Morocco Itinerary Assistance

Terri,

Been to Morocco several times, across all the places you've mentioned. Wonderful stuff to see there, you will like it.

First, smart choice to fly in and out, skipping the ferry (and ferry port) experience. To your questions...

I'm assuming you have not yet bought your tickets in and out. Do check carefully on your dates aligning with date of flights - the flights on low cost airlines don't go every day, so make sure your dates align.

3 nights in Marrakech should be fine. Don't be intimidated by the medina, you do not need a guide, you can navigate it with a little common sense, a good memory (take note of visual landmarks as you wander); I found a small, cheap pocket compass helpful (to know which way you want to go to get back out).

It's been years since I went to Essaouira, but I found it lovely and utterly delightful. I understand it has become a lot more popular and developed in recent years, so some of its charms may have been eroded, but it's worth a visit. I recall the bus ride being more than just a short trip, so I'm not sure that doing it as a day trip is reasonable; consider an overnight.

The train between Marrakech and Fes is easy and pleasant, more-or-less direct, but takes pretty much the whole day (unless they've finished the high-speed rail line they are building, but I don't think that's imminent).

Fes is wonderful. In some ways similar to Marrakech but not exactly the same. Bigger and more chaotic medina, like stepping through a time machine and popping out in the middle ages. Both cities are worth doing.

Meknes is also nice but, if you have days in both Marrakech and Fes might be overkill.

I would not recommend Casablanca. There ain't that much to see there (one big mosque, which is modern, and that's about it). I'd skip it and spend that time elsewhere. Fly back from Fes if you can.

If you have 2 more nights to spend, and you skip Casablanca (I assume that gives you one more night) - then I would suggest you skip Meknes (that gives you 4 nights)...with that much time, I'd rent a car in Fes, drive out over the Atlas Mountains, and get to the deep desert, spend a night out there. You could actually do this to connect Marrakech and Fes, rather than taking the train (the train is fine, it's just slow so it burns a day). Consider this: rent a car in Marrakech. Drive up and over the High Atlas, spend the next night in Ait Benhaddou (google it for photos). Explore the old citadel there, then head onward to Ouarzazate and beyond, to one of the Grand Ergs near Zagora (the sand seas, on the edge of the Sahara). Spend the night out on the dunes. On your way back, head for Fes, stopping at Todra Gorge. Finish your trip in Fes, fly back to Barcelona from there. There are lots of options, this is just one.

You're in for quite the adventure. :)

David's given you some great ideas for day trips, however I would recommend looking for a private guide rather than driving on your own. The driving didn't look easy - I was on a tour - and once we spent a couple hours trying to find a detour when the route was closed by a local market . . . it was a great experience, but our driver and his assistant (the local crew) couldn't figure it out, nor could two of the guys on our tour who were using Waze. After a great deal of driving in circles, the crew started asking some of the other drivers and finally got us on our way. Also, language can be a barrier. Even in the main cities, English isn't widely spoken. The second language is French.

I toured a year ago, Essaouira was one of my favorites, it's a long drive from Marrakech, don't know if it's worth an overnight, though. Another was Chefchaouen, north of Fes. In Fes, consider getting a private guide for a day in the souks - it's easy to get lost, much harder to find specific places.

It honestly looks pretty fine.

I'd be more interested in Volubilis than Meknes, but you will often find those two paired if you use a day trip provider, which can make things a little simpler. I like fewer one-night overnights, so I would just do a day trip if you do it.

The train from Marrakech to Fes is fine, just a little long. The TGV right now is just between Casablanca and Tangier. I'd agree with flying from Fes at the end to make things simpler.

Day trip to Essaouira seems like a very long day. You could use some of your additional nights there, or do a desert overnight instead (it will inevitably be on the "touristy" side but there is still that "wow" moment of being in the desert as the sun is setting). Another option would be after Fes to go to Chefchaouen as another commenter mentioned, in which case you probably would fly out of Tangier instead of Fes.

I am also someone who rarely travels with groups, but did find it helpful to do some guided tours, especially in Fes. I did one with Culture Vultures that was artisan-focused and that I appreciated for the information, as well as because they had a more equitable system of directly paying the artisans you visit for their time instead of creating an environment where the artisan feels pushed to sell and you feel pushed to buy. Sometimes you're more likely to discover areas you otherwise would not, and at least in my case the tour was only myself, my husband, and one other individual.

You may want to be prepared for people to be a bit more impatient or irritable since it's Ramadan, but it sounds like you're already aware of that. Hope you have an excellent trip!

I'll just add that I visited all these places on my own, and never felt the need for a "guide" of any kind.

Driving in and out of Marrakech itself was a bit stressful for the first three minutes, then got progressively easier as I became more acclimated to the norms and got further away from the dense center - really no different from the first few minutes driving in any foreign country, no worse than Paris or London or Seattle. Outside of the center of Marrakech, the driving/navigating was easy, just use common sense.

The medinas (Marrakech, Fes, even Meknes to an extent) are indeed maze-like and sommewhat confusing, and one might feel a bit disoriented for a few minutes, but (just like being in Venice) stay calm, keep wandering, and you will eventually find your way back out. Worst case, you ask someone - someone will understand "out?" There's a lot of touts who will try and scare you with stories of people getting lost in the medina, which is complete nonsense. There's nothing scary or dangerous in there, just watch out not to step on any donkey poop (just like walking the streets where I live). It's just an old city neighborhood with narrow streets, and lots of foreigners. There are plenty of tourists in there, and perfectly nice, friendly locals, like anywhere. A smile and a positive attitude go a long way.

If you are trying to locate a specific address in a medina, well, good luck with that - for that, you might actually want a guide. But if all you want is to explore the medina, wander and enjoy it, then I see no reason for a guide (unless you want to ward off other guides from bothering you...if you already have a guide, he will shoo away any potential competition).

As for language, in major tourist areas, English is widely spoken by anyone dealing with tourists (it seems the touts there can speak any language - when I shut up and refused to response to some of them, they worked their way through a dozen languages tossing inquiries at me).

Unless you speak/read Arabic, French is your friend here - even very bad French. If you only know a few words and phrases in French, that will help (it helps reading signs on toilet doors that say "femmes / dames" - for most of us that's a lot easier than memorizing "النساء / السيدات").

I agree with David that it's not necessary to have a guide (I don't want to give the impression that the medinas are somehow impossible to get around), but it sometimes can improve your experience in terms of contextualizing what you see and making a more personal connection. For example, I don't think I would have known to look for Abdelkader Ouazzani making brocade in Fes, and may or may not have stumbled upon him, but because I invested in a tour, I got to meet him and even talk a tiny bit in my admittedly awful MSA (but my Darija's even worse so there you go!) - now it's a memory I really appreciate! Another good example that comes to mind is doing a cooking class / tour, also in Fes - it meant getting to talk with a young woman going to cooking school, and the experience to actually make and bake something in a neighborhood oven. I know my host mom also did her own tours where she would invite people into her home for tea, or for a Friday couscous, or to go to the hammam together - more opportunities to get a little more insight and that "back door" (obligatory RS reference!) experience.

I also think some of these tours, especially those done with more of a "fair trade" ethos, can be a good way to make sure money is going into the local economy. Sometimes us independent traveler types miss out on opportunities to connect when we get caught up in how independent we're being!

just came back from morroco about a month ago. seems you have plenty time in marrakesh and fez. Essaouira is very pretty, we did it on a day trip, but assume overnight will be good too (make sure you check on the goat trees along the way). we also did a 3 day minii bus from marrakesh to fez with Saharah, that's pretty cool as well. I heard Chefchaouen is pretty nice, if you have time maybe check it out.