8 nights / 9 days · Kingdom of Morocco
Imperial Cities with Essaouira
The imperial-cities run with a ninth day added — four nights in Marrakech, the Ourika Valley, and a day on the Atlantic at Essaouira.
- Duration
- 8 nights / 9 days
- Where you stay
- Casablanca → Rabat → Fes → Marrakech
- Style
- Multi-city
- From
- AED 7,896per person
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About this trip
The seven-night circuit with the pressure taken off it. The same opening — Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, Volubilis and a guided day in Fes — but Marrakech gets four nights instead of three, and the extra one buys a day trip west to Essaouira.
Essaouira is the counterweight to everything before it: a small walled town on the Atlantic that has been Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman and Portuguese in turn and has stayed stubbornly itself, with an eighteenth-century harbour and an empty run of sand heading south. It is a long drive from Marrakech and worth every hour of it.
What you go for
- A day on the Atlantic at Essaouira, out and back from Marrakech
- Volubilis and Meknes between Rabat and Fes
- A full guided day in Fes el-Bali
- The Ourika Valley and the waterfalls at Setti Fatma
The route
Day by day
Times are the operator's planned schedule. They shift with the season, the light and the traffic on the day.
- Day 1
Arrival in Casablanca
Overnight: Casablanca
On arrivalMohammed V airport
Met by your driver and English-speaking escort guide and transferred into Casablanca.
Check in at your hotel.
EveningDinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight in Casablanca.
- Day 2
Casablanca, then Rabat
Overnight: Rabat
MorningBreakfast at the hotel.
MorningHassan II Mosque
The building that traces the modern history of Casablanca, its minaret standing 210 metres over the Atlantic.
Quartier Habous
The new medina: a mix of French and Moroccan architecture built as a single piece.
AfternoonRabat
Lunch at leisure, then the drive to the administrative capital for an orientation tour — the Royal Palace, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, the Hassan Tower, the Kasbah of the Oudayas and Chellah, closing in the medina and its souks.
EveningDinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight in Rabat.
- Day 3
Rabat, Meknes and Volubilis to Fes
Overnight: Fes
MorningBreakfast at the hotel, then the road east.
MorningMeknes
The Ismaili capital: forty kilometres of walls, the Bab Mansour gate, the royal stables and the Jewish quarter.
AfternoonVolubilis
The Roman ruins on the way through, then on to Fes.
EveningCheck in at Fes. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
- Day 4
Fes, full day
Overnight: Fes
MorningBreakfast at the hotel.
Full dayFes el-Bali
A guided day through the medieval medina founded in the eighth century — the Andalusian mosque, al-Qarawiyyin, the madrasas of the Middle Ages and the Nejjarine fountain.
AfternoonThe craftsmen’s quarters
After a traditional Moroccan lunch on your own account, on through the old medina past craftsmen working to the old methods.
EveningDinner and overnight in Fes.
- Day 5
Fes to Marrakech
Overnight: Marrakech
Full dayAcross the Middle Atlas
South through the Berber village of Immouzzer Kandar and Ifrane, whose cottages and ski station have earned it the nickname of the Moroccan Switzerland.
AfternoonOptional lunch at a local restaurant, then on to Marrakech.
EveningDinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight in Marrakech.
- Day 6
Marrakech, full day
Overnight: Marrakech
MorningBreakfast at the hotel.
Full dayThe red city
The second-oldest imperial city after Fes, founded by the Almoravids at the end of the eleventh century: the Koutoubia Mosque, the Menara Gardens, the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace.
AfternoonSouks and Jemaa el-Fna
Lunch at leisure, then the souks and the craftsmen’s quarter, finishing at Jemaa el-Fna.
EveningDinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight in Marrakech.
- Day 7
The Ourika Valley
Overnight: Marrakech
MorningBreakfast at the hotel.
1100Into the Atlas foothills
Up the Ourika valley through mountain villages, stopping where the colour is worth stopping for.
Setti Fatma
Streams, seven waterfalls, cliffs and green terraces still farmed the medieval way. A local guide walks you to the first waterfall.
AfternoonLunch at a restaurant over the mountains, then back to Marrakech by around 1700.
EveningDinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight in Marrakech.
- Day 8
Day trip to Essaouira
Overnight: Marrakech
MorningBreakfast at the hotel, then the drive west.
Full dayEssaouira, formerly Mogador
A town the Phoenicians and Carthaginians occupied, that supplied purple dye to Rome, absorbed a Jewish silversmithing tradition and spent centuries as a Portuguese enclave — and stayed a small Berber town through all of it. An introductory tour covers the harbour and the walls, with the Atlantic wind and an empty run of sand heading south.
EveningBack to Marrakech. Dinner at an Indian restaurant. Overnight at your hotel.
- Day 9
Departure
EarlyEarly check-out.
Transfer to Mohammed V airport in Casablanca for your onward travel.
Where you stay
Hotel options
Pick a line and the whole trip is costed against it, so you can see what the difference actually buys.
- 3★
- Campanile, Casablanca
- Mercure Shehrazade, Rabat
- Atlas Saiss, Fes
- Red Hotel, Marrakech
AED 7,896per person
- 4★
- Oum Palace, Casablanca
- Onomo Terminus, Rabat
- Barcelo, Fes
- Opera Plaza, Marrakech
AED 8,557per person
- 5★
- Movenpick, Casablanca
- Dawliz, Rabat
- Les Mérinides, Fes
- Adam Park, Marrakech
AED 9,365per person
Per person, twin share. Land only — international flights are not included. Rates move with the season, the number of you travelling and the hotel line you choose, so we confirm the final figure against your dates before anything is booked.
The detail
What is included
Included
- Eight nights at your choice of the hotels above.
- Eight buffet breakfasts.
- Two dinners at the hotel, buffet or a three-course set menu.
- Six dinners at an Indian restaurant.
- Lunch in the Ourika Valley.
- The excursion to Essaouira.
- Deluxe vehicle at your disposal from arrival to departure.
- Through English-speaking guide from arrival to departure, from fifteen travelling.
- Entrance fees to the monuments and sites named in the day-by-day.
- One free place in a single room on bookings of fifteen to thirty-five travelling.
- Taxes and service charges.
- A coordinator from the ground operator’s team runs the trip end to end, from check-ins to the quality of the meals.
Not included
- International and domestic flights.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals not listed above, including all lunches.
- Drinks.
- Extras and expenses of a personal nature.
- Tips.
- Anything not set out under the inclusions above.
Meal upgrades
- Dinners in a local restaurant
- The dinners booked at an Indian restaurant are served in a local Moroccan restaurant instead for travellers of other nationalities. No supplement is quoted for the change.
- Dinner at Chez Ali, Marrakech
- USD 70 per person, added to any evening in Marrakech.
Entry rules, tourism taxes and health requirements change without notice and depend on your passport. Everything above is confirmed by our operations desk before your booking is finalised.
Also consider
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Multi-cityImperial Cities and MarrakechCasablanca, Rabat, Meknes and Volubilis, two nights in Fes, then three in Marrakech with a day in the Ourika Valley.FromAED 7,235pp7 nights / 8 days · Casablanca → Rabat → Fes → MarrakechDay by day
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Price Imperial Cities with Essaouira
Tell us your dates and who's travelling. We'll price every hotel line above against them and rebuild the days if you want them rebuilt.