Cassablanca
Our tour starts in Casablanca, a white Moorish-style Atlantic port city and commercial hub in western Morocco, fronting the Atlantic Ocean. The city’s French colonial legacy can be seen in its downtown Mauresque architecture, a blend of Moorish style and European art deco. Standing partly over the water, the city’s most famous Hassan II Mosque has a 210m minaret topped with lasers directed toward Mecca. Time-dependent, an optional public tour of the magnificent Hassan II Mosque is highly recommended!
Chefchaouen
We will lose ourselves in the “50 shades of blue” Chefchaouen, commonly known as the Blue Pearl of Morocco, a small city in the Rif Mountains of northwest Morocco, well known for its overwhelmingly striking, powder blue buildings of the old medina. Leather and weaving workshops line its steep cobbled lanes. The red-walled Kasbah, a 15th-century fortress and dungeon dominates the shady main square of Place Outa el Hammam with its many colourful restaurants and little shops. There will be plenty of free time to explore and experience this blue-blue medina to the fullest and even to hike up the mountain to the old Spanish Mosque.
Fez
We will make our way to Fes, an ancient north-eastern Moroccan imperial city often referred to as the country’s cultural capital. It’s primarily known for its Fes El Bali walled medina (UNESCO World Heritage site), with medieval Marinid architecture, vibrant souks, leather tanneries and old-world atmosphere. The medina is home to religious schools such as the 14th-century Bou Inania and Al Attarine, both decorated with elaborate cedar carvings and ornate zellige tile work. After our locally guided tour of a ceramic factory, tanneries, leather and textile shops we will have free time to hit the souqs for some serious Fes shopping!
Merzouga
We depart on the road to Merzouga, a small Moroccan town in the Sahara Desert near the Algerian border. It’s known as the Gateway to Erg Chebbi, a huge expanse of the most magnificent orange sand dunes up to 300m high. Here, soaring peaks of sand change colour from pink to dark orange with the shifting light of dawn and dusk. Your reward for a long day’s drive will be a 1.5-hour sunset camel safari into the stunning orange dunes of the world’s largest desert, the Sahara. The quietude and vastness are unbelievable, the night sky so clear and crisp and alive with the flickering of the stunning silver Milky Way, it feels as if you can touch it…There will be more than adequate time at sunset to take stunning photos from a high dune, ensuring lasting memories of a lifetime!
Ksar Aït Ben Haddou
We travel back in time to Ksar Aït Ben Haddou, (UNESCO world heritage site), a 17th-century clay ighrem along the former caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech in present-day Morocco. Most citizens attracted by the tourist trade live in more modern dwellings in a village on the other side of the river, although there are four families still living inside the ancient ksar. We will have free time the following morning after breakfast to explore this ancient and crumbling ksar and the many interesting small shops inside.
Marrakech
Then there are the wonders of Marrakech…, world-famous red imperial city in western Morocco and home to Mosques, Palaces and magnificent gardens. The famous medina is a densely packed, walled medieval city dating to the Berber Empire, with maze-like alleys where thriving souks sell traditional textiles, pottery, leather, jewellery and so much more. A great symbol of the city, visible for miles and the highest building in Marrakech, is the massive Moorish minaret of the 12th-century Koutoubia Mosque, guarding the entrance to the equally famous, noisy and chaotic Jemaa el Fna square. In Marrakech, we will orientate ourselves and then hit the souqs for serious Kech haggling and shopping