My husband and I decided at the last minute to travel to Morocco in 3 weeks. I've booked nothing yet, and now I'm starting to panic a little. I'm trying to have 8 or 9 good days of sightseeing, not including days flying in/out of Casablanca. Since I've never been there, I want to see the most popular places: Fez, Marrakesh, Merzouga/Erg Chebbi, Chefchaouen, and either Casablanca or Rabat. Can anyone tell me if this is possible, and if so, what the best route/order to do these? How many days do I need in each location? I've read on other posts about trains being easy between the main cities, but how do you get to Merzouga? Thanks in advance for your help 
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I think you would be rushing by trying to see so many places in 9 days. We spent two weeks this past December and this was our itinerary - we flew into Casablanca and left the next morning to Marrakesh (4 days), we then drove to Ouarzazate and stayed there one night, Erfoud one night, Merzouga one night(would have liked to have stayed one more day to just relax, because it's absolutely stunning) and overnight in Meknes. We then went on to Fes and stayed there 4 days (due to the holidays, the hotel would only book 3 nights minimum ). On our return to Casablanca we stopped for a few hours in Rabat, which I think is enough time. Did not go to Chefchaouen since we didn't have enough time. Whatever you do, don't waste time in Casablanca, with the exception of the new mosque by the water, it's just another big city.
Our preference would have been to start our trip in Fes, but couldn't do it this way because of the availability of the hotels.
Since there were four of us, we had a driver with a mini-van
for the two weeks, which worked great for us so I really can't comment on the trains. It was an amazing trip.
Good luck!
First relax plenty to do stay flexible my fav is train...
www.seat61.com/Morocco www.visitmorocco.com
Imperial Cities in the north Riads/Meknes Riad D'or super nice
then The Marrakesh Express...awesome experience!
Did it first B4 Woodstock.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGsF6bCkuN4
Do your High Atlas/Sahara tours from there
merzougatours.com
travel.state.gov for a heads up insuremytrip.com wise
Always get best deals on driver/guides for tours
through my nice hotels boots on the ground...
otel.com booking.com day b4 or day of...
Always pay with CC never wire money many scammers.
Happy Journey!
www.merzouga-tours.com oops missed a hyphen
www.virtualtourist.com great local info too...
Have fun!
we have already mentioned a link for companies, so please keep this website from spammers, advertisers, good companies does not need such advertising.
please check out the following link to check out the Tour companies that are available to use, and the highly recommended once to use: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g293734-Activities-Marrakech.html
Thanks 4holdings! You confirmed my suspicions about Casablanca, and I think I will skip it all together (other than flying in/out). I'm going to stick with Marrakesh, Fez and Merzouga. Did you feel that 4 days in Fez and Marrakesh was too much? Why did you want to start in Fez instead of Marrakesh? Hiring a driver sounds like a great idea...just don't know how expensive it is for only 2 of us? Maybe it's worth it to save time traveling by car instead of train. Did you arrange that before you went? How?
Essaouria-fabulous city south of Casablanca that has a wonderful harbor city;beaches;souks/medina with better prices than Marrakesh;goats in the trees;fresh seafood that is literally cooked at the harborside,etc.It encompasses everything wonderful about Morocco and its wonderful history and people!
Sek90, hope this answers some of your questions. Our idea of starting in Fez had to do that the best accommodations of our whole trip was in Marrakech at The Mamounia, which would have been the perfect ending to our two weeks in Morocco.
Because of the amount of days you have, I think that 3 days in Fez and 3 days in Marrakech will be good if you can manage it. You will be spending a bit of time in the car, but with a few stops along the way. After our first trip to Morocco we know we will be back and you will probably feel the same at the end of your trip. We arranged everything beforehand since it was the busy season. If you can hire a vehicle with a driver I think you will be maximizing your time in Morocco. The company we used coordinated for a guide in Fez and Marrakech. The driver was not allowed to be a guide inside the Medina...I think that is just some sort of Govt. regulation.
P.S. I would recommend our driver, but he works for a tour
company that we would not use again.
After a number of trips to Morocco, if I wanted to spend 8 or 9 days this is what I'd do:
- Arrive Casablanca, train from airport to Casa Voyaguers train station.
- Continue from Casa Voyaguers to Fes by train. 3 nights.
- Fes to Marakech by train, 4 nights.
- Marrakech to Essaouira by car & driver (grand taxi) 2 nights.
- Return to Marrakech, on to Casablanca for return flight.
4holdings please to tell us which company is NOT good. So many people tout their companies, we could use a bit of balance here. Thank you in advance.
indianewbie12 - Sorry I did not respond sooner, but nevertheless, I hope this will be helpful to others. The company I would not recommend is Casablanca Travel & Tours (Hassan Samrhouni). Casablanca Tours works out of Washington DC and they co-ordinate travel with a company from Morocco. They basically act as liaison. We did the booking of two of the main hotels, they did the rest. As I have said
before, our driver was great. Our accommodation in Meknes arranged thru Casablanca was a disaster. The bathroom had a sink that was falling apart, electrical outlets did not work in our room, and the Riad was very noisy.
One of the best things we did was to insist that they provide us with a cell phone for local calls to be able to communicate
with our driver as needed. That worked out great.