9-Day Morocco Itinerary: A Journey Through Culture and Landscapes

Nov 09, 2025 0

Earlier this spring, I finally checked off a country that has been on my bucket list for years - Morocco. Located on the northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is fairly accessible from the States or from Europe (it’s right by Spain and Portugal). I spent 10 days in Morocco and traveled to 5 different spots across the country.

This 9-day Morocco itinerary offers a fast-paced highlights tour through the northern cities and desert region. It is a blend of city exploration, cultural immersion, and desert adventure, starting in Casablanca and ending in Marrakech.

The BEST Way to Spend 7 Days in Morocco (Travel Itinerary)

Essential Information for Traveling in Morocco

Before diving into the itinerary, here are some essential tips to help you prepare for your trip:

Currency: Morocco has its own national currency: the Moroccan dirham. For conversion, generally 10 dirham = 1 US Dollar.
Cash vs. Card: We mostly used cash - for shopping at the souks and for tipping our drivers/hotel staff. My debit card (I use Visa) was rejected at most of the ATMs on the street, but there are change bureaus in all of the cities as well.
Affordability: I found Morocco to be fairly affordable. We stayed at nice riads in both Fez and Marrakech that were priced at ~$200 USD per night (or less). Lunch was often under $5 USD for a meal with a drink.
Transportation: There is no Uber in Morocco. I took a taxi whenever I was traveling within a city. There are petit taxis and grand taxis (small and large). Before you get into the taxi, tell the driver where you want to go and ask how much it will cost. Rule of thumb is that a ~10 minute drive should cost ~50 dirhams ($5). Don’t get into the taxi if they tell you a number significantly higher than what makes sense.
Private Car Transfers: To travel between cities in Morocco, I booked private car transfers through this company. I used this car service to get from Tangier to Chefchaouen, and from Chefchaouen to Fez.
Language: The most popular languages in Morocco are Arabic and French, with English as a distant third.
Travel Companions: I visited Morocco with a friend. Especially if you’ve never been to Africa or the Middle East, I’d recommend traveling with someone to Morocco, whether it be a friend, family, or an organized travel group. Almost everyone I met in Morocco was friendly and helpful. However, Morocco is still is a country with a culture that’s very different from the United States or Europe.

Day 0: Arrival in Casablanca

To preface this relatively brief section of the post, I spent exactly 23 hours in Casablanca. We landed here at 9 in the morning after a direct flight from JFK and used our day in Casablanca to get our bearings and adjust to a new country.

Casablanca is the economic capital of Morocco, and you can feel it as you drive through the city - there are banks, skyscrapers, modern shopping centers, and similar attractions around every corner. One day in Casablanca was just enough to time to grab a few bites to eat, visit the Hassan II Mosque, and head to bed at a reasonable hour.

Read also: Exploring Morocco

Casablanca Highlights

Hassan II Mosque: All I really wanted to do in Casablanca was visit the Hassan II Mosque, which is the second largest mosque in Africa. After lunch, we walked along the ocean towards the mosque for a 3pm tour I had scheduled. This was a fairly short group tour, maybe 45 minutes, which was perfect for my level of attention.
Rick’s Cafe: For dinner, I made us a reservation at Rick’s Cafe, which is famous from the original Casablanca film. If you take anything away from this blog post, please know that this was without a doubt the worst restaurant I have ever eaten at. Spare yourself and eat somewhere else when in Casablanca.

Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca.

Day 2: Tangier and Chefchaouen

We had booked a 9am train to Tangier for the next morning. The high speed bullet train from Casablanca to Tangier was the only form of public transportation I took while in Morocco, and we organized it to make the drive between Casablanca and our next stop, Chefchaouen, more manageable.

I’m not dedicating a full section to Tangier because I spent less than an hour in the city before we started our drive to Chefchaouen; however, I would say that Tangier appeared to be a pleasant city, with fairly modern infrastructure and palm trees everywhere. We took a private car transfer (more on this later) from the train station in Tangier to Chefchaouen, which is where this itinerary will head to next.

I knew I wanted to go here the moment I first booked my flight to Morocco. Chefchaouen is a city in the mountains of Morocco between Tangier and Fez and the entire city is painted blue. Many people visit Chefchaouen as a day trip because the town is quite small, and I agree it didn’t take long to browse through the shops and appreciate the blue buildings.

Exploring Chefchaouen

There isn’t that much else to do in Chefchaouen besides stroll around and soak in all the blue, so that’s what we did. I also bought some ceramics and a few small paintings of the blue city. We woke up the next morning and our hotel set up breakfast for us on the roof, which was a gorgeous way to start the day.

Read also: Exploring Morocco

The blue city of Chefchaouen.

Tips for Chefchaouen

Altitude: Due to the higher altitude, Chefchaouen is a good bit colder than the rest of Morocco. In mid-May, I was pretty cold in all of the summery outfits I had brought (smiling through the cold, pictured above). Keep this in mind as you pack, and bring layers.
Stray Animals: Chefchaouen, similar to many places in the world outside of the United States, had a lot of stray animals. Mostly cats, some dogs.

Day 3: Fez

After our one night in Chefchaouen, we had arranged for another private car transfer through Daytrip, and then we were on our way to Fez (a 5 hour drive). Our two car transfers between Tangier/Chefchaouen, and between Chefchaouen/Fez, were both booked using Daytrip.

Fez was certainly the city where I learned the most. Traditional, filled with artisans and culture, Fez was a bustling hub of activity. We stayed at a riad in the medina (the old town) - while our accommodations themselves were truly stunning, the medina was a bit overwhelming.

The medina is a convoluted maze and it’s very easy to get lost (Google Maps doesn’t work well.) Also, the locals in Fez find it amusing to tell you that different streets or directions have dead ends, or are under construction. As nice as our riad was, I would have rather stayed outside the medina on my own where it wasn’t so easy to get lost, and used a guide when exploring the old town.

Exploring the Fez Medina

I would definitely recommend getting a guide to show you around Fez (more so than in any of the other cities mentioned on this trip). In advance of my visit to Fez, I booked this tour, because I was most interested in seeing the tanneries and the Bou Inania Madrasa. I followed my guide everywhere in Fez.

Navigating the maze-like streets of Fez Medina.

Fez Highlights

Artisanal Craftsmanship: Our guide took us through many of the different sections of the Fez medina. We saw food markets, textiles, furniture, carpets, silk weavers, metalworks, and all other manners of artisanal craftsmanship.
Tanneries: The tanneries were very cool, very authentic, and very smelly. I’ve also seen a lot of influencers posing in front of the tanneries…I love a good photo, but in my opinion, this is not the place. The tannery workers were working nonstop and sweating profusely as they dyed the different animal pelts (camel, goat, cow). My guide said that the tannery workers have the hardest job in the country. It felt like a traditional and preserved aspect of Moroccan culture that was amazing to see, but not appropriate to turn into an Instagram background.
Madrasas: Madrasas are universities and they all have beautiful mosaic work and intricate detailing around the courtyard. There are beautiful madrasas in Fez, Marrakech, and likely several other Moroccan cities as well.

Dining in Fez

While in Fez, we ate at the Ruined Garden in Riad Idrissy for lunch (a garden restaurant in the medina), and at Palais Faraj for dinner (an upscale hotel right outside the medina). Palais Faraj in particular had amazing food and decor and would probably have been an excellent hotel for my time in Fez.

I thought Fez was cool and authentic, but there were definitely a few nerve-wracking moments alone in the medina when we were lost amongst the maze-like streets. We were relieved every time we returned home to the calming presence of our riad.

Day 5-7: Sahara Desert Experience

What was absolutely fantastic about Morocco was visiting the Sahara desert. I’ve been to desert landscapes before (Wadi Rum in Jordan) but this experience was beyond cool. There are a lot of luxury desert experiences to choose from in the Sahara (and there are also many options in the Agafay desert, which is located much closer to Marrakech).

We chose to stay two nights at the (aptly named) Desert Luxury Camp, which is located in the vicinity of Merzouga. For the all-in price of about $600 USD, we spent two nights in the desert, in beautiful accommodations, eating excellent food.

Endless sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

Sahara vs. Agafay

I spent a lot of time researching whether to visit the Sahara Desert or the Agafay desert. It seems that people enjoy both. If you have the time, definitely opt for the Sahara, because it was so cool to be alone amongst the sand dunes. If you are crunched for time, the Agafay is a great alternative, but the landscape there consists of stone, not sand dunes.

Activities in the Sahara

ATV Riding: On the way to the camp, our driver asked if we would like to make a stop to go ATV-ing across the desert (it wasn’t included in our camp package). I loved this experience - I’ve never been on an ATV before, and riding one alone across the vast expanse of the Sahara sand dunes was honestly epic.
Camel Ride: I also enjoyed a private camel ride with a local guide for three hours. We rode across the Sahara to explore the dunes. My local guide made tea for us, using kindling from the ground and a kettle he pulled out of his bag. Incredibly cool.
Sandboarding: I did also try sandboarding, which is exactly how it sounds.
Evening Entertainment: In the evenings, our camp provided dinner and then entertainment in the form of a drum and dance circle.

I loved the desert. If you’ve never had a desert experience, it is 100% something to add to your list. The Sahara is famous for a reason.

Day 7-10: Marrakech

My last and final stop in Morocco was my favorite of all: Marrakech. We left the Sahara early in the morning with our private driver and drove for ~7 hours to reach the city. Marrakech is the place that fully embodied my expectations of Morocco.

We stayed three nights in Marrakech at Riad Dar Bensouda. The riad was also in an amazing area - not directly in the medina, which had overwhelmed me in Fez, but in a calmer but still bustling area with a local market right outside. I felt very at home here.

Marrakech was easy to explore as a tourist without a guide because there are so many other international travelers there. We had no problem calling taxis and wandering the souks. Shopping in Marrakech was practically an Olympic sport. Make sure you haggle - whatever price you are given by the shopkeeper, offer half.

Exploring the vibrant city of Marrakech.

Things to Do in Marrakech

Visit the Ben Youssef Madrasa: We bought a ticket (a few dollars) upon arriving and stayed for maybe 15 minutes.
Drink coffee at Dar el Bacha: This spot came highly recommended by many blogs and it did not disappoint. You can buy tickets in advance for the museum, but it doesn’t get you a table at the restaurant. We just added ourselves tot he waitlist and hung around in the courtyard until a table was ready.
Skip the YSL Museum and the Jardin Majorelle: If you are a huge museum person, or a big fan of YSL, it might be worth it for you. But to us, the museum was small, and the gardens were crawling with tourists - we felt like sheep being herded. We bought tickets in advance (~$30 USD per person for a combined ticket to the museum and gardens) but it looked like you could buy tickets at the door to the garden as well. Tickets purchased in advance are not refundable.

Dining in Marrakech

Marrakech has a thriving restaurant scene - as such, I’m dedicating a mini section on where to eat in Marrakech.

Dardar Rooftop: My overall favorite: Dardar Rooftop. This place is very popular, so make a reservation in advance. We ended up coming for cocktails at around 5pm before having a full dinner later on in the evening.
La Mamounia: The most luxurious: lunch at La Mamounia. I would definitely come back and stay in this hotel one day…it’s about $800 a night.
La Trattoria: The best food: La Trattoria. Maybe this is a bit of a cop out, because La Trattoria serves Italian food, not Moroccan. However, after 9 days in a row of tagine, I needed a new cuisine.
KABANA Rooftop: The best vibe: KABANA Rooftop. I accidentally mixed up the times for our reservation, so when we arrived at 8pm, they had already given our table away. But the hostess still managed to seat us. Kabana reminded me of a trendy NYC rooftop party.

Detailed Itinerary Breakdown

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of the itinerary:

Day 0 (Flight Day): I flew one-way from NYC to Casablanca through Royal Air Maroc.
Day 2: In the morning, take the bullet train from Casablanca to Tangier, followed by a private car transfer from Tangier to Chefchaouen (~4 hours driving).
Day 3: Spend the morning in Chefchaouen. Around noon, take a private car transfer from Chefchaouen to Fez (~5 hours driving).
Day 5: Leave Fez in the morning to drive to the Sahara desert (~7 hours driving). Arrive in the desert before dinner. Spend two nights in the desert.
Day 7: In the early morning, leave Sahara and drive to Marrakech (~7 hours driving).
Day 10 (Flight Day): Wake up in Marrakech, then hop on your return flight. If you’re following my path, I flew from from Marrakech to Casablanca in the morning (a 30 minute flight), then from Casablanca to New York in the afternoon.

Final Thoughts

Soaking up all the thoughtful touches at Berber Lodge.Wandering the ancient medina, falling asleep to a desert storm, hiking through waterfalls, luxuriating at riads… Morocco was unlike anywhere else that we’ve been. The whole country was a delight for the senses. It was city break, adventure, and wellness all in one.

Typically, I roll pretty loosey-goosey in my travel planning - my philosophy is never to try to squeeze it ALL in. That you can always come back. But, when it came to Morocco, I felt a little more pressure to nail the itinerary: It’s a long trip (from Denver, it required a one-night layover in London before landing in Fes), and unlike say, Japan or Italy, it’s not really a destination we expected to revisit in the next decade. It ended up being one of our favorite trips - between the design inspiration around every corner, the diversity of activities, and the convergence of ancient and modern.