From the Jemaa el-Fnaa to a tent under Erg Chebbi.
Which Agafay evening actually feeds you properly. What three days to Merzouga costs, and whether the driving is worth one night on the sand. Ouzoud or Ourika when the medina hits forty degrees. Reviews of every tour you can book in Morocco.
Four bookings a first Moroccan week gets built around.
An evening in the stone desert, the long haul to the big dunes, a waterfall day when the city gets too hot, and somebody to walk you through the souk lanes.
01The first eveningAgafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner ShowCamels across the Agafay at dusk, then dinner and drums on the stone plain an hour from the medina.
02The long haul3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourThree days over the Atlas to Erg Chebbi and back. Two of them are driving; the night on the sand is the reason.
03The cool dayOuzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat TripOuzoud falls a hundred metres in three tiers, and there are macaques in the olive trees on the walk down.
04The medina, decodedBahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, Souk and Medina TourBahia Palace and the Saadian Tombs first, then the souk with somebody who knows which turn to take.
Stone desert, big dunes, or the long way south. Pick your sand.
Morocco sells three completely different deserts and they are not interchangeable. One is an hour from Marrakech, one is ten, and the difference between them is two days of your trip.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · Agafay Desert Quad & Camel Rides with Dinner Show
Agafay, after workGrey stone hills an hour out. Camels at dusk, dinner under the stars, back by midnight.
Erg ChebbiThe postcard dunes. Two days of driving each way for the night that pays for it.
Zagora and ChigagaThe shorter run south. Less road, smaller dunes, the same silence.
A night under canvasFixed camps with beds and hot water, from a mattress in a tent upwards.
All 71 Sahara tours →
Marrakech first, then whichever way the week points.
A red medina with a square that changes at dusk, sea walls at Essaouira, the oldest university city on earth, a whole town painted blue in the Rif, an Atlantic surf strip, and the port that holds up the Casablanca skyline.
The days out more people take than anything else in Morocco.
Every tour in Morocco →From a twenty-dollar evening in the Agafay to three days on the road to Merzouga, these are the ones that fill first.
1
Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show
Leave Marrakech by air-conditioned bus for the Agafay Desert, about 40 minutes away. Visit an argan oil cooperative, ride a camel for 15 to 20 minutes, sip tea, watch sunset, then eat Moroccan food at a camp with Berber music and a fire show. Guides such as Youssef Koboy, Akoun, and Abdillah are noted for careful organization.
From · $20
Read our review →
2
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
from $17
3
Agafay Desert Quad & Camel Rides with Dinner Show
from $24
4
Agafay Desert Quad Biking Tour with Dinner-Show
from $21
5
Atlas Mountains, Ourika Valley, Waterfall & Lunch
from $16
6
3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour
from $134
7
Berber villages : Atlas Mountains Day Hike from Marrakech
from $15
8
Merzouga 3-Day Desert Safari with Food
from $122
Tagines you cook yourself, and a stall crawl through the Marrakech night.
Eating here is an itinerary of its own. A morning in the souk buying what you will cook by lunchtime, a run of stalls after dark, and dinner in the desert with a drum circle.
- 1Street Food Tour with a Local Guidefrom $34
- 2Street Food Tour by Nightfrom $43
- 3Moroccan Cooking Class with Pickupfrom $31
Marrakech is a base. Half the good days start with an early minibus.
Waterfalls in the Middle Atlas, a river valley with tables standing in the water, a mud-brick ksar that has stood in for half of Hollywood, and a port town three hours west with the wind behind it.
What a day out in Morocco really runs to.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A lot of the best Moroccan days come in under twenty dollars.
Medina walks, waterfall days, an hour on a quad in the Palmeraie and most of the Agafay evenings.
Full days over the Tizi n Tichka, the Zagora run, balloon flights and the three-day desert loops.
A driver and a 4x4 for the week, private guides, and the camps with real plumbing.
Blue paint, mud brick and a stone desert: three Moroccan originals.
Old towns and deserts exist everywhere. A town painted entirely blue, a mud-brick ksar still standing after four centuries, and dinner on a stone plain with the High Atlas behind it do not.
Chefchaouen, Painted Blue
The old town was limewashed plain white until the colour arrived, and nobody entirely agrees when or why: the usual candidates are Jewish refugees in the 1930s, a belief that blue keeps the mosquitoes off, and the fact that it holds the cool. What is not in doubt is that the medina is repainted by hand every year, bucket by bucket, and the blue runs up the steps, over the door frames and onto the flowerpots.
- 1Chefchaouen Day Trip with Local Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,287 reviews
- 2Chefchaouen Day Trip from Fez (Shared Group Tour)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,394 reviews
- 3Blue City magic: Affordable Day Trip from Fez to Chefchaouen★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,960 reviews
The Ksar at Ait Ben Haddou
A handful of families still live inside the walls; everybody else moved across the river to the new village years ago. The mud brick has to be resurfaced after every serious rain, which is why a fortified village begun in the seventeenth century looks freshly built. Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and most of the desert scenes you can picture were shot on this slope.
- 1Day Trip to Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,447 reviews
- 22-Day Sahara Tour to Zagora & Ait Ben Haddou★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,925 reviews
- 3Ouarzazate, Ait Ben Haddou & Atlas Studios★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 869 reviews
Dinner Out in the Agafay
Half an hour past the Marrakech ring road the ground turns grey and treeless and the High Atlas stands up behind it. There is no sand, which is the part nobody mentions: the Agafay is a stone desert. It works because you can be out there for sunset, eat under the stars with the lights of the city on the horizon, and still sleep in your riad.
- 1Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 35,119 reviews
- 2Agafay Desert Quad & Camel Rides with Dinner Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 27,382 reviews
- 3Agafay Desert Quad Biking Tour with Dinner-Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 16,569 reviews
Four Moroccan bookings the calendar decides for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over mint tea the night before. These four run on dawn departures, tent counts and visiting hours that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Balloon Flight, Berber Breakfast & CertificateBaskets hold a fixed number and every flight lifts at first light. A windy morning pushes the whole manifest to the next one.
- 023-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourThe camps out at Erg Chebbi have a set number of tents, and it is a full day of driving each way to reach them.
- 03Casablanca Tour with Hassan II Mosque VisitIt is the one mosque in Morocco non-Muslims can walk into, and only on a guided visit at fixed hours.
- 04Majorelle Garden Entry TicketsEntry runs on timed slots with a daily cap, and the garden is small enough that the cap bites by mid-morning.
Chefchaouen is three hours up from Tangier, and worth the seat.
The Rif runs cooler, greener and slower than anything south of it. The blue town is why people come; the ferry port at Tangier is how most of them arrive.
Every day in Chefchaouen →
When the medina hits forty degrees, get under a roof.
July and August do one thing to this city. By eleven the square is unusable and the covered souk lanes are the only shade going. The answer is an early start and then a ceiling: a hammam, a courtyard, a kitchen, a potter’s wheel.
By place — medina, coast and dunes
By kind of day — sand, souk, kitchen or road
Marrakech, the Atlas, Ait Ben Haddou, Merzouga, Fez: the standard first loop.
Ourika Valley
Ait Ben HaddouFresh in: the latest Moroccan days out.
More new Morocco reviews →
Fes to Volubilis, Moulay Idriss and Meknes Private Day Trip
Read our review →
FES TO Chefchaouen Day Trip- luxury Private Tour
Read our review →
walking day : private excursion in the ancient city of Fez
Read our review →
Discover the secrets of the Medina of Fez: guided cultural tour (private)
Read our review →
Day trip to Volubilis – Moulay Idriss & Meknes From Fes
Read our review →
A Unique Experience In Fez With A Guide And A Driver (Full Day)
Read our review →
Taxi From Fes To All Directions- One Way / Or The Opposite
Read our review →
3 Days 2 Nights: Desert Tour from Fes to Marrakech
Read our review →