Morocco tours from Casablanca, with your own car and driver

Our tours from Casablanca, side by side

The six tours

6 days: Fès, the Sahara and Marrakech

The shortest way to see the three places most first trips are built around. Day one goes to the Hassan II Mosque, then north to Rabat and inland by Meknès and the Roman ruins of Volubilis to Fès, where you sleep two nights. Day three crosses the Middle Atlas by Ifrane to the dunes of Merzouga for a night in a desert camp. You come back by the Todra Gorge and the Dadès Valley, cross the High Atlas by Aït Ben Haddou and spend the last night in Marrakech before the drive back to Casablanca. Three of the six days are long drives. See the 6 days.

8 days: Casablanca to Marrakech by the Sahara

A first night in Casablanca, with the Hassan II Mosque by the ocean. Then Rabat, two nights in Fès, a night in the dunes, the Dadès Valley, a night at Aït Ben Haddou and the Tizi n'Tichka pass to Marrakech, where the tour ends at the airport. It is one-way: you fly in to Casablanca and home from Marrakech. See the 8 days.

9 days: Chefchaouen, Fès, two nights in the dunes

The nine days add what the shorter tours leave out: Chefchaouen, the blue town in the Rif mountains, a second night in the Sahara, and two nights in Marrakech instead of one. The loop ends back in Casablanca. See the 9 days.

10 days: the imperial cities, the Sahara and Essaouira

The same route as the nine days, with a last night by the Atlantic in Essaouira, a walled port town with a calmer medina than Marrakech. The drive back follows the coast by El Jadida. See the 10 days.

11 days: the north first

For travellers who want the Mediterranean side too. From Mohammed V airport to Rabat, Asilah and Tangier, with the Caves of Hercules and the lighthouse of Cape Spartel, then Tetouan and Chefchaouen. After that, the classic road: Volubilis, two nights in Fès, the Sahara, the gorges, two nights in Marrakech and Essaouira, and back to the airport by Safi and El Jadida. See the 11 days.

14 days: two deserts

The grand tour. After Chefchaouen and Fès, a first desert night in the dunes of Merzouga. Then the road goes south down the Draa Valley, by Agdz, Zagora and Tamegroute, to M'Hamid and the dunes of Erg Chegaga, reached off-road for a second desert night. The way back crosses the dry lake of Iriki to Taroudant, follows the coast to Essaouira and gives you two nights in Marrakech before the drive back to Casablanca. See the 14 days.

One tour, day by day: the 8 days

Here is the eight days in full. The other tours follow the same rhythm.

Your first day: landing in Casablanca

Most tours start the day you land, and the plan depends on your arrival time.

• A morning landing. The first day can be a full one: the Hassan II Mosque, then Rabat and the road north or east. Tell us if you would rather rest first.
• An afternoon or evening landing. Your driver takes you to your hotel in Casablanca, and the tour starts the next morning. On the 8, 11 and 14 days, the first night is in Casablanca anyway.
• A night landing. The same: the driver waits for your flight, and the first day starts after a night's sleep.

How many days do you need?

Six days is enough to see Fès, the Sahara and Marrakech from Casablanca, at a fast pace.

Eight or nine days is where the trip slows down. You get a full day in Fès, time in Marrakech and, with the nine days, Chefchaouen and a second night in the dunes. For a first trip to Morocco, this is the length we would pick.

Ten or eleven days add the coast. The ten days end in Essaouira; the eleven days start with the north, Tangier and Tetouan.

Fourteen days go far into the south, to the dunes of Erg Chegaga near M'Hamid, and come back by Taroudant and the coast.

Seven days? We are building a seven-day route from Casablanca. Until it is online, ask us: the six days with one more night in Fès or Marrakech, or the eight days, both work.

Fewer than six days? Write to us anyway. We will tell you honestly what fits.

What you see on the way

The imperial cities. Rabat, the capital, with the Kasbah of the Udayas above the mouth of the Bou Regreg and the Hassan Tower; the city has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2012. Meknès, the city of Sultan Moulay Ismail and its Bab Mansour gate. Volubilis, the ruins of a Roman city in the fields north of Meknès. And Fès, whose old medina, Fès el-Bali, was Morocco's first World Heritage Site, in 1981. It is home to the Al Quaraouiyine, founded as a mosque in the 850s and cited by UNESCO as the oldest higher-learning institution still in use.

The Rif. Chefchaouen was founded in 1471 in the Rif mountains, and its lanes are washed in shades of blue.

The Middle Atlas. On the way south from Fès you cross the Middle Atlas by Ifrane, a mountain town at 1,665 m nicknamed the Little Switzerland, and the cedar forests where Barbary macaques live. The species is endangered, so watch them without feeding them.

The Sahara. The dunes of Erg Chebbi, by Merzouga, rise to 150 m and stretch for about 28 km along the Algerian border. You ride or walk into them in the late afternoon, sleep in a camp and watch the sun come up over the sand. The fourteen days add Erg Chegaga, the largest of Morocco's dune seas, about 56 km beyond the end of the road at M'Hamid.

The gorges and the kasbahs. The Todra Gorge, whose walls rise up to 400 m and close in to a passage about 10 m wide, and the Dadès Valley with its winding road. Then the road of the kasbahs: Kelaat M'Gouna and the rose valley, Ouarzazate and the ksar of Aït Ben Haddou, a fortified village of earth houses on the UNESCO list since 1987.

Marrakech and the coast. The medina of Marrakech and the Jemaa el-Fna square, and on the longer tours Essaouira, the old port of Mogador, whose medina is a World Heritage Site behind its sea walls.

From Casablanca to the Sahara

The dunes of Merzouga are about 650 km from Casablanca, around ten hours of driving. No tour does it in one go. Ours stop in Fès first, then take a full day to reach the desert: about 460 km by Ifrane, Midelt and the Ziz Valley, with stops. You arrive in the afternoon, ride into the dunes for the sunset and spend the night in a camp. The next morning, after the sunrise, the road heads west through the Todra and Dadès gorges toward the kasbahs and Marrakech.

If you already know you want only the desert, see our Sahara desert tours, which also start from Marrakech and Fès.

When to go

Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the easiest seasons. The days are warm, the desert nights mild and the light good.

Summer (June to August) is very hot inland and in the Sahara. The coast stays cooler, so a tour that ends in Essaouira helps.

Winter (December to February) has cold desert nights and snow on the High Atlas: the Tizi n'Tichka pass often sees snow from November to March. The days are often sunny. Bring warm layers for the camp.

Travelling with children

Private tours suit families: the car stops when a child needs it, and a day can be cut short.

• Pick a tour with two nights at the big stops, such as the nine or ten days, so not every day is a drive.
• The day from Fès to the Sahara is long. It is broken up with stops at Ifrane and Midelt, and the dunes are the reward at the end.
• In the desert you can try sandboarding on the dunes.
• Child seats are on request. Tell us each child's age when you book.

What private means

There is no group and no fixed departure. The tour starts on the day you choose, the car carries only your party, and the driver stops when you ask. The route is planned with you: add a night in Fès, skip Chefchaouen, end in Marrakech instead of Casablanca. The price is fixed before you leave. We send one quote for your dates and your group, usually within the hour.

Start at the airport, finish where you fly home

Give us your flight number and your driver will wait in the arrivals hall at Mohammed V, with your name on a sign. If the flight is late, nothing is added. Most tours end back in Casablanca; the eight days end at Marrakech airport and the eleven days at Mohammed V.

Only need the drive from the airport? See Casablanca airport transfers and Casablanca to Marrakech.

Your own route

None of these fits? Send us the places you want to see and the number of days. We plan the route with you and send a fixed price for the car and the driver. Plan my own route.

Would you rather decide each morning? Book a private driver by the day, from €120 a day for the car and its driver.

What travellers say