Exotic Morocco — 11 Days

Your driver meets you at Mohammed V Airport and takes you to Casablanca and from there continue to Rabat, later afternoon we will explore the Chellah Necropolis and Hassan Tower. End the evening at the Udayas Kasbah, a whitewashed fortress above the Bou Regreg river. Casablanca, we will visit the great Hassan II Mosque and downtown area on the last day of the trip coming from Marrakech.

Explore Meknes — the imperial city Sultan Moulay Ismail modelled on Versailles — and stand before Bab el-Mansour, the most spectacular gateway in North Africa. Continue to the hilltop holy town of Moulay Idriss, then to Volubilis, walking the vast Roman city past mosaic floors whose colours have barely faded in 2,000 years. Arrive in Fes as the sun sets.

Fes el-Bali was founded in 789 AD and has barely changed. Your licensed local guide — born in the medina — takes you through Al-Qarawiyyin University (the world's oldest), the Attarine Medersa, the Chouara Tanneries viewed from rooftop terraces, and the silver-worked Nejjarine Fountain. Afternoon free for the souks and rooftop tea.

Drive south, climbing into the Middle Atlas. Pass through Ifrane — 'Little Switzerland' with its chalets — then cedar forests where Barbary macaques roam freely, the only wild monkeys in Africa north of the Sahara. Descend through the dramatic Ziz Valley to Erfoud, gateway to the Sahara.

Begin in Rissani — birthplace of the Alaouite dynasty — then the small Berber village of Khamlia for a Gnawa music performance (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage). Your camel trek begins at the base of Erg Chebbi as the afternoon sun turns the dunes from gold to amber to deep red. Dinner, drumming and a humbling sky await at your luxury desert camp.

Wake before dawn and climb the dune behind camp to watch the Sahara turn from silver to gold. Travel west through Berber villages and palm groves to the Todra Gorge — limestone walls rising 300 metres from a canyon floor barely 10 metres wide — then along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs to the Dadès Gorge for the night.

Travel through the Skoura palm oasis to Ouarzazate — the 'Hollywood of Morocco.' Continue to Aït Ben Haddou, the UNESCO World Heritage fortress of sun-dried mud towers featured in Gladiator, Game of Thrones and Lawrence of Arabia. Walk its alleys with your guide before crossing the Tizi n'Tichka Pass (2,260 m) into Marrakech.

Your licensed Marrakech guide covers the city's greatest monuments: the Saadian Tombs, hidden for 300 years; El Badi Palace, its vast ruins now a stork colony; the Bahia Palace, built to be the most beautiful palace in the world; and the colour-coded souks. The grand finale is Djemaa el-Fna at night — storytellers, musicians and food stalls.

Today is deliberately unplanned. Wander back into the souks, find a rooftop terrace with mint tea and medina views, or choose an optional experience — a sunrise hot-air balloon, a Moroccan cooking class, a traditional hammam, or the extraordinary Majorelle Gardens.

Drive back to Casablanca — a three-hour journey that leaves a morning in Marrakech and an afternoon at leisure in Morocco's cosmopolitan capital. Walk the Ain Diab corniche, sit at a seafront café, and explore the old medina before a final dinner.

After a final Moroccan breakfast, your private driver takes you to Mohammed V International Airport. You've covered Morocco in its full breadth — Atlantic coast to Saharan desert, ancient Roman city to medieval medina, imperial palaces to Berber camp.