Your driver picks you up from your Marrakech riad or hotel at 08:00. Within the hour you climb into the High Atlas, crossing the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 metres — the highest major road in North Africa. Pull over for photos at panoramic viewpoints where the mountains fold into one another as far as you can see.

By late morning you reach Ait Ben Haddou, the most famous ksar in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987. This fortified village of earthen buildings has appeared in Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, and Game of Thrones. You walk the narrow passages to the hilltop granary with your guide, then cross the dry riverbed for the classic view back toward the kasbah.

After lunch in a Berber village, continue through Ouarzazate — Morocco's film capital — and into the Skoura palm grove, where ancient kasbahs rise out of the oasis. The afternoon drive takes you through Kelaat M'Gouna, the Valley of Roses, before reaching the Dades Valley for your first overnight stay in a comfortable guesthouse overlooking the gorge.

Overnight: Dades Valley — traditional Berber guesthouse with dinner included.

After breakfast, drive the winding road through the Dades Gorge — known locally as the "Monkey Fingers" for its eroded sandstone pillars. The morning light on these formations is worth waking up early for.

Next stop: Todra Gorge, where sheer limestone walls rise 300 metres on either side. You have time to walk the canyon floor with the Todra River running at your feet — cool even in summer. Local climbers scale the walls here, and you will often see Berber families picnicking along the water.

After lunch in Tinerhir, the landscape flattens and opens. By late afternoon you reach Merzouga, a small Saharan village at the edge of the Erg Chebbi dunes — Morocco's highest sand dunes, some reaching 150 metres. Drop your larger bags at the lodge and take only what you need for the night.

Your camel guide meets you for the sunset trek into the dunes. This is not a five-minute photo stop — you ride for about an hour into the quiet heart of the erg, arriving at your desert camp as the sun drops below the sand. After a traditional tagine dinner, the drums come out. Then the stars. On a clear night, the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon.

Overnight: Luxury desert camp in Erg Chebbi — private tent with bed, en-suite bathroom, dinner and breakfast included.

Wake before sunrise and climb the nearest dune in bare feet. The sand is cool underfoot and the light changes minute by minute — soft pink to deep gold to blazing white. This is why people cross the world to get here.

After breakfast at camp, ride your camel back to Merzouga village or return by 4x4. Today you explore the desert region beyond the dunes. Visit Khamlia village, home to a community of Gnawa musicians whose ancestors came from sub-Saharan Africa centuries ago. Their music — hypnotic, percussive, deeply African — is unlike anything else in Morocco.

Drive out to meet a Berber nomad family living in traditional goat-hair tents on the hamada (stony desert). They will serve you tea, show you how they bake bread in the sand, and answer questions through your guide about a way of life that has persisted in this harsh landscape for millennia.

After lunch at a local café, the afternoon is yours to relax at the lodge pool, try sandboarding on the dunes, or simply sit and watch the desert light change. This is the day most guests tell us they wish had been longer.

Overnight: Merzouga — comfortable lodge at the edge of the dunes, with breakfast included.

Today is the longest drive of the tour — around seven hours with stops — but the scenery transforms constantly. You leave the Sahara behind and climb into the Ziz Valley, a long ribbon of date palm oasis that stretches for miles along the Ziz River. Stop at a panoramic viewpoint above the valley for photographs that capture the scale of the oasis.

Continue through Errachidia and into the Middle Atlas Mountains, where the landscape shifts from desert to cedar forest. At the Azrou cedar forest, stop to observe the Barbary macaques — Morocco's native monkeys — in their natural habitat. They are accustomed to visitors but are wild animals; your guide will advise on respectful observation.

The road descends through Ifrane, Morocco's "Little Switzerland" — a clean, ordered town with alpine-style architecture and a ski resort that operates in winter. It is a complete contrast to everything you have seen so far and a reminder of Morocco's geographic range.

Arrive in Fes by late afternoon. Check into your riad in the old medina and, if energy allows, take a first short walk through the streets that you will explore properly tomorrow.

Overnight: Fes — traditional riad in the heart of the medina, with breakfast included.

Fes el-Bali — the old medina — is the largest car-free urban area in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. With over 9,000 streets, it cannot be navigated by map. Today a licensed local Fes guide meets you at your riad and leads you through it on foot.

You visit the Royal Palace (exterior), the Bou Inania Madrasa — one of the few religious buildings in Morocco open to non-Muslims — and the Al Quaraouiyine University, founded in 859 AD and recognized by UNESCO as the oldest continuously operating university in the world.

The Chouara Tannery is the moment most visitors remember. From a leather shop terrace you look down on the stone vats filled with dye — white (pigeon droppings for softening), saffron yellow, indigo blue, poppy red. The process has not changed in centuries. Your guide explains each stage, and there is no obligation to buy.

The rest of the day winds through the souks organized by craft — the brass workers' quarter, the wood turners' square, the dyers' alley. After lunch at a traditional restaurant (own cost), the guide returns you to the riad. The evening is yours to explore or rest.

Overnight: Fes — same riad, with breakfast included.

After breakfast, drive north from Fes toward the Rif Mountains. The landscape softens into olive groves and wheat fields. By late morning you reach the Roman ruins of Volubilis (optional entry, approx. 70 MAD). This is the best-preserved Roman archaeological site in Morocco, with intact mosaics depicting mythological scenes still in situ on the floors of ancient villas. The site overlooks a broad plain, and on a clear day you can see for miles.

Continue through the agricultural town of Ouazzane and begin the climb into the Rif. Chefchaouen appears suddenly — a cascade of blue-washed buildings clinging to the mountainside. The town was founded in 1471 as a fortress against Portuguese expansion and was closed to Europeans until the Spanish occupied it in 1920. The blue paint tradition is said to have been introduced by Jewish refugees in the 1930s; today the entire medina is repainted in shades of blue twice a year.

Check into your riad, then walk the medina. There is no fixed route here — part of the pleasure of Chefchaouen is simply walking without a plan. Photograph the blue steps, the flower pots, the cats sleeping on windowsills. Climb to the Spanish Mosque on the hill above town for the classic sunset view back over the blue medina with the Rif peaks behind it.

Overnight: Chefchaouen — boutique riad in the medina, with breakfast included.

Your final morning in Chefchaouen starts slowly — time for one last walk through the blue streets, a final photograph, breakfast on the terrace. Mid-morning your driver collects you for the return journey south.

The route follows the modern highway, crossing the agricultural heartland of the Gharb plain. If time and interest permit, you can make a brief stop in Rabat — Morocco's capital — to see the Hassan Tower and the Mausoleum of Mohammed V from the outside, or in Casablanca for a quick view of the Hassan II Mosque (exterior). These are optional stops; discuss timing with your driver on the day.

Arrive in Marrakech by late afternoon or early evening. Your driver drops you at your riad, hotel, or directly at Marrakech Menara Airport if you have an onward flight. Casablanca airport drop-off is also available — please request this at booking.

End of tour.