One week in Morocco
Most one-week Morocco itineraries you will find online do not fit into one week. They are written to look complete rather than to be followed, and they change location almost every day. What they leave out is the arithmetic.
At a glance
- Marrakech to Sahara
- 9 hourseach way, by road
- Marrakech to Essaouira
- 3 hoursabout 80 MAD
- Desert trip
- 3 days2 nights, standard
- Honest verdict
- 10 daysis the comfortable version of 7
The arithmetic
The Sahara is a nine-hour drive east of Marrakech. Not a scenic transfer — a full day, each way. The standard desert trip is sold as three days and two nights, and that is not a rip-off. It is what the distance requires.
| Days | |
|---|---|
| Arrive, and the first evening | 1 |
| Desert trip, there and back | 3 |
| Marrakech itself | 2 |
| Fly home | 1 |
| Total | 7 |
That is the whole week, and it contains one city and one desert. Add Fes, add Chefchaouen, add the coast, and something has to come out. Usually the sleep.
The most common mistake is treating travel days as free. A nine-hour drive is not a day you also see something in. Count it, and the itinerary designs itself.
Route A. Marrakech and the Sahara
The route
- Days 1-2MarrakechThe medina, Bahia Palace, Ben Youssef
- Days 3-5SaharaVia Ait Ben Haddou and the gorges
- Day 6MarrakechRecover. This day is not padding.
- Day 7Fly home
The route that does not fit
Marrakech to Sahara to Fes to Chefchaouen in seven days. It appears on dozens of sites. On a map it looks like a loop. In practice it is roughly twenty hours of road on top of a desert trip, and it leaves about a day and a half of actually being anywhere. You will have photographs of four places and a memory of a vehicle.
Season decides which route is even possible, see when to go to Morocco. The legs are covered in getting around Morocco, and the costs in Morocco on a budget.
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