Africa · Morocco

Morocco

Marrakesh, Fez, blue Chefchaouen and two nights in a Sahara camp. Ten days, group of no more than 14.

Morocco is the tour people either fall in love with or decide was enough for one lifetime. It is loud, intense, and in the souks somebody will talk to you every twenty metres. It is manageable once you know what is coming, and that is exactly what the guide is for.

We start in Marrakesh, two days. Djemaa el-Fna square turns into a market, a kitchen and a theatre at once after dark. We take you to stalls 14 and 32, where the local family we work with eats, not to the ones with English menus. Then we cross the Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass to Ait Benhaddou, the mud-brick kasbah used in Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

The Sahara is two nights. We ride camels into the Erg Chebbi dunes an hour before sunset and sleep in a Berber camp with real beds and a shower. Nights in the desert drop to 8 °C even in April, which catches everyone out. In the morning we climb a dune for sunrise. From there it is the Todra gorge and Fez, home to the world's oldest working university and tanneries that have not changed their method since the 11th century — and you can smell it. We finish in blue Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains. The group is capped at 14 and we travel by minibus with Hassan, a Moroccan driver who has worked with us since 2018. We sleep in riads, traditional courtyard houses that stay ten degrees cooler than the street even at the height of summer. Breakfast is included; other meals are on you and cost three to five euros.

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