10 Day Itinerary Imperial North Desert

10 Day Itinerary Imperial North & Desert Tour From Marrakech 

This 10 day Itinerary Imperical North Desert Adventure is private journey from Marrakech to Casablanca traces the full arc of Morocco from south to north — from the red city of Marrakech through the Berber villages of the High Atlas and the Ourika Valley, across the mountains to the UNESCO kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou- Amridel and the desert film city of Ouarzazate, through the rose fields and canyon landscapes of the south, deep into the Sahara at Merzouga, north through the cedar forests of Ifrane and the Middle Atlas, into the medieval world of Fes, through the Roman ruins of Volubilis to the legendary blue village of Chefchaouen, and finally south along the Atlantic coast through Rabat to Casablanca.

This routing is deliberately designed as an open-jaw journey 10 Day — fly into Marrakech, fly home from Casablanca — covering every major region of Morocco in one forward-moving arc with no backtracking. It combines the imperial south, the Sahara desert, the medieval north, and the Atlantic coast in a sequence that flows with Morocco’s own geography. Every day moves into new landscape. Every night is in a different world.

Route of this Adventure 10 Day: Marrakech → Ourika Valley → High Atlas → Ait Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate → Rose Valley → Dades → Todra Gorge → Merzouga Sahara → Ifrane → Midelt → Fes → Volubilis → Chefchaouen → Rabat → Casablanca

Duration: 10 Days / 9 Nights  |  Starts: Marrakech (hotel or airport)  |  Ends: Casablanca Airport or hotel  |  Type: Private Guided Tour

Tour 10 Day Highlights

• Marrakech: Djemaa el-Fna, Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, medina souks
• Ourika Valley day trip — High Atlas Berber villages, Setti Fatma waterfalls
• Tizi n’Tichka High Atlas Pass (2,260m) — Morocco’s most spectacular mountain road
• Ait Ben Haddou — UNESCO World Heritage kasbah, earthen architecture
• Ouarzazate — Atlas Film Studios, Kasbah Taourirt, Morocco’s cinema city
• Valley of Roses — Damask rose fields, Berber villages, rose distilleries
• Dades Valley overnight — canyon kasbah hotel
• Todra Gorge — 300m natural limestone canyon walk
• Merzouga Erg Chebbi — sunset camel trek and luxury desert camp
• Full day in the Sahara — dunes, nomads, Gnawa village, optional 4×4
• Ziz Gorge — dramatic palm canyon ascending into the Atlas
• Midelt — Middle Atlas apple plateau and mountain scenery
• Ifrane — Morocco’s alpine town in the cedar forests
• Fes el-Bali — full guided day in the world’s greatest medieval medina
• Volubilis — Morocco’s finest Roman ruins, UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Chefchaouen — the legendary blue-painted mountain village of the Rif
• Rabat — Hassan Tower, Mohammed V Mausoleum, Chellah (time permitting)
• Casablanca — Hassan II Mosque, Corniche, tour end

10 Day imperiacl Cities North and Desert Adventure Itinerary

Day 1 — Arrival in Marrakech

Arrive in Marrakech by flight or from any city in Morocco. Your private driver guide meets you at Marrakech Menara Airport or your hotel and transfers you to your riad in the medina. Check in and settle in. If you arrive with time to spare, an evening walk on the Djemaa el-Fna is the perfect Marrakech introduction — the square transforms at dusk into a spectacular open-air theatre of food stalls, musicians, storytellers, and fire-eaters that has operated continuously for over a thousand years. Dinner in the medina.

Overnight: Marrakech medina riad

Day 2 — Marrakech — Guided Medina Tour

A complete guided day in Marrakech with your licensed local medina guide. Morning: the Djemaa el-Fna — a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage site, the world’s greatest open-air theatre; the Koutoubia Mosque (1158 AD) — its minaret the architectural model for the Hassan Tower in Rabat and the Giralda in Seville; the Bahia Palace — a 19th-century vizier’s palace of 160 rooms with hand-painted cedarwood ceilings, marble courtyard fountains, and zellij tile floors representing the full peak of Moroccan court craftsmanship; the Saadian Tombs — the 16th-century royal mausoleum sealed for two centuries and rediscovered in 1917, with Italian Carrara marble and extraordinary carved stucco; and the medina souks — each trade in its ancient street: the spice souk, dyers’ souk, silver souk, lantern souk, and the carpet market of Rahba Kedima. Lunch at a traditional riad restaurant. Afternoon free: optional visit to the Majorelle Garden — the cobalt-blue garden of painter Jacques Majorelle, rescued by Yves Saint Laurent in 1980 and home to the finest Berber art museum in Morocco — or a traditional hammam. Evening farewell to the Djemaa el-Fna.

Overnight: Marrakech medina riad

Day 3 — Day Trip to Ourika Valley

A full day excursion from Marrakech to the Ourika Valley in the High Atlas — one of the most beautiful and accessible Berber valleys in Morocco, just 30 km south of the city. Drive up through the foothills past saffron and herb markets at the roadside into the valley proper, where the Ourika river runs fast over colored stones from the Atlas snowmelt and traditional Berber villages of earthen houses sit terraced into the hillside above walnut orchards and barley fields. Follow the river valley to Setti Fatma — the main Berber village at the valley head — and hike 30 minutes up the rocky riverside path to the first and most dramatic of the seven Setti Fatma waterfalls, cascading through a narrow gorge carved by the river. Lunch at a riverside Berber terrace restaurant — grilled kefta, Berber omelette, and fresh bread with argan oil — one of the finest simple lunches available anywhere near Marrakech. Return to Marrakech in the late afternoon. This day trip is the perfect complement to the city tour — green, cool, quiet, and completely different from the medina’s intensity.

Cultural note: The Ourika Valley is home to Amazigh (Berber) communities whose agricultural traditions predate Islam in Morocco by thousands of years. The seguia irrigation channels running between the fields were built centuries ago and are still managed communally today. The valley hosts one of Morocco’s most important annual moussem (pilgrimage festivals) at Setti Fatma each August.

Overnight: Marrakech medina riad

Day 4 — Marrakech → High Atlas → Ait Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate → Rose Valley → Dades

Early morning departure southeast from Marrakech. Begin the ascent of the Tizi n’Tichka Pass (2,260m) — Morocco’s highest paved road and one of the most spectacular mountain drives in Africa, with hairpin bends above deep gorges, panoramic views of jagged High Atlas peaks, and traditional Berber villages of dark schist stone perched on ridgelines accessible only by mule track. Cross the pass and descend into the pre-Saharan south where the landscape shifts dramatically from green Atlas slopes to ochre and red desert plain. Morning visit to the UNESCO kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou — a fortified ksar of earthen towers rising from the Ounila River valley, inhabited continuously for over 600 years. Walk through the ksar with your guide, climbing to the ancient granary at the summit for views over the desert beyond. This site has appeared in Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, The Mummy, Game of Thrones, Babel, and many more — its earthen architecture is one of the most filmed landscapes on earth. Continue to Ouarzazate: visit Atlas Film Studios — one of the world’s largest, built here because the Moroccan desert light can stand in for ancient Egypt, biblical Jerusalem, and medieval Persia with equal conviction — and Kasbah Taourirt, the finest urban kasbah in the south. Drive east through the Valley of Roses — the Dadès Valley floor planted with Damask roses by Berber farming families for the global perfume industry. Arrive in the Dades Valley in the evening. Check into your kasbah hotel with views over the palm oasis.

Overnight: Dades Valley kasbah hotel

Day 5 — Dades Gorge → Todra Gorge → Merzouga Desert

Morning walk into the Dades Gorge — even a short walk at dawn through the red and ochre rock formations in the morning light is one of the finest natural experiences in the south. After breakfast, drive east through more of the Valley of Roses to the Todra Gorge — a 300-meter natural limestone canyon where the Todra river has cut through the plateau, its walls narrowing to just a few meters at the base with the cold clear river running between them. Walk the canyon floor and have lunch at one of the gorge-floor restaurants with the walls towering above on both sides. Continue east through the palm oases and date plantations of the Tafilalt toward Merzouga. Arrive at the edge of the Erg Chebbi dunes in the late afternoon. Mount your camel for a guided sunset trek into the dunes — the Erg Chebbi rises to 150 meters above the desert floor, one of the highest dune fields in Morocco. Arrive at your luxury desert camp as the sky turns gold and crimson. Traditional Moroccan dinner by firelight with live Gnawa drumming under a sky thick with stars.

Overnight: Luxury desert camp, Erg Chebbi

Day 6 — Around  Merzouga  Desert  

Wake before sunrise for the dawn over the Erg Chebbi — the silence and the light building together over the dunes is one of the most extraordinary experiences Morocco offers. Camel ride back to Merzouga village after breakfast. The full day is yours to enjoy as you wish.

Active options: guided 4×4 dune excursion deep into the Sahara to the remote corridors accessible only by vehicle; sandboarding down the great dune faces; visit to the Gnawa musicians’ village of Khamlia — a community descended from Sub-Saharan enslaved peoples who perform their ancient trance-music tradition in its genuine ritual context, not for visitors but as an act of cultural preservation and spiritual practice.

Cultural options: visit a traditional Berber nomad family in their goat-hair tent near the dunes — tea, dates, conversation through your guide, and an encounter with the oldest continuous way of life in the Sahara; explore the extraordinary fossil and mineral market of the Tafilalt — the desert floor here was a Devonian seabed 400 million years ago and the trilobites, orthoceras, and ammonites pressed into the stone are among the finest in the world.

Relaxed option: spend the day on your hotel terrace watching the light move across the Erg Chebbi — the dunes change color completely through the day, from pale gold at noon to deep amber at sunset. The Sahara is one of the greatest places in the world to simply be still.

Overnight: Merzouga hotel

Day 7 — Merzouga → Ziz Valley → Midelt → Ifrane → Fes (6.5 hrs)

Morning departure north from the Sahara on one of Morocco’s great drives — moving through every climate and landscape zone in the country in a single day. Leave the desert plain and enter the Ziz Gorge — the Ziz river has carved a deep canyon through the Middle Atlas plateau, its walls lined with hundreds of thousands of date palms in one of the most spectacular natural corridors in North Africa. The gorge narrows and the palms press close to the road as the desert below gives way to the mountain world above. Cross the Middle Atlas plateau through Midelt — the apple city at 1,500m, surrounded by orchards and the first snow-dusted peaks of the upper Atlas — with a comfortable lunch stop. Continue to the alpine town of Ifrane — built by the French colonists in the 1930s in the style of a Swiss mountain village at 1,665m altitude, with red-roofed chalets, pine avenues, and a cool clarity of air unlike any other city in Morocco. Continue to the cedar forests of Azrou where Barbary macaques roam freely through the ancient Atlas cedars — sometimes descending to the roadside to investigate. Continue north to Fes. Arrive in the late afternoon. Check into your medina riad in Fes el-Bali. Evening walk through the lantern-lit lanes of the world’s most extraordinary medieval city.

Overnight: Fes medina riad

Day 8 — Fes — Guided  Medina City Tour

A complete guided day inside Fes el-Bali — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world’s largest living car-free urban area, its street plan unchanged since the 9th century. Your licensed local guide takes you through the full depth of the medina: the Chouara Tanneries — the ancient leather dyeing complex, its stone vats of pigeon dung, saffron, poppy, and natural dyes unchanged in method since the 12th century and best seen from the terrace above; the Bou Inania Madrasa (1350–1357) — the finest Marinid religious architecture in Morocco, with extraordinary carved stucco, cedar lattice screens, and hand-cut zellij tilework; the Al-Attarine Madrasa — 14th-century masterpiece adjacent to the Kairaouine Mosque; the Kairaouine Mosque and University — founded 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, the world’s oldest continuously operating university, predating Oxford by over 200 years; the spice souk, henna souk, brass market, and the Mellah — the ancient Jewish quarter with its 17th-century Ibn Danan synagogue. Lunch at a traditional Fassi riad restaurant. Afternoon free in the Andalusian quarter and the pottery district.

Overnight: Fes medina riad

Day 9 — Fes → Volubilis → Chefchaouen

Morning departure west from Fes. Drive to Volubilis (1 hr) — Morocco’s finest Roman city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Moroccan plain at the foot of Jebel Zerhoun. Walk the ancient forum, the Triumphal Arch of Caracalla (217 AD), the Capitol, and the extraordinary floor mosaics — Orpheus charming the animals, Bacchus in his triumphal chariot, Diana bathing — preserved for 1,800 years in extraordinary color and detail. Brief stop at Moulay Idriss Zerhoun — Morocco’s holiest pilgrimage town, perched on twin volcanic hills above Volubilis, home to the tomb of Moulay Idriss I who brought Islam to Morocco in 789 AD. Continue north into the Rif Mountains to Chefchaouen (1.5 hrs from Volubilis). Arrive midday. Afternoon guided walk through the blue medina: the Plaza Uta el-Hammam and its 15th-century Kasbah, the artisan weaving and dye workshops, and the mountain spring of Ras el-Ma. Sunset from the Spanish mosque viewpoint. Evening free to walk the blue lanes as the lanterns come on — the medina at night, quiet and golden, is Chefchaouen at its most beautiful. Overnight: Chefchaouen medina riad

Day 10 — Chefchaouen  → To Casablanca Via – Rabat (optional) → Casablanca Airport or Hotel

Morning free in Chefchaouen — rise early for the famous blue lanes at dawn before the day visitors arrive, the single most atmospheric hour in the city. After breakfast, depart west and south from Chefchaouen toward the Atlantic. Rabat stop (time permitting): if your flight departs in the late afternoon or evening from Casablanca, we can include a midday stop in Rabat — Morocco’s capital city, just 1 hour north of Casablanca. Visit the Hassan Tower and Mohammed V Mausoleum, walk the Kasbah of the Udayas above the Atlantic estuary, and see the walled Chellah ruins. Rabat adds approximately 2 hours to the day and requires a departure from Chefchaouen no later than 9:00 AM. Continue south to Casablanca. Drop-off at Mohammed V International Airport or your Casablanca hotel as arranged. The tour ends here.

Flight timing guidance: Chefchaouen to Casablanca Airport is approximately 3.5 hours direct, or 5.5 hours with the Rabat stop. For flights departing after 4 PM, the Rabat stop is entirely comfortable. For morning flights, we depart Chefchaouen early and drive directly to Casablanca. We plan Day 10 around your exact flight time — just share your departure details when booking.

Tour ends at Casablanca Mohammed V Airport or Casablanca hotel

All prices per person in USD-EURO-MAD, based on double occupancy. Private tour — your group only.

FAQs- 10 Day imperial Cities Desert

What is the recommended flight routing for this tour?
Fly into Marrakech (RAK) and out of Casablanca (CMN). This open-jaw route avoids backtracking and is the most efficient option.

Why is Day 4 so long (Atlas, Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, Dades)?
It’s a highlight day crossing the High Atlas with key stops at Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, and the scenic Dades Valley. Early departure makes it smooth and rewarding.

Can the Rabat stop on Day 10 be guaranteed?
It depends on your flight time. Afternoon departures allow a full Rabat visit; earlier flights may include a shorter stop or direct transfer.

Is the Ourika Valley suitable for seniors and families?
Yes. It is an easy, scenic valley walk. The waterfall hike is optional and can be adjusted based on comfort level.

How long is the camel ride in Merzouga?
About 45–60 minutes each way. A 4×4 transfer is also available for those who prefer not to ride camels.

Can extra nights be added?
Yes. Extra nights can be added in Chefchaouen, Marrakech, Merzouga, or other cities depending on your preferences.

What is the best season for this tour?
Spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) offer the best weather, landscapes, and overall travel experience. Read More