The 5 Days in Northern Morocco from Tangier is the one itinerary here with no Sahara in it. The north has enough of its own: two seas, the Rif mountains, a Roman city, an Andalusian medina and the oldest university in the world.
It suits travellers arriving by ferry from Spain, anyone with limited time, and people who would rather see three places properly than six in passing. The longest drive on the whole trip is under four hours.
Chefchaouen gets two nights and a free day, Fes gets a full day in the medina, and the route ends back in Tangier for the ferry or a flight home.
Pickup at Tangier airport, at the ferry port or at your hotel. The morning is spent in the city: the Kasbah on the hill above the bay, the small medina, and the Grand Socco where the old town meets the new.
Out of town you reach Cape Spartel, the headland where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, and the Caves of Hercules just below it, open to the sea through an opening shaped like the map of Africa.
In the afternoon, a short drive south to Asilah, a walled town of whitewashed houses whose ramparts are repainted with murals every summer during its arts festival. Return to Tangier for the night.
Accommodation: Hotel in Tangier
East along the Mediterranean coast to Tetouan, whose medina is UNESCO-listed and unmistakably Andalusian, built by refugees from Granada after 1492. It is smaller and far less visited than Fes, and easy to walk without a guide.
Lunch in Tetouan, then the road climbs into the Rif mountains.
You reach Chefchaouen in the afternoon, in time for the walk up to the Spanish mosque on the hill above the town, where the whole blue medina spreads out below at sunset.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Chefchaouen
A day with no driving. The medina is steep, compact and painted every shade of lime blue, and the best way to see it is to walk without a route.
The kasbah in the main square has a garden and a tower with a view over the rooftops. Ras el Maa, the spring at the top of the town, is a ten-minute climb and the path carries on into the hills.
For a longer walk, the Akchour waterfalls and the natural rock arch known as the God Bridge are about an hour away. Chefchaouen is also the best place on this route for woven blankets and local goat cheese.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Chefchaouen
Down out of the Rif to Volubilis, the Roman provincial capital, where the mosaic floors of the merchant houses, the basilica and the triumphal arch stand in open farmland below the hill town of Moulay Idriss.
A stop in Meknes, the imperial city built by Moulay Ismail in the seventeenth century, for the huge Bab Mansour gate, the walls and the royal granaries.
Arrival in Fes in the late afternoon, with the evening free.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Fes
The morning is spent in Fes el Bali, the ninth-century medina, which has no cars and around nine thousand lanes. The usual circuit takes in the Bou Inania madrasa, the Nejjarine fountain, the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and library and the Chouara tanneries. A licensed guide is recommended and can be arranged.
Lunch in the medina, then the road north to Tangier, around four hours on the motorway.
Arrival in the evening, with drop-off at the airport, the ferry port or your hotel depending on your onward plans.
No. This is the northern circuit: two coasts, the Rif and the imperial cities. For the Sahara, take the 5 Days Morocco Desert Tour from Tangier, which heads south instead.
Yes. Pickup at Tanger Med or the city port is standard, and the tour ends back there so you can sail out again.
Very little by Moroccan standards. The longest stage is Fes to Tangier at about four hours; most days are two to three.
For the main sights of the medina, yes. If you want the tanneries, the souks and the Merenid tombs without hurrying, we can add a second night.
Breakfast only, since every stop on this route has good places to eat and fixed dinners would just limit you.
Yes, and it saves the last transfer. Useful if you are flying out of Fes or continuing south afterwards.
Most Morocco itineraries treat the north as a corridor on the way to the desert. This one treats it as the destination, which is why nothing here is rushed and no day is spent mainly in the car.
It is also the easiest trip to combine with Spain: in and out of Tangier by ferry, five days, no internal flights.
