7 Days Tour from Marrakech to Sahara Desert, Fez, Chefchaouen and Casablanca

Welcome to Marrakech. After checking into your traditional riad inside the medina, you set out with a licensed local guide for a full walking tour: the 12th century Koutoubia Mosque, the Bahia Palace with its painted cedar ceilings, the Saadian Tombs, and the colourful artisan souks.

In the afternoon you can add an optional visit to the Majorelle Garden and Yves Saint Laurent Museum, entry not included. The day ends at Jemaa el-Fnaa, watching the square turn at sunset into Morocco's largest open-air theatre.

It's a long driving day, but a spectacular one. You cross the High Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 metres, then stop at Aït Ben Haddou, the most famous UNESCO ksar in Morocco, recognisable from Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and Lawrence of Arabia.

From there the road continues through Ouarzazate, Morocco's film capital, then through the palm groves of the Draa Valley to Merzouga. You arrive in the late afternoon, and camels are waiting to carry you into the golden dunes of Erg Chebbi for sunset.

Dinner is Berber style around the fire, with drums and a sky thick with stars overhead.

You wake before dawn to climb the highest dune crest for sunrise, one of the most unforgettable sights in Morocco. A Berber breakfast at camp follows, then the drive west through Erfoud and Tinghir brings you to the dramatic Todra Gorges, their 300 metre cliffs framing a clear river below.

The route continues along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs into the Dades Valley, where wind and water have carved the rock into the shapes known as the Monkey Fingers. You overnight in a kasbah hotel.

The road runs north through Kalaat Mgouna, the Valley of Roses, then climbs back over the Middle Atlas by way of Midelt, with a stop in Ifrane, known as the Switzerland of Morocco, and the cedar forest of Azrou, where Barbary macaques roam free.

You reach Fez in the late afternoon and check into your traditional riad inside the ancient medina.

A licensed local guide leads you through Fez el-Bali for the full day, the largest car-free urban area in the world. You walk the labyrinthine alleys to the Bou Inania Madrasa, its stucco and zellige tilework worked in fine detail, and the Karaouine mosque, founded in 859 AD and still considered the oldest continuously operating university on earth.

The Chouara tanneries are the highlight, where leather has been dyed by hand using the same techniques for a thousand years. The afternoon is free for lunch and browsing the artisan souks.

The road climbs north through the Rif Mountains to Chefchaouen, Morocco's blue-painted mountain city. In the late afternoon you walk the blue lanes of the medina, then climb to the Spanish Mosque viewpoint above town for sunset over the white and blue rooftops.

Dinner is at a local restaurant overlooking the main square.

The drive south to Casablanca follows the Atlantic coast, with a stop at the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, its walls rising straight out of the ocean. From there you can walk the Casablanca corniche.

Your driver transfers you on to the airport or your hotel.