10 days in Morocco
A ten day Morocco route flown in one end and out the other, because the return leg is what ruins the shorter version.
Last updated . Rail journey times will change as the high speed line extends south, and desert tour operators restructure their routes regularly. Recheck the railway and tourist office sources below before fixing dates.
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Most disappointing Morocco trips are not badly chosen, they are badly measured. The three things everyone wants, Marrakech, the Sahara and Fes, sit at the corners of a very large triangle, and the sides of that triangle are long. Merzouga is 9 to 10 hours of road from Marrakech in each direction. Fes is about 7 hours from Marrakech by train and there is no high speed line between them. Put all three inside a week and a third of the holiday happens through glass.
How many days do you need in Morocco?
10 days for Marrakech, the desert and Fes together. Fewer than that and 1 of the 3 has to go.
Seven days is a genuinely good trip if you pick one end of the country. Marrakech with the Atlas and the dunes works. Fes with Meknes, Volubilis and Chefchaouen works. The two cities plus the desert does not.
How long is the train from Marrakech to Fes?
About 7 hours, routed through Casablanca and Rabat. There is no direct high speed service on this corridor.
Morocco's high speed line runs in the north, between Tangier and Casablanca. Marrakech to Casablanca is under 3 hours and Casablanca to Fes is roughly 4, which is where the total comes from.
Is the 3 day Sahara tour from Marrakech worth it?
Only if you accept what it is: roughly 20 hours in a vehicle across 3 days, for 1 night on the dunes.
That is not a scam, it is geometry, and plenty of people are happy with the trade because the drive through the Atlas and the Draa valley is genuinely part of the point. The version that goes wrong is the one sold as a desert holiday to somebody expecting two nights out there.
Should you fly in and out of the same city?
No. Flying into Marrakech and out of Fes removes about 7 hours of backtracking from a 10 day trip.
Both airports have direct European services, and an open jaw is usually priced within a few pounds of a return. This single decision is the difference between the itinerary below and the same route with a wasted day bolted onto the end.
The plan at a glance
- Days
- 1 to 2
- Where
- Marrakech
- Hours on the road
- None
- Days
- 3
- Where
- Over the Tizi n'Tichka to Ait Benhaddou
- Hours on the road
- About 4
- Days
- 4
- Where
- Dades and Todra to Merzouga
- Hours on the road
- About 6
- Days
- 5
- Where
- Erg Chebbi
- Hours on the road
- None
- Days
- 6
- Where
- Merzouga to Fes
- Hours on the road
- About 8
- Days
- 7 to 8
- Where
- Fes
- Hours on the road
- None
- Days
- 9
- Where
- Meknes and Volubilis
- Hours on the road
- About 3
- Days
- 10
- Where
- Out of Fes
- Hours on the road
- None
| Days | Where | Hours on the road |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Marrakech | None |
| 3 | Over the Tizi n'Tichka to Ait Benhaddou | About 4 |
| 4 | Dades and Todra to Merzouga | About 6 |
| 5 | Erg Chebbi | None |
| 6 | Merzouga to Fes | About 8 |
| 7 to 8 | Fes | None |
| 9 | Meknes and Volubilis | About 3 |
| 10 | Out of Fes | None |
The route at a glance
13 mapped stops · 10 days
Live route map
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Route stops
Follow the numbered order through each day.
Day 1: Marrakech, arriving
- 1Jemaa el-Fna · about 3 hours
Day 2: The medina, properly
- 2Ben Youssef Madrasa · about 90 minutes
- ·The souks north of the square · about 3 hours
- 3Le Jardin Secret or the Bahia Palace · about 2 hours
Day 3: Over the Atlas
- ·Tizi n'Tichka pass · about 3 hours
- 4Ait Benhaddou · about 2 hours
Day 4: Gorges, then dunes
- 5Dades gorge · about an hour
- 6Todra gorge · about 90 minutes
- 7Erg Chebbi · about 2 hours
Day 5: A day that does not move
- ·Erg Chebbi and Merzouga · all day
Day 6: North to Fes
- ·Merzouga to Fes · about 8 hours
Day 7: Fes el Bali
- 8Fes el Bali · about 5 hours
- 9Chouara tannery · about an hour
Day 8: Fes, slower
- 10Bou Inania Madrasa · about an hour
- 11The Merenid tombs · about 2 hours
Day 9: Volubilis and Meknes
- 12Volubilis · about 2 hours
- 13Meknes · about 3 hours
Day 10: Out of Fes
- ·Fes to the airport · about 30 minutes
Day 1: Marrakech, arriving
The airport is about 6 km from the medina, which makes this the easiest arrival day in the country.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot
Afternoon
Jemaa el-Fnaabout 3 hours
The main square, and it is two different places depending on the hour. Go late, when the food stalls are up and the daytime animal handlers have gone.
Day 2: The medina, properly
One full day inside the walls, walked rather than toured, with a licensed guide if you want one.
- On foot
- About 8 km on foot
Morning
Ben Youssef Madrasaabout 90 minutes
A fourteenth century college, restored and reopened, and the finest interior in the city. Go at opening, because the courtyard is small and fills.
The souks north of the squareabout 3 hours
Getting lost here is the intended experience. Save your accommodation's location offline and its phone number, so a stranger telling you your riad is closed can be checked in 30 seconds.
Afternoon
Le Jardin Secret or the Bahia Palaceabout 2 hours
Both are indoor and shaded and both are a deliberate hour of quiet in the middle of a day that otherwise is not quiet.
Day 3: Over the Atlas
The Tizi n'Tichka pass, then a kasbah made of mud brick that half of cinema has filmed in.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot, plus 4 hours on the road
- Book before you go
- The vehicle for the desert leg, whether tour or private
Morning
Tizi n'Tichka passabout 3 hours
The road over the High Atlas, rebuilt and much faster than it used to be, but still a mountain pass with switchbacks. Sit in the front if you are prone to it.
Afternoon
Ait Benhaddouabout 2 hours
A fortified village of packed earth on a hillside above a river. Cross by the stepping stones rather than the bridge and climb to the granary at the top for the view back.
Day 4: Gorges, then dunes
The longest driving day of the trip, broken by two gorges, ending on a camel at dusk.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot, plus 6 hours on the road
Morning
Dades gorgeabout an hour
Red rock and a road of tight hairpins that photographs better than it drives. Most tours stop at the viewpoint above the bends.
Todra gorgeabout 90 minutes
A 300 metre cleft with a road and a stream through the bottom of it. Twenty minutes of walking gets you past the stalls.
Evening
Erg Chebbiabout 2 hours
The dune field at Merzouga, and the camel leg out to camp takes about an hour. Anything you need overnight comes with you, because the vehicle does not.
Day 5: A day that does not move
The one desert day with no transfer in it, which is the whole argument for ten days over seven.
- On foot
- About 3 km on sand
All day
Erg Chebbi and Merzougaall day
On a 3 day tour this day does not exist and you drive straight back. Here it is the difference between having seen the Sahara and having been in it.
Day 6: North to Fes
Eight hours across the Middle Atlas, through cedar forest and a town built to look like Switzerland.
- On foot
- About 2 km on foot, plus 8 hours on the road
All day
Merzouga to Fesabout 8 hours
Via Midelt and Ifrane. Ifrane is an alpine style hill station built under the French protectorate and is worth the 20 minutes it takes to be baffled by it.
Day 7: Fes el Bali
The oldest and largest of the medinas, and the one where a licensed guide earns the fee.
- On foot
- About 7 km on foot, much of it downhill and stepped
- Book before you go
- A licensed guide, if you want one, through your riad
Morning
Fes el Baliabout 5 hours
Thousands of lanes, no vehicles, and gradients. Guiding in Morocco requires a ministry licence and a licensed guide will show the card without being asked. Anyone who will not show it is working on shop commission.
Afternoon
Chouara tanneryabout an hour
Viewed from the terraces of the leather shops around it. Access is free and the mint sprig is offered rather than sold. There is no obligation to buy on the way out, whatever is implied.
Day 8: Fes, slower
The second day is when the medina stops being a maze and starts being a city.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot
Morning
Bou Inania Madrasaabout an hour
The one madrasa in Fes that non Muslims may enter fully, and it is the best carved woodwork in the country.
Afternoon
The Merenid tombsabout 2 hours
On the hillside above the city, reached by taxi in ten minutes. Ruined, unstaffed, and the only place to see the whole medina laid out at once. Late afternoon.
Day 9: Volubilis and Meknes
A Roman city on a hillside and an imperial capital, both inside an easy day of Fes.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot, plus 3 hours on the road
Morning
Volubilisabout 2 hours
The best preserved Roman site in Morocco, and the mosaics are still in the floors they were laid in rather than in a museum. Almost no shade, so morning.
Afternoon
Meknesabout 3 hours
Quieter than Fes and with a monumental gate, Bab Mansour, that is worth the stop on its own. An hour back to Fes afterwards.
Day 10: Out of Fes
Fes airport is about 15 km from the medina, so the last morning is genuinely free.
- On foot
- About 2 km on foot
Morning
Fes to the airportabout 30 minutes
About 25 minutes. This is the payoff for flying out of a different city than you flew into, and it is worth roughly a full day.
The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.
Book the separate parts
Book the parts that need booking
The flight shape matters more here than anywhere else on this site, because an open jaw is worth a whole day. After that, the desert vehicle and the riads.
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
- Flights
Price Marrakech in and Fes out as one open jaw booking rather than two returns, because that pairing is what removes the 7 hour backtrack.
Search on Aviasales
- Stays
Both medinas are closed to vehicles, so the useful thing to check is not the star rating but how far the nearest car can actually get to the door.
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- Activities
The Merzouga leg needs a vehicle and a driver either way, and a booked medina guide is one that can be checked for a licence before you are standing in the souk.
Search on GetYourGuide
What is worth the time, and what is not
Worth your time
- Flying into Marrakech and out of Fes. It removes about 7 hours of retracing and turns the last morning into free time instead of a train.
- Two nights at the dunes rather than one. The second day is the only one with no transfer in it, and it is what separates seeing the Sahara from being in it.
- A second day in Fes el Bali. One day is spent being lost. The medina only starts making sense on the second.
Skip it
- Marrakech, Fes and the desert in 7 days. It is roughly 30 hours of transit inside a week, and every one of the three places gets shortchanged.
- Casablanca as a sightseeing stop. It is a working port city with one great mosque, and on this route it is a change of trains rather than a destination.
- Chefchaouen bolted onto a Fes trip of 2 nights. It is about 4 hours each way from Fes, which turns a blue painted town into eight hours of minibus.
Why this order
Marrakech comes first because its airport is closest to its medina and jet lag is survivable in a city you can walk out of. The desert sits in the middle because both approaches to it are long and it is better to arrive tired than to leave tired. Day 5 deliberately does not move, which is the single structural difference between this and the tour version everybody buys. Fes comes last because its medina rewards the second day more than any other in the country, and because leaving from there rather than returning to Marrakech is worth about seven hours. Volubilis lands on day 9 rather than earlier because it is the one stop that works as a half day loop from a base you are already sleeping in.
Read next
- 8 days in Oman
The other route on this site built around long desert driving, and the same honest question about the vehicle.
- 5 days in Malta
A short Mediterranean trip that pairs naturally with a Morocco week for anyone flying from Europe.
What we checked
- ONCF, Moroccan national railways read 29 August 2026
- Moroccan National Tourist Office read 29 August 2026
- Visit Morocco, travel information read 29 August 2026
- Visit Morocco, useful information read 29 August 2026
Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route that does the Morocco arithmetic first: about 7 hours of rail between Marrakech and Fes and 9 to 10 hours of road each way to Merzouga, which is why it is flown as an open jaw rather than a loop.