7 Days Rabat Fes Tangier Blue City Tour

 Northern Morocco itinerary Trip One Week

THE Best 7 Days Rabat-Fes-Tangier-Blue City Tour from Casablanca

 7 Days Rabat Fes Tangier Blue City Tour from Casablanca This Tour itinerary  Morocco private Tour is the definitive journey through northern Morocco — the most historically layered, most culturally rich, and most underexplored part of the country. Starting and ending in Casablanca, the tour moves east through the imperial grandeur of Meknes into the medieval world of Fes, north through the Roman ruins of Volubilis into the legendary blue village of Chefchaouen, east through the Andalusian medina of Tetouan to the legendary international city of Tangier, south through the Atlantic art town of Asilah, and back to Casablanca via the elegant capital Rabat.

Northern Morocco carries the full weight of the country’s history in concentrated form — Phoenician traders, Roman legions, the Idrisid founders of Morocco’s first state, Andalusian exiles who rebuilt their lost Spain in the Rif mountains, Portuguese colonizers on the Atlantic coast, Beat Generation writers in Tangier, and French Modernist architects in Casablanca and Rabat. This tour finds all of them, in seven days, privately, at your own pace, beginning and ending at the same airport.

This One Week is also one of the most practical Morocco circuits available: a single round-trip ticket to Casablanca, no open-jaw flights, no shuttle between cities to catch — just your private vehicle, your guide, and a week in the most fascinating part of the Mediterranean world.

Route of this 7 Days : Casablanca → Meknes → Fes → Volubilis → Chefchaouen → Tetouan → Tangier → Asilah → Rabat → Casablanca

Duration: 7 Days / 6 Nights  |  Starts: Casablanca Airport  |  Ends: Casablanca Airport or Hotel  |  Type: Private Guided Tour

Highlights Tour 7 Days

• Casablanca — Hassan II Mosque, Corniche, Art Deco architecture, Rick’s Café
• Meknes — imperial city of Sultan Moulay Ismail: Bab Mansour, royal granaries, Place el-Hedim
• Fes el-Bali — full guided day in the world’s greatest living medieval medina
• Volubilis — Morocco’s finest Roman ruins, UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2nd-century floor mosaics
• Moulay Idriss Zerhoun — Morocco’s holiest town, birthplace of the Moroccan state
• Chefchaouen — overnight and full free day in the legendary blue Rif mountain village
• Tetouan — UNESCO Andalusian medina, the finest and most overlooked city in northern Morocco
• Tangier — Kasbah Museum, American Legation, Petit Socco, Strait of Gibraltar
• Asilah — Portuguese ramparts, Atlantic art town, international mural heritage
• Rabat — Hassan Tower, Mohammed V Mausoleum, Chellah, Kasbah of the Udayas

7 Days Rabat Fes & Northern Morocco Tour Itinerary

Day 1 — Arrival at Casablanca Airport → City

Arrive at Mohammed V International Airport. Your private driver guide meets you at arrivals and transfers you to your hotel in Casablanca. Depending on your arrival time, visit the Hassan II Mosque — built on a promontory over the Atlantic Ocean, one of the largest mosques in the world and the only one in Morocco open to non-Muslim visitors, with a guided interior of hand-carved cedarwood ceilings, hand-laid zellij tile floors, and a retractable roof that opens to the Atlantic sky. Walk the Corniche — the long Atlantic seafront promenade lined with cafés and the distinctive Art Deco facades of Morocco’s most modern city. Evening dinner at Rick’s Café — the legendary Casablanca piano bar recreated from the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film, with a live pianist performing As Time Goes By, original film memorabilia on every wall, and a menu of Moroccan and international dishes. Whether you have seen the film or not, Rick’s Café is Casablanca’s most enjoyable first evening.

Overnight: Casablanca city hotel

Day 2 — Casablanca → Meknes → Fes

Morning drive east from Casablanca to Meknes (2.5 hrs) — Sultan Moulay Ismail’s great 17th-century imperial capital, built between 1672 and 1727 to rival the grandeur of Versailles using a labor force of 30,000 Christian slaves and 25,000 horses. Full afternoon guided tour of Meknes: the monumental Bab Mansour gate — one of the finest ornamental gates in North Africa, its entire facade covered in intricate geometric tilework and carved cedarwood, flanked by two massive columns taken from the ruins of Volubilis; the vast Heri es-Souani royal granaries and stables — a cathedral-like vaulted complex built to store enough grain for a 20-year siege and house 12,000 horses in individual stalls with a sophisticated ventilation and water system; the bustling Place el-Hedim — the great square at the heart of the imperial city, once used by Moulay Ismail for public executions and now filled with food stalls, orange juice sellers, and the evening life of the medina; and the Meknes medina with its souks of traditional crafts. Continue to Fes (1 hr). Arrive in the early evening. Check into your riad in the heart of Fes el-Bali. Evening walk through the lantern-lit medina lanes — your first encounter with the most extraordinary medieval city in the world.

Overnight: Fes medina riad

Day 3 — Fes — Full Guided 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. Founded in 789 AD by Moulay Idriss II and expanded in the 9th century by Tunisian and Andalusian immigrants, Fes el-Bali contains over 9,000 streets and lanes, more than 180 mosques, 200 Koranic schools, and a social and commercial organization unchanged in its essential structure for over a thousand years. Your licensed local guide leads you through the full depth of the medina: the Chouara Tanneries — the ancient leather dyeing complex visible from the terrace above, its honeycomb of stone vats filled with pigeon dung, saffron, poppy, and natural mineral dyes in a method unchanged since the 12th century, producing the finest leather in the Islamic world; the Bou Inania Madrasa (1350–1357) — the finest example of Marinid religious architecture in Morocco with extraordinary carved stucco panels, cedar lattice screens, and hand-cut zellij tilework covering every surface from floor to roofline; the Al-Attarine Madrasa — a 14th-century masterpiece built adjacent to the Kairaouine Mosque by Sultan Abu Said; the Kairaouine Mosque and University — founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, a woman from a Tunisian merchant family who endowed it with her entire inheritance, it is the oldest continuously operating university in the world, predating Oxford by over 200 years; the spice souk of Seffarine Square with its copper hammers ringing, the henna souk, the brass and copper market, and the Mellah — the ancient Jewish quarter with its distinctive overhanging wooden balconies and the 17th-century Ibn Danan synagogue, one of the finest in Morocco. Lunch at a traditional Fassi riad restaurant — a meal served in courses that represents centuries of Moroccan court cuisine. Afternoon free in the Andalusian quarter across the river — the second, often overlooked half of Fes el-Bali with its own mosque, madrasa, and Andalusian-influenced architecture.

Overnight: Fes medina riad

Day 4 — Fes → Volubilis → Moulay Idriss → Chefchaouen

An exceptional day crossing three of Morocco’s great historic sites in one sweep west from Fes. Morning drive to Volubilis (1 hr) — Morocco’s finest Roman city, 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) — erected to honor the emperor who extended Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire — the Capitol temple, the House of Orpheus with its extraordinary 3rd-century floor mosaic, and the Gordian Palace with mosaics of the Labors of Hercules and Diana and the hunt. Volubilis was the western capital of Roman Mauretania Tingitana and later — after the Arab conquest — became the seat of Moulay Idriss I, who established the first Arab-Islamic state in Morocco here in 789 AD. Continue to Moulay Idriss Zerhoun — Morocco’s holiest pilgrimage town, perched dramatically on twin volcanic hills above Volubilis, its white cubic houses ascending the hillside in terraces above the valley. Visit the precinct of the mausoleum of Moulay Idriss I — the great-great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad whose arrival in Morocco with 70 followers in 789 AD founded a dynasty and a state. Lunch in Moulay Idriss. Continue northwest through the hills to Chefchaouen (1.5 hrs). Arrive in the evening. First walk through the blue-painted medina lanes as the lanterns come on.

Overnight: Chefchaouen medina riad

Day 5 — Chefchaouen Tour or – Free Day

A complete free day in Chefchaouen — the blue city of the Rif, founded in 1471 by Moulay Ali Ben Moussa Ben Rached as a fortress against Portuguese coastal incursions and settled by waves of Muslim and Jewish refugees expelled from Andalusia, who painted its walls in shades of blue they carried in memory of their lost homeland. Wake early — before any day visitor arrives — for the medina at dawn, when the blue lanes and the silence of the surrounding Rif mountains combine to create one of the most atmospheric hours Morocco offers. Morning guided walk: the Plaza Uta el-Hammam with its 15th-century Kasbah fortress containing a small but excellent ethnographic museum of Rif Berber material culture; the artisan weaving workshops where Rif Berber women produce the region’s famous striped wool blankets in patterns that have not changed in three centuries; the artisan leather and dye workshops; and the mountain spring of Ras el-Ma where the water flows clear and cold from the limestone of the Rif. Afternoon entirely at your leisure — hike the Rif foothills above the town for panoramic views over the blue rooftops and the valley below, browse the textile and craft shops of the medina, sit in a rooftop café above the Plaza watching the afternoon light shift across the blue walls, or hike to the Spanish mosque viewpoint for the finest panorama of Chefchaouen and its mountain setting. Sunset from the viewpoint as the blue city turns gold.

Overnight: Chefchaouen medina riad

Day 6 — Chefchaouen → Tetouan → Tangier

Morning departure north from Chefchaouen through the eastern Rif Mountains. Drive to Tetouan (1.5 hrs) — one of the most historically significant and most undervisited cities in northern Morocco. Tetouan’s medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most completely preserved Andalusian medina in Morocco — built almost entirely between 1492 and the 16th century by Muslim and Jewish refugees expelled from Granada after the fall of the last Islamic kingdom in Spain, it preserves the architecture, urban form, street names, and crafts of 15th-century Andalusia in a completeness that has largely disappeared from Spain itself. Guided walk through the Tetouan medina: the Place Hassan II and the Royal Palace facade; the Guersa el-Kebira — the great cloth and textile market, its upper galleries still used by Tetouani women to sell the distinctive local embroidery; the Jewish mellah with its Star of David ironwork; the Tetouan artisan school where traditional Tetouani crafts — silk embroidery, zellij mosaic, woodcarving, and weaving — are taught using techniques unchanged for 500 years; and the Tetouan Museum of Moroccan Arts, one of the finest regional museums in the country, with collections of Rif jewelry, Andalusian textiles, and historical weapons. Lunch in Tetouan. Continue north to Tangier (1 hr). Arrive in the afternoon. Guided walk: the Kasbah Museum — housed in the former Sultan’s palace (Dar el-Makhzen), with collections of Moroccan art, ancient coins, Roman objects, and Andalusian ceramics; the Petit Socco — the legendary café square haunt of Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and the entire Beat Generation who made Tangier their creative exile in the 1950s and 1960s; and the panoramic terrace of the Kasbah overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar — just 14 kilometers of water between Africa and Europe, one of the most historically loaded views on earth.

Overnight: Tangier medina riad

Day 7 — Tangier → Asilah → Rabat → Casablanca

Morning free in Tangier for final exploration. Visit the American Legation Museum — the first US government property outside the United States, established in 1821 when Sultan Moulay Slimane gave this building to the young American republic in recognition of Morocco’s historic status as the first country to recognize American independence in 1777. The museum houses a collection of American-Moroccan diplomatic history and contemporary Moroccan art, including a remarkable room dedicated to Paul Bowles with his original furniture and manuscripts. Walk the Grand Socco — the great market square at the meeting point of the medina and the Ville Nouvelle, where Rif Berber women still arrive in traditional red-striped haïks to sell mountain herbs and produce. After lunch, drive south along the Atlantic coast to Asilah (45 min) — one of Morocco’s most beautiful and most artistically significant small cities. Walk the perfectly preserved Portuguese ramparts of 1471, still encircling the whitewashed medina in near-perfect condition; the medina lanes with their year-round murals painted by international and Moroccan artists during the annual Asilah International Arts Festival — one of Africa’s most important cultural events; and the art galleries of the medina. Continue south to Morocco’s capital, Rabat (1.5 hrs). Guided visit: the Hassan Tower — the great unfinished 12th-century Almohad minaret intended to be the tallest in the Islamic world — and the Mohammed V Mausoleum, a masterpiece of modern Alaouite court craftsmanship. Walk the Kasbah of the Udayas — its Andalusian garden and whitewashed lanes above the Atlantic estuary — and briefly through the walled Chellah necropolis — a layering of Roman Sala Colonia and Marinid royal tombs, its minaret colonized by nesting storks. Continue south to Casablanca (1 hr). Drop-off at your hotel or directly at Mohammed V International Airport. Tour ends.

Tour ends at Casablanca hotel or Airport.

Frequently Asked Questions – 7 Days

Is this tour suitable for a first visit to Morocco?

Yes — and it is one of our best recommendations for first-time visitors flying into Casablanca who want the most complete northern Morocco experience in a week. You see Fes, Chefchaouen, Tangier, and the Roman ruins of Volubilis — all essential highlights without the long Sahara distances. For a 7-day first trip, this northern circuit is one of the most rewarding itineraries.

Why does the tour include Tetouan when most tours skip it?

Tetouan is one of the most historically significant cities in northern Morocco. Its UNESCO-listed medina is the finest Andalusian-style medina in the country, shaped by refugees from Granada after 1492. It preserves rare architecture that has largely disappeared elsewhere. Since it lies on the route between Chefchaouen and Tangier, visiting it adds great value without extra driving time.

Is two nights in Fes enough?

Yes — with a well-planned schedule. One full guided day covers the main highlights of Fes el-Bali, while the second day allows for orientation and optional experiences. For deeper exploration, we can extend your stay to include cooking classes or day trips to Volubilis and Meknes.

Why does Day 7 cover Tangier, Asilah, Rabat, and Casablanca in one day?

This route is carefully designed based on short northern distances. With planned stops in Tangier, Asilah, and Rabat, the journey flows comfortably into Casablanca by evening. If you prefer a slower pace, we can add an overnight stay in Asilah or Rabat.

Can this tour start from Fes instead of Casablanca?

Yes. We can start directly from Fes Airport and adjust the itinerary accordingly, continuing through Meknes, Volubilis, Chefchaouen, Tetouan, Tangier, Asilah, and Rabat, ending in Casablanca. This becomes an extended northern circuit option.

What is the best time of year for this northern tour?

This tour works year-round. Spring and autumn offer the best weather, summer is mild in the north compared to inland cities, and winter is quieter with a unique atmospheric charm in places like Chefchaouen.

Can the tour end at the airport instead of a hotel in Casablanca?

Yes. We can drop you directly at Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport on the final day, or arrange an overnight stay if your flight is early the next morning. The itinerary is fully flexible based on your flight schedule. Read More