. Spend the night in Marrakech.

Leaving Marrakech for the coastal resort of Essaouira. This UNESCO World Heritage-listed city is accessible by a picturesque path flanked by Argan oil cooperatives. The windswept fishing town, with its wide beaches and an ancient fortified medina with fortifications built into the cliffs, has long been a popular tourist destination. Explore the small but active medina, take a walk along the ramparts or beach, or visit the port to see the daily catch. Essaouira holds the Gnaouas Music Festival every June. Stay in a tiny riad in Essaouira for the night. Our 14-day Morocco adventure began outside of Marrakech on the first night.

Depart from Essaouira towards Oualidia. Stop at Safi, a town that was once under Portuguese authority. Safi is well-known as a sardine export hub, but it is perhaps best known for its pottery. Arrive in Oualidia and relax in a little beach town with a protected lagoon, estuary, and the wild Atlantic Ocean just outside your door. Walking, birdwatching (particularly in the spring and fall), fishing, swimming, kayaking, kite surfing, and surfing are just a few of the activities offered in Oualidia. Spend the night at Oualidia.

Continue your journey up the Atlantic Coast by leaving Oualidia and heading towards Rabat. Pass to El Jadida, a little Portuguese-controlled seaside city that is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, before arriving in Casablanca to visit Mohammed V Square and Hassan II's magnificent mosque. Explore Rabat's Imperial City, which includes the Mechouar (the ramparts and walls that surround the Royal Palace), the magnificent Mohammed V Mausoleum, the Hassan Tower, and the Oudaya Kasbah, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and has Moroccan artisan galleries. Overnight in Rabat.

We continue our 14-day Morocco journey from Marrakech. From Rabat to Tangier, take the breathtaking beach road. Visit Asilah, a charming beach hamlet with whitewashed homes, blue walls and doors, and an abundance of art. Tangier, Europe's gateway to Africa, has always been a mixing pot of cultures. Discover Tangier's vibrant medina and city surroundings, as well as the stunning view where the Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans meet. Tangier will be your destination for the night.

Depart Tangier towards the lovely mountain village of Chefchaouen, passing through the verdant valleys of the Rif Mountains. Chefchaouen is well-known for its brilliant blue-washed structures and is popular with both tourists and Moroccans, particularly during the hot summer months. Explore Chefchaouen's winding alleys and little passageways, which are home to a variety of souks offering cuisine and artisan works such as woolen products, exquisite needlework, and goat's cheese, all of which are unique to the North and cannot be found anywhere else in Morocco. Relax in the plaza, take a farm tour, or wander through one of the nearby parks. At night, Chefchaouen.

Our true trip will begin after breakfast in the riad, with a wonderful drive through the fertile agricultural hills to the Roman Ruins at Volubilis, an open-air museum in the Rif Mountains. Volubilis isn't as spectacular as the Roman structures along the Mediterranean coast, but it's a more relaxed way to envision a key part of Moroccan history. We'll go to Meknes, Morocco's fourth imperial city and a 17th-century cultural landmark, for lunch and an exploration of the historic enormous walls of the medina. Following the launch, we see Bab el Mansour and visit Moulay Ismail's tomb. Following your visit to Meknes, we will immediately transfer you to Fes, where you will spend the night.

We'll take a guided city tour of Fes today to explore everything the city has to offer. Fes is the oldest and largest medieval city in the world. Its medina is a sensory explosion of scents, sounds, and sights. To travel about, take one of the five themed tourist circuits. Morocco has several mosques and castles to visit, however bear in mind that only Muslims are able to enter Mosques. We return to our hotel after touring dye-pits, tanneries, and eateries to prepare for an optional night of Moroccan entertainment and food at a nearby restaurant.

After breakfast, we'll take a picturesque ride over the Moyen Atlas to Ifrane, passing through hills covered in forests of cork oak and massive cedar, which are home to a few Barbary apes. As we cross stunning and calm passes over both the Middle and High Atlas ranges, we'll get our first glimpse of the south's spectacular architecture. Lunch in Midelt was reached by a barren stretch of scrub and sand. The majestic High Atlas highlands that loom behind the town provide a lovely background. After crossing Tizi-n-Talremt, we will drop into a desert plain on the Ziz river. We will next go south to Erfoud and Rissani, a large oasis encircled by many ksour (fortified villages). We'll continue down a lovely route that represents the transition to the desert to your exquisite Kasbah hotel at the edge of the golden sand dunes, where you may relax by the pool and enjoy a live concert by a desert blues band.

Wake up to a desert sunrise before riding a camel back to the hotel. After that, you will have the option to refresh yourself with a shower and have breakfast. After breakfast, take a 4WD off-road tour of the dunes, passing through Merzouga's oasis, the nomadic depository, and Khamlia village to visit the Gnawa dark skin people's village, originally slaves brought from black Africa, to listen to their spiritual music, and then continue to meet desert nomads in their tents and discover a new way of life. You'll depart for Rissani near Merzouga Lake, which is well-known for its bird population. This was originally known as Sijilmassa, and it was a stopping site for salt caravans heading from Timbuktu, Mali. You'll go around the souk, where you may buy spices, veggies, and apparel. After lunch in Rissani, we will return to our Kasbah, where we will be greeted with a cup of tea and given time to relax before riding camels into Morocco's largest dunes. We'll have plenty of time to explore the dunes before it gets dark. Dinner will be served, followed by traditional music and a night in a nomadic tent.

We leave the desert and make our way to the Todra Gorge. Morocco's Grand Canyon is a 1000-foot-deep valley flanked by sheer limestone cliffs on all sides. Today is an excellent day for exploring the gorge, from its depths to its dizzying heights. Todra's attraction is based on how its hues change as the sun travels from east to west. We spend the night in the spectacular Dades.

After breakfast, we'll drive through the cities of this gorgeous region, passing farms cultivated by Berber women with the High Atlas mountains as a backdrop. Our journey will next take us to Ouarzazate, where we will go off-road to view Berber nomads in their caves and drink a glass of tea with them. From here, we'll go through the Valley of the Roses, which is famous for its Rose Festival in May, as well as Skoura's kasbahs. We'll cross the riverbed to Ait Benhaddou after seeing Ouarzazate's cinematographic museum, called "Hollywood of Morocco." You will be able to examine some of the damaged structures as well as hike to the top of the hill, where the Agadir (grain storage) provides spectacular views over the village and surrounding region. In the afternoon, you'll journey north into the High Atlas highlands. The Foreign Legion built the path in 1936, which snakes up over the Tizi-n-Tichka pass (2260m) and provides stunning views of the mountains before falling to the plain surrounding Marrakech via Berber towns. Even today, the word Marrakech conjures up images of scenes from the Arabian Nights: alleyways, souks, kiosks, and markets. This majestic city, dating back to the 11th century, never fails to captivate the curiosity of adventurous travelers. The stunning architecture of the iconic Koutoubia Minaret dominates the skyline.

Today, we'll try to make the most of our time by roaming the souks of Marrakech, picking up some gifts for friends..., and then going to Marrakech Menara airport for your departure flight. End of 14-Day Grand Morocco Tour from Marrakech.