The Best of Morocco

Arrive at Casablanca airport, the economic capital of Morocco and its largest city. Warm reception by your English speaking driver/guide, then transfer to the hotel. Check in at your hotel to relax. Enjoy the rest of the day at leisure. Optional dinner. Overnight in Casablanca.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy the city tour of Casablanca. Begin with an inside visit of Hassan II mosque, the largest mosque in the country and one of the largest mosques in the world. Continue to Ain Diab Corniche for a pleasant stroll along the coast. Your next stop is Mohammed V Square. Transfer to Rabat, the capital of Morocco and one of the country’s imperial cities. Enjoy the city tour of Rabat. Visit the Kasbah of the Oudayas. This Kasbah was constructed during the realm of the Almohads dynasty (12th century). Stop next at Mohammed V Mausoleum, which is home to the tombs of the current king’s father and grandfather. Your last stop in Rabat is Hassan Tower, which is a minaret built in 1195. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Transfer to Tangier, Morocco’s main gate to Europe. Optional dinner. Overnight in Tangier.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy the city tour of Tangier. Stop first at the old town, locally called “The medina”. Visit the American legation, Dar El Oued Makhazen Kasbah, the Mendoubia Gardens, and the Grand and Petit Socco. Transfer to Cape Spartel after that, the meeting point of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Spartel was known to the Greeks and Romans as the “Cape of the Vines”. Visit the Cave of Hercules, which is Africa’s most north-westerly promontory with a strange sea window shaped like a map of Africa. Transfer to Chefchaouen, the “Blue City” and one of the most majestic places to visit in Morocco. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Enjoy the city tour of Chefchaouen. Start your tour with the kasbah of Chefchaouen. This kasbah belongs to the early 18th century, and was built by the legendary ruler Moulay Ismail (1645 – 1727). Stop next at Plaza Uta el-Hammam, which is the cobbled main square in town and where the striking 15th century Grand Mosque sits. Optional dinner. Overnight in Chefchaouen.

Breakfast in the hotel. Transfer to the UNESCO-sponsored Roman ruins in Volubilis, a Berber and Roman city partly excavated by the UNESCO. Volubilis was considered as the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania. The city was developed from the 3rd century BC onward as an Amazigh, then proto-Carthaginian, and from from the 1st century AD onward, the city grew rapidly under the Roman rule. Continue to Meknes, the “Moroccan Versailles” and one of the oldest cities in the kingdom. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Enjoy the city tour of Meknes. The city was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail (1672–1727), a contemporary of Louis XIV. Stop at the massive Bab El Mansour gate, which is the grandest of all imperial Moroccan gateways. Stop next at Hri Souani, which is a complex of three different buildings built for granaries and stables. This amazing site has been used as a scene for many films, the most famous of which is probably “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988 by Martin Scorsese. Late in the afternoon, transfer to Fes, the spiritual capital of Morocco. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Fes.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy the guided city tour of Fes. Begin with the entrance to the largest royal palace in Morocco. Continue with a panoramic view of the ancient medina. Enjoy an authentic experience at the traditional ceramic crafts village of Fes after that. Your next stop is Fes El Bali, the ancient town or Medina, which is a medieval part of Fes that has not changed for centuries. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Visit the famous Al-Karaouine mosque, built by Fatima Al Fihria in 857. Al-Karaouine mosque became home to the University of Al-Karaouine, which is the first university in the world and the world’s foremost center of learning at the beginning of the second millennium. The university was built by Fatima Al Fihria in 859, and, since then, it has become one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world. In the medina, visit also a Merdersa, which is a Coranic school. Complete the city tour of Fes with the leather Souq and the oldest Leather Tannery in the world. The tannery dates back at least nine centuries. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Fes.

Breakfast in the hotel. Transfer to the Sahara desert. The journey takes you through the Middle Atlas Mountains. Stop first in Ifrane, a charming town and ski resort. Ifrane is famous for its Alpine climate, European-style houses and its 1665 metres (5,460 ft) in elevation. The town experiences snow during winter months and a cool climate during summer. Ifrane is also the place where the lowest temperature was ever recorded in Africa, -24 °C in 1935. While in Ifrane, expect to find animals like the threatened Barbary Macaque and local tree species such as the native Atlas cedar, Scrub oak and the introduced London plane. Arrive at Midelt, a Berber town in the high plains between the Middle Atlas and the High Atlas mountains ranges. Midelt is one of Morocco’s principal cities for the mining of several minerals. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Transfer through many Amazigh (Berber) villages and along the Ziz valley to get to Erfoud. Transfer to Merzouga, which is the heart of the desert. Dinner in a charming Desert Camp by the dunes.Overnight in Merzoug

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy an optional 4×4 desert tour. The tour includes Al Khamlia village. Drive to Tinghir via Rissani and Tinjdad. Tinghir is a gorgeous 40km oasis, which boasts one of the largest palm groves in the country. Stop at the famous Todra Gorge, a 300m wall, carved deep into the High Atlas Mountains. Thanks to its robust rock sides with many uneven surfaces, Todra Gorge is popular among rock climbers. More than 150 routes rated French Grade 5+ to 8 have been bolted in the canyon. Todra Gorge was featured on the premiere of the United States reality show Expedition Impossible. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Leave Tinghir heading to Dades. The drive is spectacular, winding through stunning desert landscapes, villages with the expansive Jebel Sarhro lunar-scape. Dades is known as valley of figs. Dades valley featured prominently in a 2012 advertisement for the Cadillac CTS. Dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Dades

Breakfast in the hotel. Transfer to Ouarzazate. The drive is spectacular, with hundreds of Kasbahs lining the route. Stop first at Kelaat M’Gouna, a big town which is famous for cultivating roses. Expect to find many fine, rose-infused products there. Arrive at Ouarzazate, also known as “Morocco’s Hollywood”. Visit Taourirt Kasbah, which is considered one of the most beautiful kasbahs in Morocco. Next, visit the film studios where some of the most famous desert landscapes were and are still being shot. Leave Ouarzazate to the spectacular fortress of Ait Ben Haddou. The village is a great example of earthen clay architecture that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Ait Ben Haddou is an iconic landscape immortalized in such films as “The Man Who Would Be King (film) (1975)”, “Jesus of Nazareth (1977)”, “The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)”, “Gladiator (2000)”, “Son of God (film) (2014)”, ect. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Transfer to Marrakech crossing the High Atlas Mountains. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Marrakech.

Breakfast in the hotel. Transfer to Ouarzazate. The drive is spectacular, with hundreds of Kasbahs lining the route. Stop first at Kelaat M’Gouna, a big town which is famous for cultivating roses. Expect to find many fine, rose-infused products there. Arrive at Ouarzazate, also known as “Morocco’s Hollywood”. Visit Taourirt Kasbah, which is considered one of the most beautiful kasbahs in Morocco. Next, visit the film studios where some of the most famous desert landscapes were and are still being shot. Leave Ouarzazate to the spectacular fortress of Ait Ben Haddou. The village is a great example of earthen clay architecture that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Ait Ben Haddou is an iconic landscape immortalized in such films as “The Man Who Would Be King (film) (1975)”, “Jesus of Nazareth (1977)”, “The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)”, “Gladiator (2000)”, “Son of God (film) (2014)”, ect. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Transfer to Marrakech crossing the High Atlas Mountains. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Marrakech.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy a guided city tour of Marrakech, “Paris of the Sahara” as Winston Churchill once described it. Stop first at the Koutoubia Mosque, which is an old monument built under the reign of the Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur (1184 to 1199). This monument inspired other buildings such as the Giralda in Seville in Spain and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. Stop next at the Bahia Palace. This Palace was built in the late 19th century and was intended to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan style. Visit Madrasa Ben Youssef after that. This Coranic school is named after the Almoravid Sultan Ali Ibn Yusuf (reigned 1106–1142). Madrasa Ben Youssef is the largest in all of Morocco. Stop next at the Saadian tombs, which is a site that dates back to the time of the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603). The tombs were discovered in 1917 and were restored by the Beaux-arts service. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Continue the tour with the world famous Jema El Fna Square where you will enjoy amazing performance of traditional activities by storytellers, snake charmers, peddlers of traditional medicines. Your last stop is the bustling souks in the old medina. Optional dinner. Overnight in Marrakech.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy a full day trip to Essaouira, which is another charming town in Morocco. Essaouira is a relatively small, easily navigable beach city. Essaouira has got a distinct multicultural feel, resulting from the large Portuguese, French, and Jewish populations that once called it home. Its mild climate and expansive stretches of ocean sand also place it among Morocco’s top beach towns. Essaouira’s walled medina was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2001. Its well-preserved, late-18th-century fortified layout is a prime example of European military architecture in North Africa. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Afternoon at leisure to enjoy Essaouira’s mellow atmosphere, narrow winding streets lined with colourful shops, whitewashed houses and heavy old wooden doors. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. late in the afternoon transfer back to Marrakech. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Marrakech.

Breakfast in the hotel. Enjoy most of the day at leisure in Marrakech. Optional lunch at a local restaurant. Late in the afternoon transfer to Casablanca. Optional dinner in the hotel. Overnight in Casablanca.

Breakfast in the hotel. Transfer to Casablanca airport for your departure flight.