Morocco Travel Blog: A Journey Through Culture, Desert, and Cities

Nov 06, 2025 0

I’ve just returned from an amazing trip in Morocco, and I was blown away by the incredible experiences to be found here. This North African country has so much to offer, and there is so much to see and do, you’ll have a hard time narrowing down how to spend your time.

The itinerary I’m sharing here is ideal for a first-time visit, and anyone who has 10-12 days to spend in country. Keep in mind that destinations in Morocco are fairly spread out, and I’ve found the best way to get from place to place is by having a private driver to ensure the best experience possible. Following this itinerary will give you the opportunity to spend some time in the cultural capital of Morocco while exploring Fez, experience the incomparable beauty of the Sahara desert with a stay underneath the stars at a luxury tented camp, break up your journey back to Marrakech with a stay in the most charming and peaceful , and then take your time exploring Marrakech and all that it has to offer.

Ready to fall in love with this beautiful country?

First Stop: Fez

After flying into Casablanca airport, I made the 3 hour drive to Fez. Casablanca is the main airport in Morocco and most international destinations will have the easiest time flying here for the start of your Morocco trip. However, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest such a long drive on arrival.

Highlights of Fez:

Leather Tanneries - Prepare for a sensory sensation unlike any other! A visit to the leather tanneries allows you to see the process of how they make leather goods from start to finish. You can see the vats of dye that have been used in techniques unchanged for centuries. The real treat is being able to buy authentic leather goods for a fraction of the cost you’d normally spend. You get to choose the type of leather, color, and size of almost anything you can imagine.
Fes Tasting Tour - I love an opportunity to combine historical highlights with incredible food!

Experience the Sahara Desert

This is the part of the trip I was most excited about. It’s not very often you get the opportunity to experience an incredible landscape like the Sahara desert.

A Night Under the Sahara Stars | EP. 74

Night under the stars

Spending a night under the stars in the Sahara desert is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you’re unlikely to experience anywhere else in the world. After a delicious meal of Moroccan tagines, we settled in for a night to remember and were serenaded with tribal songs before hanging out around the campfire and enjoying the views of the stars you don’t see anywhere else.

Marrakech: A City of Exquisite Accommodations and Vibrant Markets

Staying at Royal Mansour

I have a special love affair with exquisite accommodations that truly have a sense of place, and the Royal Mansour was exactly that. A riad is built like a traditional home with a beautiful courtyard, balconies to rest and enjoy the views, gorgeous mosaics and special touches everywhere you look. This hotel spared no expense (literally!!

Shopping in the souks

A souk is a huge market where you can find just about anything you can imagine, and also where you put to use your bargaining skills. I stocked up on essential oils, spices, sandals, some jewelry, a leather duffel, and almost shipped a rug home!

Tagine Cooking Class

I consider myself a moroccan cooking expert after taking this class, and I am happy to say that my meal was healthy and delicious as well as fun to make.

Atlas Mountains: A Day Trip to Remember

Just over an hour outside of Marrakech lie a myriad of hiking paths and trails winding up through the Atlas and leading to small berber villages where the way of life has remained intact for hundreds of years. You can visit this area as a day trip from the city, but my suggestion would be to end your Moroccan adventure with a stay at Sir Richard Branson’s slice of paradise, Kasbah Tamadot.

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Accommodation: Kasbah Tamadot

This gorgeous property is the perfect place to end your trip, and the surrounding areas give you the opportunity to experience what life is like in the Berber villages. It’s a place to slow down, unwind, and soak in your surroundings.

Other Moroccan Highlights

Morocco is a beautiful country, offering all types of tourism options! You can explore the rich history of the country going back thousands of years, appreciate the beautiful architectural details like carved wood and tile work, cool off in the beautiful snow-capped Atlas Mountains, get lost in a medina or (of course) ride a camel over seemingly-untouched dunes in the Sahara. Getting to some of the coolest areas requires a bit of advance planning, as they’re not exactly next door - though their remoteness has surely kept them more amazing!

For instance, our day trip to the Atlas Mountains would have been doable but much harder without our driver/guide Sharif. He not only took us to Sitti Fatima, but made sure we ate at a reasonably priced restaurant with good hygiene standards, escorted us to a Berber family’s home for tea and bread (the highlight for the kids!) and connected us with an excellent hiking guide. As with everything else in Morocco, there’s no free lunch (though some lunches are negotiable, it turns out!).

Transportation Tips

Taxis are a staple of travel in Morocco - you will see them everywhere and surely take a few. If you can fit in a petite taxi (colors vary by city), prices are extremely cheap - often the equivalent of a dollar or two for short rides. Petite taxis technically accommodate three passengers, though we were sometimes able to get one even as a family of four since Shoshana is so young. The petite taxis nearly all have their seatbelts inaccessible.

Likewise, there’s no good reason for the three person limits - it’s not like they’re worried about having too few seatbelts, and our family of four can fit in one car just fine. Just like SO MANY people we met in Morocco, taxi drivers are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of visitors. Lots of drivers insisted that they couldn’t take us since we were a party of four… unless we agreed to an inflated price. And like so many other vendors, they can be aggressive and relentless when pursuing passengers in the major tourist areas like medinas and gardens; we were once followed for a solid ten minutes even though we were walking with a local who was giving us a ride.

For most rides you shouldn’t pay more than 20-30 dirham, so if a driver tries to demand more just say no. There are some very convenient long-distance transportation options in Morocco and they’re generally affordable. Likewise, the train from Marrakech to Fez was extremely long at 8 hours, but the first class compartment had only six seats and was quite comfortable. On certain days of the week, that route is also covered by a short, cheap non-stop flight (unfortunately those dates didn’t work for us).

While the transit itself is fine, do plan to bring your own food. Our bus from Essaouira to Fez stopped at a rest area/café/restaurant that has food and fresh juices available. On the 8 hour train ride from Marrakech to Fez, there was no dining car as you’d find on long-distance trains in Europe or the US, but instead a small trolley selling a few junk food snacks and some questionable looking sandwiches.

Better to avoid theft, but hopefully your cabin-mates don’t have big backpacks too! Of course given the reasonable prices, if you’re already buying tickets for a family of four you could probably tell them you have two extra children to get a compartment all to yourself.

Chefchaouen: The Blue City

One of the best places to visit in Morocco is Chefchaouen, the famed “blue city” in the Rif Mountains. I was so excited to visit and see the city’s striking color and learn more about its long and fascinating history.

On our first day in Fez, we dutifully headed over to the bus station to purchase our tickets for an overnight trip to Chefchaouen later in the week. We were crushed to find out that the next return bus with four seats wasn’t for another week! The only alternative would have been to hire a private driver to take us four hours each way, at more than five times the cost of the bus.

Accommodation Options

Morocco offers a wide range of places to stay suitable for any budget. You can spend several hundred per night for a room in a luxury riad, or you can find a decent room for $50 per night that will at least be clean and safe. Booking.com has a wide range of options - we’ve even got a few simple hacks to save you money on every reservation. Even for special places to stay in Morocco, some elements may not be up to what you’d expect to find at European and American hotels.

Navigating Interactions

Every single day, we felt that people in Morocco looked at us as walking ATMs. People tried to take advantage of us every moment that we were outside of our apartment, whether in big ways or small ways. The accumulation of these experiences left a horrible taste in our mouths.

On our visit to the tanneries in Fez, Ronnie admired a messenger bag. The nice man who had been showing us around the tannery told him that the regular price was 1500 dirham, but that he’d offer a special price of 1250. A steal for camel belly leather! Our “guide” had conveniently left for a while, supposedly to go pray (but I wonder now if it was just to give his associates in the shop enough time to work on us - he basically left us in every workshop and restaurant to go pray). As we waited for the guide’s return, another man who was supposedly the shop owner approached Ronnie and asked what his price was, asking if the other man had offered him 1150.

Whether or not you buy something, the tanneries in Fes are a UNESCO heritage site and worth a visit. Just remember to negotiate HARD - try 25% of their initial offer!

Morocco Two-Week Itinerary

In my eyes, two weeks is the perfect amount of time to spend in the country - it gives you just enough time to experience all the highlights, then whisks you back home juuust before the harassment starts to crawl under your skin.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to spend two weeks in Morocco:

Any Morocco itinerary has to start within the colourful chaos of Marrakech (3 nights), followed by a trip to Essaouira (2 nights) for some fresh sea air (and even fresher seafood). I’d then recommend returning to Marrakech (1 night) as a convenient gateway to the Sahara Desert (2 nights), before heading north to Fes (3 nights), followed by Chefchaouen (2 nights), and Casablanca (1 night).

Day	Location	Nights
1-3	Marrakech	3
4-5	Essaouira	2
6	Marrakech	1
7-8	Sahara Desert	2
9-11	Fez	3
12-13	Chefchaouen	2
14	Casablanca	1

Conclusion

Overall impression walking away from Morocco is that it’s a beautiful and fascinating country, but with some unique challenges for tourists. We’ve heard from a number of seasoned travelers that they’re glad they visited Morocco, and that they don’t feel the need to return particularly soon. We mostly share that sentiment.