Itinerary

1. Day 1 : Tangier Arrival

   • If you arrive by plane or ferry, our shuttle, with a card by your name, will wait for you to drive you to your hotel.

2. Day 2 : Tangier City Tour

   • We start this tour from the gateway of Europe to Africa, Tangier, named for the goddess Tinge and the lover of Hercules, who mythically pulled Europe apart from Africa to form the Strait of Gibraltar. A dramatic drive takes you through La Montagne over a pine-covered headland to the Cap Spartel Lighthouse just 14km west of Tangier. 5km further, you’ll get to Grottes d’Hercule, where you’ll have a much-photographed view from within the mythical dwelling cave of Hercules that resembles a map of Africa. Back to the Medina, where you’ll spend a few hours Meandering down the alleyways within its 15th-century Portuguese fortress walls to visit the Kasbah Museum of Mediterranean Culture. Wander up to St Andrew’s Church for a spot of gravestone reading, then take in the latest art exhibition at the Center Cultural Ibn Khaldoun.

3. Day 3 : Tangier – Chefchaouen – Fes

   • Leaving the famously decadent Tangier with its Europe-facing Medina and heading into the Rif Mountains. European influence continues in Chefchaouen with its bright blue, Andalusian-tiled medina, with its grand red-hued Kasbah lording it over the Main square of Outa Hmam. Chefchaouen is a city that perched beneath the raw peaks of the Rif Mountains. The « Blue Town » has a mystical blue-washed Medina, the prettiest and the smallest compared to others in the country. The town remained isolated with the Andalusian character architecture. Chaouen is undoubtedly a place to enjoy exploring at random. In the afternoon, you head to the Imperial city of Fes, quintessentially Moroccan in its ancient Medina.

4. Day 4 : Fes Walk and talk guided Medina tour

   • Do not panic. The guide will show you the must-see sites! With your private Fes born and bred guide, you will have the opportunity to discover the ancient breeding ground for scholars and artisans and the largest medina in the world. You will see the America Fondouk, Nejjarines, the Tanneries, the Medersa (Theological college) and Karaouine, the first established university in the world. Your guide will shed light on many tales and 1200 years of history of this UNESCO-protected Medina. When you finish visiting the medina, we will drive you out of Fes to have delicious house-made food in Lalla Fatiha’s place in Sefrou.

5. Day 5 : Fes – Meknes – Rabat – Casablanca

   • We leave the amazing Medina of Fes with its mysteries and secrets of the 9000 alleyways and head west to Casablanca. We stop over first for the imperial city of Meknes; we start discovering it from the famed gate Bab El Mansour, Dar Jamai Palace and Museum, the royal stables, Hedim Square and Moulay Ismail tomb, through the narrow lanes to the Mellah, where the Jewish families used to live. After Meknes, Rabat the administrative capital will be waiting for you, salute the soldier-knights riding horses in front of the gate to the monumental Hassan tower with the pillared stumps of its mosque being all that remains from the earthquake of 1755. There is also the nearby Mausoleum of the royal family. 
   • After a one-hour drive (if time allows), take the highway to Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital. You might like to figure out some of its sights: the architectural masterpiece Hassan II Mosque, completed in the 90s, overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and has a retractable roof to let in sunlight. It is one of the few mosques that non-Muslims are accorded the rare opportunity to enter.

6. Day 6 : Casablanca – Eljadida – Safi – Essaouira

   • Around 8 am, you’ll head southwest of Casablanca to the 15-century Portuguese fortified city of Mazagan, known now as El-Jadida, nicknamed « the Deauville of Morocco » Its Portuguese structures, fortified ramparts, and a system of defence surrounding the Medina advances out into the sea, all evoke the city’s past history. (Listed as World Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO), an ancient coastal town with impressive testimony of Portuguese architecture. When you leave El-Jadida your road takes you to Safi, the Sardines and Pottery town, most of its old medina was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century. From Safi to the most laid-back beach city in Morocco. Essaouira is more than just a town is a muse, it’s Jimi Hendrix inspiration site, a source of undying inspiration.

7. Day 7 : Essaouira Medina Tour

   • Today, you’ll have much time to explore Jimi Hendrix’s town; after breakfast, you’re free to roam in the city that was once and still a haven for hippie backpackers and Gnawa musicians. You can book a local guide, if not you can start your visit by the ramparts a series of forts built in the 15th century around the Medina of Mogador. Inside the Medina, you’ll have the chance to visit The Mellah (former Jewish quarter), Morocco’s 3rd fishing port, where you can have a delicious fish meal. For sports-oriented travellers, Essaouira is a place for fine wind and kitesurfing schools.

8. Day 8 : Essaouira – Agadir – Tiznit – Sidi Ifni

   • An early morning start is recommended for this day. Set your compass south through the Atlantic Ocean with its good white beaches. You stop for the visit of Agadir, the city that was completely rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in 1960, with its busy port and beach resort sprawling beneath its Kasbah. Later on, you continue to join the rich and lush lands. The Birds National Reserve Park of Souss-Massa. Mirleft is still a nice little place to hole up for a cup of mint tea. You continue onward to the most romantic Art Deco military town ever built on a top site. A real Santa Cruz del Mar Pequeno, « Holy Cross of the Small Sea », was built in 1930.

9. Day 9 : Sidi Ifni – Tafraoute

   • From Sidi Ifni, you head to a village nestled in the gorgeous Ameln Valley and locked in muscular, red-granite mountains and some rock carvings. Tafrouate, the stoned-built village with around five thousand hardy souls, is still one of the must-see relaxed destinations in the country of the red and green flag. It is worth a walk around to see curious rock formations such as Napoleon’s Hat or the Pierres Pients, Painted blue and pink by a Belgian artist.

10. Day 10 : Tafrouate – Akka/Tata

    • Leave the village that is surrounded by a wind-eroded, jagged panorama of red-granite tors and craggy brown cliffs and rocks through a flyblown roadside town abutted named Akka or oasis « dates », in Berber Language where, are much in evidence. Arrive at Oum El Alek, where there are more rock carvings. Then to Tata, which roughly means « take a break » in the Berber Language, to take a break to recall those days of Saharan caravans, as do the turban-wrapped men sipping tea in the shade. You’ll explore the Palmeraie and its orderly array of pink-coloured buildings.

11. Day 11 : Tata – Erg Chigaga Desert

    • In the morning, you should be prepared to leave the small garrison town, which is pretty far from anywhere, and from whichever direction you’re arriving, head into the largest sand sea in Morocco. To Erg Chigaga, through rough roads, you’ll encounter a splendid stretch of towering dunes and golden sand sea. In the middle of the desert, you’ll surely choose to drift off to sleep while watching the twinkling stars after dinner.

12. Day 12 : Erg Chigaga Desert Roam

    • The best way to live a nomadic life, explore the desert, and hear its windy whispers is by riding a camel. So, today, you will have a chance to fully experience a real desert with your camel guide and discover the desert's fauna, flora and history. Lunch will be served in the middle of nowhere in the 300-meter-high dunes.

13. Day 13 : Erg Chigaga Desert – M’hamid El-Ghizlane – Todgha Gorges

    • Wake by dawn to watch the sun start its daily arc with a cool blue morning sky as it replaces the Sahara shadows before becoming a glowing ball of fire. You exit Erg Chigaga and head north to see Todgha gorges by daylight, with its gigantic rock walls changing colour to magical effects as the day unfolds. But before getting there, we’ll stop in an unusual place that was once the most important settlement in the Valley of Draa with its green pottery. The Zawiya Naciria is still a site of pilgrimage and refuge for the mentally ill, and it is a working Quranic school with a library that was once the richest in Morocco of ancient illuminated texts containing 4000 books.

14. Day 14 : Todgha Gorges – Imilchil – Bin Elouidane

    • Today, we’re going to jump off for Imilchil and across the Middle Atlas Berber Villages, a dizzying trip that eventually wends its way through the Boutfarda and Taglaft to Bin Elouidane Dom, which was one of the earliest and most ambitious of Morocco’s irrigation schemes and has changed much of the lands hereabouts. Recently, many hotels have cropped up on the lake’s shores, offering a scenic chance to get away and relax beside the deep-blue waters.

15. Day 15 : Bin Elouidane – Ouzoud Waterfalls – Marrakech

    • This morning, with no rush, we head South of Bin Elouidane, around 167km from Marrakech, to the most spectacular Cascades d’Ouzoud with their amphitheatre of waterfalls falling into the pools in a lush valley that remains invisible till the last moment. The view only gets better as you walk down into the canyon's cool, and in the late afternoon, an arching rainbow appears in the mist around the falls. At the bottom, and for a memorable short enjoyable hike you can walk further along the riverbed, Barbary Apes clamor for attention, To reach the picturesque and fascinating Tanaghemlt, a Berber village connected by semi-undergrounding passages. For longer treks, follow the course of the river valley to the Gramâa Nakrouine caves.

16. Day 16 : Marrakech Walk and Talk Medina Guided Tour

    • Today, with your private Marrakech-born and bred guide, you explore the Red City from its old part with its Medina’s skinny lanes that lead to lavish sites, tombs and religious monuments decked out in marble. Bahia and El-Badii Palace and Saadien’s Tombs will be your targets. Afterwards, your driver/Tour Guide will pick you up for the outside medina visit to explore the Majorelle garden, Museum Saint Laurent, and Berber Museum. While in Marrakech, you will surely encounter thousands of motorcyclists and horse-carts roaming in the city, and some of them pull over next to the vast square of Jemaa El-Fnaa where it’s carnival night every night, and musicians, acrobats, storytellers and slapstick acting troupes tap into the Medina frenetic pulse.

17. Day 17 : Marrakech departure

    • Airport Shuttle
    • ­Our Morocco Cultural Tour ends today, and we hope you had a good time with us. Please note that your driver will pick you up at the airport three hours before your departure.