7 Days Tour from Casablanca to Marrakech, Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, Merzouga

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Flight… at ….
Arrive at Casablanca airport; Meet and greet by your escort guide and transfer to Marrakech, “Paris of the Sahara” as Winston Churchill once described it.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Enjoy an afternoon city tour of Marrakech. Stop first at the Koutoubia Mosque, which is an old monument built under the reign of the Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur (1184 to 1199). This monument inspired other buildings such as the Giralda in Seville in Spain and the Hassan Tower in Rabat. Stop next at the Bahia Palace. This Palace was built in the late 19th century and was intended to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan style. Stop next at the Saadian tombs, which is a site that dates back to the time of the sultan Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603). The tombs were discovered in 1917 and were restored by the Beaux-arts service.

Continue the tour with the world famous Jema El Fna Square where you will enjoy amazing performance of traditional activities by storytellers, snake charmers, peddlers of traditional medicines. Your last stop is the bustling souks in the old medina.

Your last stop is the bustling souks in the old medina.

Dinner in the hotel.

Overnight in Marrakech

Breakfast in the hotel.

Leave Marrakech through the high Atlas Mountains to the spectacular fortress of Ait Ben Haddou. The village is a great example of earthen clay architecture that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Ait Ben Haddou is an iconic landscape immortalized in such films as “The Man Who Would Be King (film) (1975)”, “Jesus of Nazareth (1977)”, “The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)”, “Gladiator (2000)”, “Son of God (film) (2014)”.
Lunch at a local restaurant.

Continue to Ouarzazate, also known as “Morocco’s Hollywood”. Visit the film studios where some of the most famous desert landscapes were and are still being shot. Stop next at Taourirt Kasbah, which is considered one of the most beautiful kasbahs in Morocco.

Dinner in the hotel.

Overnight in Ouarzazate.

Breakfast in the hotel.

Leave Ouarzazate to Dades. The drive is spectacular with hundreds of Kasbahs lining the route. Stop first at Kelaat M’Gouna, a big town which is famous for cultivating roses. Expect to find many fine, rose-infused products there.

Enjoy the visit of Dades, also known as valley of figs. Dades valley featured prominently in a 2012 advertisement for the Cadillac CTS.

Leave Dades heading to Tinghir. The drive is spectacular, winding through stunning desert landscapes, villages with the expansive Jebel Sarhro lunar-scape.

Arrive in Tinghir, a gorgeous 40km oasis, which boasts one of the largest palm groves in the country.

Drive to at the famous Todra Gorge, a 300m wall, carved deep into the High Atlas Mountains. Thanks to its robust rock sides with many uneven surfaces, Todra Gorge is popular among rock climbers. More than 150 routes rated French Grade 5+ to 8 have been bolted in the canyon. Todra Gorge was featured on the premiere of the United States reality show Expedition Impossible.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Leave Tinghir through many Amazigh (Berber) villages and along the Ziz valley to get to Rissani.

Transfer to Merzouga, which is the heart of the desert.

Sunset camel ride in Merzouga.

Dinner in a charming Desert Camp by the dunes.

Overnight in Merzouga.

Breakfast in the desert camp.

Leave Merzouga heading to Fes, the spiritual capital on Morocco and one of the country’s oldest cities.
Arrive at Midelt where you will stop for Lunch at a local restaurant.

Continue through the Middle Atlas Mountains. Stop in Ifrane, a charming town and ski resort. Ifrane is famous for its Alpine climate, European-style houses and its 1665 metres (5,460 ft) in elevation. The town experiences snow during winter months and a cool climate during summer. Ifrane is also the place where the lowest temperature was ever recorded in Africa, -24 °C in 1935. While in Ifrane, expect to find animals like the threatened Barbary Macaque and local tree species such as the native Atlas cedar, Scrub oak and the introduced London plane.

Arrive at Fes late in the afternoon.

Dinner in the hotel.

Overnight in Fes.

Breakfast in the hotel.

Enjoy a half day guided city tour of Fes, the spiritual capital of Morocco. Begin with the entrance to the largest royal palace in Morocco. Continue with a panoramic view of the ancient medina. Enjoy an authentic experience at the traditional ceramic crafts village of Fes after that. Your next stop is Fes El Bali, the ancient town or Medina, which is a medieval part of Fes that has not changed for centuries.

Visit the famous Al-Karaouine mosque, built by Fatima Al Fihria in 857. Al-Karaouine mosque became home to the University of Al-Karaouine, which is the first university in the world and the world’s foremost center of learning at the beginning of the second millennium. The university was built by Fatima Al Fihria in 859, and, since then, it has become one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world. In the medina, visit also a Merdersa, which is a Coranic school. Complete the city tour of Fes with the leather Souq and the oldest Leather Tannery in the world. The tannery dates back at least nine centuries.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Drive to Chefchaouen, the “Blue City” and one of the most majestic places to visit in Morocco.

Dinner in the hotel.

Overnight in Chefchaouen.

Breakfast in the hotel.
Enjoy the city tour of Chefchaouen. Start your tour with the kasbah of Chefchaouen. This kasbah belongs to the early 18th century, and was built by the legendary ruler Moulay Ismail (1645 – 1727). Stop next at Plaza Uta el-Hammam, which is the cobbled main square in town and where the striking 15th century Grand Mosque sits.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Transfer to the UNESCO-sponsored Roman ruins in Volubilis, a Berber and Roman city partly excavated by the UNESCO. Volubilis was considered as the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania. The city was developed from the 3rd century BC onward as an Amazigh, then proto-Carthaginian, and from the 1st century AD onward, the city grew rapidly under the Roman rule.

Transfer to Meknes, the “Moroccan Versailles” and one of the oldest cities in the kingdom.

Dinner in the hotel.

Overnight in Meknes.

Flight… at 19:10
Breakfast in the hotel.

Enjoy the city tour of Meknes, which was the capital of Morocco under the reign of Moulay Ismail (1672–1727), a contemporary of Louis XIV, before it was relocated to Marrakech. Stop at the massive Bab El Mansour gate, which is the grandest of all imperial Moroccan gateways. Bab El Mansour gate was completed by Moulay Ismail’s son, Moulay Abdallah, in 1732.

Stop next at Hri Souani, which is a complex of three different buildings built for granaries and stables. This amazing site has been used as a scene for many films, the most famous of which is probably “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988 by Martin Scorsese.

Drive to Rabat, the capital of Morocco and one of its imperial cities.

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Enjoy the city tour of Rabat. Visit the Kasbah of the Oudayas. This Kasbah was constructed during the realm of the Almohads dynasty (12th century). Stop next at Mohammed V Mausoleum, which is home to the tombs of the current king’s father and grandfather. Your last stop in Rabat is Hassan Tower, which is a minaret built in 1195.

At 16:00: Transfer to Rabat airport for your departure flight.

********* End of our program*********