The 6 Days Morocco Tour from Tangier is the five-day crossing with the one thing it lacks: a full day in Fes. The medina is the largest car-free urban area in the world and the oldest continuously working one in the country, and an evening there is not enough.
Everything else stays: Tetouan and its Andalusian medina, a night in blue Chefchaouen, the Roman city of Volubilis, imperial Meknes, the Middle Atlas cedar forest, the Ziz palm groves, a camel trek into Erg Chebbi and a night in a Berber camp, then the gorge road west to Marrakech.
Six days also means the two long driving stages are no longer back to back.
Pickup at Tangier airport, at the ferry port or at your hotel, with a stop at Cape Spartel if the timing allows.
East along the Mediterranean to Tetouan, whose medina was built by refugees from Granada and is UNESCO-listed. It is small, walkable and much quieter than Fes.
The afternoon climbs into the Rif to Chefchaouen, arriving in time for the walk up to the Spanish mosque and the view over the blue rooftops at sunset.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Chefchaouen
A morning in the blue medina, which is steep, compact and easy to walk without a map. Ras el Maa, the spring at the top of the town, is a short climb.
The road drops out of the Rif to Volubilis, where the mosaic floors, the basilica and the triumphal arch of the Roman city stand in farmland below Moulay Idriss.
A stop in Meknes for the Bab Mansour gate, the walls and the royal granaries, then the short drive to Fes.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Fes
A full day inside Fes el Bali, founded in the ninth century and still without cars.
The circuit covers the Bou Inania and Attarine madrasas with their carved cedar and zellij, the Nejjarine fountain and its woodwork museum, the Al Quaraouiyine mosque and library, and the Chouara tanneries, where hides are still worked in stone vats.
A licensed guide is recommended and can be arranged. The afternoon is free for the souks, the potters quarter, or the Merenid tombs above the city at sunset.
Accommodation: Riad or hotel in Fes
South across the Middle Atlas through Ifrane and the cedar forest near Azrou, where Barbary macaques gather by the road.
Lunch at Midelt on the high plateau, then the descent through the Tizi n Talghomt into the Ziz Valley and its long belt of date palms, with a viewpoint above the gorge.
Arrival at Merzouga in the late afternoon, then the camel ride into Erg Chebbi, reaching camp at sunset for dinner and drums under the tent.
Accommodation: Berber desert camp, Erg Chebbi
Sunrise from a dune crest, camel ride back, breakfast and a shower in Merzouga.
West with stops at Rissani and its covered market and at Erfoud for the fossil workshops.
The afternoon reaches Todra Gorge, where the canyon narrows to a few paces beneath walls of about 300 metres, and a walk on the valley floor is the best of the day. Short drive on to the Dades Valley for the night.
Accommodation: Hotel or guesthouse in the Dades Valley
The kasbah road west through El Kelaa des Mgouna and the Skoura palm oasis, with Kasbah Amerhidil among the trees.
Ouarzazate for lunch and the Taourirt Kasbah, then Ait Ben Haddou, where the climb through the ksar ends at the granary with a view over the whole valley.
Over the High Atlas by the Tizi n Tichka pass, with viewpoints on the descent into Marrakech. Arrival in the evening.
A full day in the Fes medina, and it separates the two longest driving stages so they no longer fall on consecutive days.
Not required, but recommended. The medina has thousands of lanes with no vehicle access, and a licensed guide costs little for a half or full day.
Yes. A transfer or flight back to Tangier can be added if you need to return north.
Yes, pickup at Tanger Med or the city port is standard. Give us your sailing time and we will meet the boat.
Yes, that is the seven-day version: a second night at Merzouga with nomad camps, the black desert and Gnaoua music at Khamlia.
Breakfast daily, plus dinner at the desert camp and in the Dades Valley. City dinners are left open.
Six days is the shortest Tangier crossing that gives Fes the day it deserves and still reaches the dunes. Below that, the medina becomes an evening walk between two long drives.
Private vehicle and driver throughout, one-way logistics handled, and a finish in Marrakech rather than a return north.
