Casablanca Trip Overview
This 6-day tour starts from Casablanca and ends in Marrakech visiting the cultural capitol Fes and its historically rich landmarks, and Merzouga desert. Enjoy camel ride during the sunset crossing the sand dunes, desert excursion and an unforgettable night in a Berber desert camp and live Berber music. You tour ends when we drop you off at your accommodation in Marrakech.
Additional Info
* Duration: 6 days
* Starts: Casablanca, Morocco
* Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
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What to Expect When Visiting Casablanca, Casablanca-Settat, Morocco
This 6-day tour starts from Casablanca and ends in Marrakech visiting the cultural capitol Fes and its historically rich landmarks, and Merzouga desert. Enjoy camel ride during the sunset crossing the sand dunes, desert excursion and an unforgettable night in a Berber desert camp and live Berber music. You tour ends when we drop you off at your accommodation in Marrakech.
Itinerary
Day 1: Casablanca – Fes
Pass By: Fes, Fes, Fes-Meknes
Pickup from Casablanca airport, and transfer to Fes via the highway. Overnight stay in Fes.
No meals included on this day.
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Fes: Riad Ahlam or similar
Day 2: Fes sightseeing
Pass By: Fes, Fes, Fes-Meknes
Following breakfast at the hotel, our accredited local guide will accompany you on a walking tour of Fes to learn more about our culture and history. We visit rich historical landmarks like The royal palace, The Jewish quarter, Borj Nord, Madrasa Bou Inania, Chaouwara Tanneries, and much more
Stop At: Royal Palace of Fez, Avenue Omar Ibnou Khattab, Fes 30004 Morocco
The entrance to the palace is stunning, an example of modern restoration, but the 80 hectares of palace grounds are not open to the public. We must suffice with viewing its imposing brass doors, surrounded by fine zellij and carved cedarwood.
After breakfast, a licensed guide takes you on a journey to visit Fes starting with the royale palace. The entrance to the palace is stunning, an example of modern restoration, but the 80 hectares of palace grounds are not open to the public. We must suffice with viewing its imposing brass doors, surrounded by fine zellij and carved cedarwood.
We walk through the Jewish quarter (Mellah). In the 14th century, Fes became a refuge for Jews, thus creating a Mellah (Jewish quarter). Their old houses remain, with their open balconies looking onto the streets a marked contrast to Muslim styles.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Borj Nord, Avenue des Merinides, Fes 30030 Morocco
We head up here for one of the best panoramas of the city. Like its counterpart on the southern hills (Borj Sud). Borj Nord was built by Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour in the late 16th century to monitor the potentially disloyal populace of Fes.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Bou Inania Medersa, Rue Talaa Sghira, Fes 30110 Morocco
It is the finest of Fes theological colleges. It was built by the Marinid sultan Bouinan between 1350 & 1357. The madrasa underwent extensive restoration a few years ago, and the results are amazing: elaborate zellij and carved plaster, beautiful cedar, and massive brass doors.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Chouara Tannery, Hay Lablida Chouara, Fes 30030 Morocco
One of the three tanneries in the city of Fez, Morocco. It is the largest tannery in the city and one of the oldest. The tanning industry in the city is considered one of the main tourist attractions. The tanneries are packed with round stone vessels filled with dye or white liquids for softening the hides. The leather goods produced in the tanneries are exported around the world.
Duration: 20 minutes
Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Fes: Riad Ahlam or similar
Day 3: Fes – Ifran – Midelt – Errachidia – Erfoud – Merzouga
Pass By: Fes, Fes, Fes-Meknes
After breakfast, early departure to Merzouga desert through Ifran Midelt, Errachidia & Erfoud.
Stop At: Ifrane, Ifrane, Fes-Meknes
Tidy, & modern, it feels more like Switzerland relocated to the Middle Atlas than North Africa. the French-built Ifrane in the 1930s, deliberately trying to recreate an alpine-style resort. It has neat red-roofed houses, blooming flower beds, and lake-studded parks, all kept impeccably tidy.
Ifran’s famous landmark is the stone lion that sits on a patch of grass. It was carved by a German soldier during WWII when Ifrane was briefly as a prisoner-of-war camp and commemorates the last wild lion, which was shot near here in the early 1920s.
Duration: 15 minutes
Stop At: Azrou Cedar Forest, Azrou Morocco
The Cedar forests are notable as a habitat for a sub-population of Barbary macaques, we might be lucky to spot a troupe foraging in the woods
Duration: 10 minutes
Pass By: Midelt, Midelt, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Midelt sits in apple country between the Middle and the High Atlas. The landscape offers some breathtaking views, especially of the eastern High Atlas, which seem to rise out of nowhere. Midelt consists of little more than one main street (Ave Mohammed V in the north, which becomes Ave Hassan II to the south), and a modest souq
Pass By: Errachidia, Errachidia, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Garrison towns are not generally known for their hospitality or culture, but Errachidia is trying to change that with the hospitality of its people. Besides Errachidia is home to a sizable military population stationed here to keep an eye on the nearby border with Algeria, it is also home to the enormous theatre that hosts performers from throughout the Sahara at the festival du Desert.
Pass By: Fossiles d’Erfoud, Avenue Molay Ismail Erfoud, Erfoud 52200 Morocco
Fossilized bathtubs and moist, sweet dates are Erfoud’s current claims to fame, though it was once the end of the road. In September or October Erfoud has an increasingly well-attended date festival, with dancing and music. The market at the southern end of town sells local dates alongside fresh produce.
Stop At: Merzouga, Merzouga, Draa-Tafilalet
Once among the dunes, you will be welcomed into a charming Kasbah where you will be able to relax beside the swimming pool and enjoy the tunes of a desert blues band well into the evening.
Duration: 10 hours
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Merzouga: Hotel Takoujt or similar
Day 4: Desert Culture + Tea with Nomads + Camel Trek
Stop At: Erg Chebbi, Erg Chebbi, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Watching the sunrise amongst the dunes is a magical experience, and not to be missed. Your breakfast will be waiting for you upon your return, after which you will have the opportunity to visit the nomadic communities around Merzouga, stopping for tea in the souks, and enjoying the traditional Gnawa music. As the mid-day sun wanes, we will mount our camels and trek into the pink sands of the Moroccan Sahara; here, we will have ample free time for you to explore and take in the beauty and vastness of the desert dunes. Once the sun sets, a Moroccan dinner will be served alongside live music around the campfire, after which you are free to explore again – this time in the company of a million stars exploding against the pitch-black sky, and the all-encompassing silence of the Sahara at night.
Duration: 10 hours
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Tiziri luxurious desert camp
Day 5: From Merzouga to Skoura via Tinejdad, Todgha gorge, Boumalne Dades
Pass By: Tinejdad, Tinejdad, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Early wake up to watch the magical colors before it. Breakfast, then traveling to Skoura via Tinjdad, Tinghir & Bouamlne Dades.
Back when caravans arrived loaded with gold and dazed after months of Sahara sun, they were understandably skittish – but Tinjdad (Nomad in the Berber language) put them at ease. Five Berber and Saharan tribes crossed paths at this hitching post, quenching thirsts at the Sources of Lalla Mimouna.
We visit also Musée de oasis
Stop At: Musee des Oasis, Ksar Elkhorbat, Tinejdad, Morocco
A fascinating museum that traces movements of tribes through artefacts of seminomadic life: saddles worn shiny; contracts inscribed on wooden tablets in Hebrew and Arabic, Tinejdad jars for water and preserved butter; Heavy silver jewellery; and to protect it all from would-be thieves, inlaid muskets and handcuffs.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Todgha Gorge, R 703 near the town of Tinerhir, Tinerhir 45520 Morocco
Being stuck between a rock and a hard place is a sublime experience in the Todra Gorge, where the massive fault dividing the High Atlas from the Saghro mountain is at some points just wide enough for a crystal-clear river and single-file trekkers to squeeze through. The road from Tinghir passes green Palmeras and Berber villages until, 15km long, high walls of pink and Grey rock close in around the road. The approach is thrilling and somehow urgent, as though the doors of heaven were about to close before you.
Duration: 20 minutes
Pass By: Boumalne Dades, Boumalne Dades, Souss-Massa
Nomads crossings, rose valleys and two-tone kasbahs: even on paper, the Dades valley stretches the imagination. From the daunting High Atlas to the north to the rugged Jebel Saghro range south, the valley is dotted with oases and mudbrick palaces that give the region its fairytale nickname – Valley of a thousand kasbahs.
Stop At: Kasbah Amridil, Ouled Bourasse, Skoura Ahl El Oust 45502 Morocco
Morocco’s most coveted kasbah is this 17th-century wonder, which appears on Morocco’s 50-Dirham note. Signposted just a few hundred meters from the main road, this living museum shows that traditional kasbah life hasn’t changed much over the centuries, with hand-carved door locks, an olive-oil press, still-functioning bread ovens, and goats bleating in the courtyard.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Skoura, Skoura, Beni Mellal-Khenifra
By the time caravans laden with gold and spice reached Skoura, the camels must have been gasping. After a two- month journey across the Sahara, Blue-robed Tuareg desert traders offloaded cargo from caravans in Skoura, where middle Atlas mountaineers packed it onto mules headed to Fez. Ouarzazate is now the region’s commercial centre, but Skoua’s historic mudbrick castles remain, and desert traders throng Monday & Thursday souqs brimming with intensely flavourful desert produce. When market days are over and palm-tree shadows stretch across the road, no one seems in hurry to leave. Elsewhere, life goes on as usual – but in Skoura, it remains a wonder.
Overnight stay in Skoura
Duration: 10 hours
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at L’ma Lodge or similar
Day 6: From Skoura to Marrakech via Ouarzazate & Ait Benhaddou kasbah
Pass By: Ouarzazate, Ouarzazate, Draa-Tafilalet
After breakfast, we drive to Marrakech via Ouarzazate.
Strategically located and has gotten by largely on its wits instead of its looks. For centuries, people from Atlas, Draa & Dades valley converged to do business at Ouarzazate’s sprawling Taourirt kasbah, and a modern garrison town was established here in the 1920s to oversee France’s colonial interests. The movie business gradually took off in Ouarzazate after the French protectorate left in the 1950s, and ‘Ouallywood’ movie studios have built quite a résumé providing convincingly exotic backdrops for movies supposedly set in ancient Rome, Somalia, and Egypt.
Stop At: Taourirt Kasbah, Avenue Mohammed V, Ouarzazate 45000 Morocco
Unlike other Glaoui kasbahs, Taourirt escaped ruin by moonlighting, as a Hollywood backdrop and attracting the attention of Unesco which was carefully restored small sections of the Glaoui inner sanctum.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Cinema Studio Atlas, Km 5, BP 28 Route de Marrakech, Ouarzazate 45000, Morocco
The first ‘Oullywood’ studio displays sets and props from movies filmed here, including Jewel of the Nile, Kingdom of Heaven and Kundun.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Ait Ben Haddou, Ait Ben Haddou, Souss-Massa
The Unesco protected kasbah seems suspiciously frozen in time: with Hollywood touch-ups, it still resembles its days in the 11th century as an Almoravid caravanserai. Movie buffs recognize this red mudbrick kasbah 32km from Ouarzazate from Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth (for which much of Ait Benhaddou was rebuilt), Jewel of the Nile and Gladiator.
Duration: 30 minutes
Pass By: Marrakech, Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi
The drive continues via Tishka pass, reaching an altitude of 2260m.
The tour ends in Marrakech by drop off at your accommodation
Meals included:
• Breakfast
No accommodation included on this day.
