Morocco Tours from Fes

Fes is the best place in Morocco to start a desert trip, and hardly anyone does it. The road from Fes to Merzouga is about 470 km and seven to eight hours — two hours shorter than from Marrakech — and it is a better drive: the Middle Atlas cedar forests, the hill station of Ifrane, and the Ziz Valley, a canyon filled with hundreds of thousands of date palms.

Running the route one way, Fes to Merzouga to Marrakech, costs the same driving hours as an out-and-back from Marrakech and repeats none of them. That is the single best planning decision available to anyone with three days and flexible flights.

Fes itself, first

Give the city two nights before you leave it. Fes el-Bali is the largest car-free urban area in the world, about 9,000 lanes, and the Al-Attarine and Bou Inania medersas are the finest small buildings in Morocco. The Chouara tannery is best in the morning while the tanners are working. Hire a licensed guide for your first day — the medina is genuinely hard to navigate and a guide is the difference between being lost and understanding the place.

Where the routes go

• South to the Sahara — Ifrane, the Azrou cedar forest and its Barbary macaques, Midelt, the Ziz Valley, then Erfoud and the Erg Chebbi dunes.
• North to Chefchaouen — 3.5 hours into the Rif, to the blue town.
• West to Volubilis and Meknes — an hour away, and the best day trip in northern Morocco.
• On to Marrakech — through the gorges and Ait Ben Haddou, never retracing the outbound road.

How long you need

• 3 days — Fes to Merzouga to Marrakech, with a camp night in the dunes. The classic.
• 5 days — the same with Volubilis and Meknes, and a slower morning in the desert.
• 7–10 days — add Chefchaouen and the Atlas, or finish on the coast.