What cities shold be on the itinerary
 

Traveling to morocco with 4 girlfriends for aprox 12 days. No hostels or backpacks.. but also not a honeymoon splurge.

Undecided on which cities to visit, considering our time restriction. Recomendations on how many days we should spend on each place would be appreciated.

Have decided on :
Marakesch and Fes, planning 2 days on Fes and 3 on marakesch

Undecided on which to include:
Rabat ? how many days ?
Casablanca ( would only stay a day.. heard the mosque is the only thing to see )
essaouira ? how much time ?

Would love to spend one night in the dessert but have no idea how to do it ... where to leave from, how to book it without it becoming too touristy... tips would be gratly appreciated

Anyone who knows the country well.. I´d love to hear your ideal itinerary, if there is some other city or town which is worth including... also on wheter it os better to use shared taxis, trains or buses ?

Thanks

I read on someones post about the sleepover in the sahara, and the link to the company which organizes them...
Still undecided on which ciies to go to and for how long..
I really appreciate the help Thanks

Hi,I am also going to Morocco with some girlfriends in July. We are doing a private tour through www.saharatrek.com - their price includes airfare- we are doing the "Deserts and Empires" tour which includes a camel ride and overnight in the Sahara desert.I researched many Morocco tours but very few included the sahara trek and we really wanted to do that.

Nothing really to see in Casblanca. The mosque like most others in other cities are not accessible if you are a non-muslim. We only got to go into medersas (koranic schools). For us, two full days in Marrakech would have been enough. Two full days in Fez also a good amount of time. We prefer to explore outside of the cities. Drive through the Atlas. Best experience. Also a trip to the dessert is a must. A drive out of Marrakech to a valley down south would have been nice if we had time. I heard it is beautiful. Only 60 kilometers from Marrakech. For a drive through the mountains you will need about 3-4 nights (stop to see all the kasbahs on the way). Essouierra is a nice coastal town. We were there for three nights and it was perfect amount of time for us. For our trip we made a mistake of hanging out in Marrakech for too long (4 nights). We also would have loved to see Ilfrane (a lot of locals told us it is a must-see place).

Thank you all for your responses...
smgapp,I checked uot the website you mentioned, thanks... although we decided to do the entire country whithout a tour ( we feel that getting sometimes lost and going at your own pace are important parts of the experience ) we are not that adventurous to go into the dessert without a guide , so we are hiring a guide 8 tour ) exclusevely for that purpose and only for two days...
Our tour came from a company that does 2, 3 or 4 days to the dessert their website is: www.saharaexpe.ma, for a 1 night stay they charge from 650 dh to 1100 dh ( depending on the number of people ) , so that´s us... but i did find a website that does tours in morocco that are predesigned , or also gives you the option to custumize your own for your group, you should check it out at: www.marrakeshvoyage.com ... althoug for my 2 day excursion to the dessert, their quote was very high compared to others ( but that´s probably because a 2 day trip is noy costly for them ) good luck !
MatthiesA, thanks for your reply, it was very helpful... we where thinking 3 night is marrakesh and are cutting it to 2, and adding one to essouiera for 2 there... How did you travel ? bus ? train ? rental car ? shared taxi ? thanks...

unless things have changed, there is a very interesting tour in english of the mosque is Casa, twice each morning except on Friday. it is truly a powerful experience. the exterior of the building is also breath-taking. you could also go to a hamam in Casa and the city has some interesting restaurants. Morocco is wonderful.

I also found one other day tour company that was recommended on this message board- it is www.highcountry.co.uk- they offer a tour called "A day in the life of a Berber" which sounds fun since it lets us really experience berber life.