Beginning Rudimentary Itinerary for Morocco Christmas 2025

Lindy,
How many people,adults and children? Will you be there on Christmas Day and New Years Day?

Judy, it will be my two adult sons, daughter-in-law, grandsons, ages 9 and 11 (then), my husband and I. We would be there probably Christmas Eve and definitely Christmas Day. I'm unsure about NYE or NY. It depends on air fare, the kids's school schedule.

Suggest you look at Friendly Planet.com. We did a tour with them pre-Covid and it was great. Trying to sort the same out with that many folks going to "a less developed destination" is complicated, to say the least.

I had really helpful responses from several Forum contributors for my Morocco trip planning- look on the Beyond Europe option and enter Morocco in the search feature. I found more fairly recent posts there, too.
Also, what an incredibly generous gift to your family (and yourself) creating these lifetime memories together!
I am adding this in the hope it helps you: some of the reputable companies listed for me provide family- oriented tours. With transportation and language being potential challenges, especially when responsible for your family, it could be a benefit to have all these arrangements (including airport transfer) taken care of, so you can just relax and enjoy your time together.
Also, from the West Coast I am really having issues with finding flights, since my tour ends in Marrakesh JFK and EWR seem like the airports that come up the most, so that's going to be fortunatel!
Your family will be so excited!

Thank you, everyone. I have looked at prior posts on RS, and they have been helpful. I'm still wondering about which are your favorite sights and what your experiences with the weather in December/early January have been. How about the food? Any favorite riads? Experiences with car rentals?

What follows is lengthy. I just went back to our old trip journal to get more info for you. Stating the obvious, mais bien sur with your finite time frame choices will need to be made. Maybe check out the Dades and Todra valleys? Those two gorges are justly popular places. Our sunrise experience at one of them was amazing. I refer to the vista from the 3* hotel Kasbah Tizzarouine in Boumalne du Bades.

Another highlight would be remote Skoura, found at the end of Vallee du Dades towards Ouzarzate (these spellings). You could reach Skoura via Boumalne, through the mountain piste at Valee Bou Thrar, an authentic Berber heartland. I had a serious fall down a rockface nearby at Tourbist, a careless accident that taught this photographer to be more careful. One could possibly stay in Skoura at the less-touristy 'Ait Abou'. Their tower is apparently the tallest in the country. Not luxe, but we loved it for its genuine, real McKoy vibe.

As for Fes (plus Sefrou and Bahlil), we highly recco guide Ali: SEFRIOUI ABDELALI [email protected] 34 RUE OUSSAMA IBNOU ZAID APPARTMENT 5 PHONE-- 061254058
If he is still guiding now into his '70s, Ali would be a great choice. Honest, reliable and possibly offering to end your tour with a meal at his family's home in the Ville Nouvelle part of Fes.

*FWIW, few countries drew as much snarky comments from judgmental traveler-than-thou types responding to itinerary discussions, as once did Le Maroc over on Lonely Planet's old Thorn Tree forum. Too many negative creeps with their ponytails tied too tight.

PS suggested listening: anything by Boujmia, the late great Bob Marley of that nation. Almost certainly killed by the government. Hard to find CDs. Also anything by gnawa artist Abdermane Paco.
Good Luck.
I am done. The end.

I'd expect holiday schedules for 2025 to be not all that different from the flights running this year, so take a look now.

My trip to Morocco was way too long ago to allow me to provide specific suggestions, but I bet your guidebook is recommending a day in Casablanca not really because there's important stuff to see there (the city is mostly very modern), but in recognition of the likely need to fly in and/or out of that city.

My trip was in May or early June, so your weather will be quite different. I think it may vary a lot by location; Morocco has mountains. This is the website I use to investigate the actual, historical, day-by-day weather data in recent years. I like to look at the most recent five years, basically to figure out how hot or cold it could be. Be sure to check all your locations.

Weather Marrakech -- December 2023

Use the pull-down box at the right, just above the graph, to change the month and year. Do look at January, too, since you're traveling in late December. Use the Search box at the upper right to research your other potential locations. Be sure to pack warm layers to deal with the quite cool temps you may have in the evenings. As you can see from the Marrakech graph I've linked above, the day's high temperature may not last very long at all.

For a quick-and-dirty comparison of different potential stops in Morocco, you can go to the cities' entries on wikipedia.com. There will usually be a climate-summary chart showing monthly averages. Averages hide extremes, so don't rely totally on those Wikipedia charts, but it's useful to know how much colder City X might be, on average, than City Y.

See what the CDC currently says about the potability of Moroccan tap water and the advisability (or not) of eating uncooked produce you haven't pealed yourself. My mother and I were cautious about food on our trip to Morocco, mostly eating in the restaurants of nice hotels (not our usual practice) and drinking bottled water. We were in the country for at least 2 weeks, and we had no digestive issues at all.

Thank you Gregg and acraven! I'll look into the sights you mentioned, Gregg.
I hadn't thought about Wikipedia but will research there. CDC reports are an important site for health info especially since my husband is immunocompromised. I think we'll all probably go with bottled water, no ice, etc.
If anyone knows of airlines that are better than others in terms of direct flights, best layovers if not direct, etc., I'd appreciate your knowledge.

Gregg, I'm going to do a more thorough search of your suggestions after my return from Europe in January--too much going on with it now and I'm pitching the idea to my sons and daughter-in-law as a gift for next year. If they are excited, then, I'll go full force in January/Feb with the planning. The gorges look truly exciting. I'd like a combo of Marrakesh and a total change such as the gorges. Have to explore the transportation from Marrakesh/Casablanca. Thanks!

Lindy, we went in early January 2019, and evenings in the cities (Marrakech, Fes) were cool, but nights in the desert were surprisingly cold. Our sort-of glamping desert camp provided a space heater for the dinner tent, and we were wrapped up in bed in our “luxury” tent, with en-suite toilet. The non-luxury tent option required going outside to the toilet a few doors down. Deserts don’t have clouds in the sky to hold in the heat at night.

We flew British Airways from Denver, through London, and on to Marrakech. Short stay in London on the way home. Your Newark/New York location undoubtedly gives you more options, for airline choices, maybe routes, and perhaps fares.

Maybe Christmastime is more popular than right afterwards, or maybe 2019 just wasn’t busy, but we were almost the only tourists around, both where we stayed, and where we went. We stayed at the Dar Kawa riad in Marrakech. Each morning, a guide showed up after outstanding breakfasts to show us new sights and experiences. We had dinners there, too.

After flying to Fes, we stayed at another riad. They were so empty that the heat was turned off, but they put us up in the room on the top floor (heat on for us) and we had breakfast in jackets.

Private desert tour with Desert Majesty, based out of Ouzarzate. Rick didn’t have a guidebook out then (except for the Tangier side-trip in his Spain book), but we used Lonely Planet and the riads’ hired guides, plus the Desert Majesty itinerary. They didn’t stop at high-pressure selling sites, although other folks we met with other companies said they were taken to many.

This wasn’t a high-end trip, but not cut rate either. We didn’t visit Casablanca or Tangier.

Thank you for your information about British Airways and tour with Desert Majesty. I'll add them to my file.