Fes, the Sahara and the High Atlas for three generations

Arrive in Fes

Fes-Saïss Airport to the Fes medina

• Welcome dinner at about 7 pm
• Nuit : Fes
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Land by mid-afternoon if you can: there is time to rest, and, if the hotel has one, a swim.

Soir

At about 5 pm your guide walks everyone a short, flat way to Bab Boujloud, the blue-tiled gate of 1913, and into the first lane of Fes el Bali to watch the evening come in. Then a welcome dinner at about 7 pm, early enough for the youngest and for anyone who flew overnight, and a short briefing on the week ahead.

Compris

• Pick-up at Fes-Saïss Airport (FEZ)
• Short evening walk to Bab Boujloud with your guide
• Welcome dinner and family briefing

Fes el Bali at a family pace

Guided morning in the Fes medina, then a cooking class

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Fes

Matin

Fes el Bali has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981 and is car-free, so the morning is on foot, but we walk it the easy way: mostly downhill from the upper gate towards Bab R'cif, where the van waits, so nobody has to climb back up. The children's favourites come first: the donkeys and mules that still carry goods through the lanes, the metalworkers' square, and the Chouara tannery seen from a terrace, where the dye pits look like a paintbox. The Bou Inania Madrasa, built in the 1350s, gives everyone a quiet, cool courtyard to sit in.

Après-midi

Lunch is a family cooking class: knead bread, fill a tagine and eat what you make. The afternoon is free for a nap, a swim if the riad or hotel has a pool, or Jnan Sbil, the shaded public garden near Bab Boujloud.

Compris

• Guided morning in Fes el Bali with a licensed local guide
• Chouara tannery terrace
• Bou Inania Madrasa entry
• Family cooking class with lunch
• Van pick-up at Bab R'cif

Activités en option

• A hammam visit for adults in the medina (price to be confirmed)

Cedars, macaques and the Middle Atlas

Fes to Midelt via Ifrane and the cedar forest near Azrou

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Midelt
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

An easy start after breakfast, and the drive is broken into short legs. The first hour climbs south to Ifrane, a town of steep roofs and tidy parks that the French founded in 1929, where we stop for a stretch, a coffee and the stone lion that every child wants a photo with. Half an hour on we walk a little way into the Atlas cedar forest near Azrou, where Barbary macaques often come close to the road and the trees; we watch them, but we do not feed them.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Azrou or on the road. The afternoon leg, about two hours, crosses high open plateau to Midelt, an apple-growing town at about 1,500 metres between the Middle and High Atlas.

Soir

We arrive by mid-afternoon, with time to rest before an early dinner at the hotel.

Compris

• Stop in Ifrane
• Walk in the Atlas cedar forest near Azrou
• Dinner in Midelt

Down the Ziz valley to the dunes

Midelt to Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Erg Chebbi
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

A sit-down lunch is included, in Errachidia or Erfoud, at a place chosen for the food and not for a shop. The last hour runs past Erfoud to Merzouga at the edge of Erg Chebbi, where the dunes rise up to about 150 metres. In the late afternoon each family chooses how to reach the camp: a camel ride of about 30 to 60 minutes with handlers walking beside the animals, or a 4x4.

Soir

The camp has private tents with their own bathroom and electricity, and dinner is early.

Compris

• Ziz gorges viewpoint
• Sit-down lunch on the road
• Camel ride or 4x4 into the camp at sunset
• Dinner at the camp

A whole day in the Sahara

Erg Chebbi, Khamlia and back to camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Erg Chebbi

Matin

Those who want sunrise walk a short way up a dune with the guide; everyone else watches from the camp or sleeps on. After breakfast a short 4x4 loop around the edge of Erg Chebbi takes us to Khamlia, a village known for Gnawa music, where a family band plays for us over mint tea, and children are usually invited to try the iron castanets. We are back at camp before the heat.

Après-midi

Lunch is at camp, and the hot middle of the day is for shade and rest, with a pool where the camp has one; we tell you which when we name the camp.

Soir

In the late afternoon there is sandboarding on a gentle slope for the children and anyone brave enough, then sunset from a dune close to camp, an early dinner, and the stars, far from any town light.

Compris

• Sunrise dune walk with your guide
• Short 4x4 loop of Erg Chebbi
• Gnawa music in Khamlia
• Sandboarding on a gentle dune
• Sunset near the camp

To the Todra Gorge

Merzouga to the Todra Gorge via Erfoud and Tinejdad

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Todra Gorge
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave the dunes after breakfast and stop on the plain between Erfoud and Tinejdad at the khettaras, old underground water channels dug to bring water to the oases, where children can climb down into a restored section. This stop is the real break in the first 2-hour leg, with a toilet and a walk before anyone gets back in the van.

Après-midi

Lunch is near Tinghir, whose long green oasis we see from above, and then we drive the last few kilometres into the Todra Gorge. We go in the afternoon for a flat walk on the gorge floor, where the rock walls rise up to about 160 metres and stand in places only about 10 metres apart, with a clear, shallow stream that children love to paddle in. Families who want more can take a longer walk with a local guide.

Soir

We stay near the mouth of the gorge, with an early dinner at the hotel.

Compris

• Khettara water channels near Tinejdad
• Flat walk on the floor of the Todra Gorge
• Dinner near the gorge

The road of the kasbahs to Ait Benhaddou

Todra Gorge to Ait Benhaddou via Kelaat M'Gouna, Skoura and Ouarzazate

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ait Benhaddou
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

A sit-down lunch is included in Ouarzazate, and afterwards we visit Atlas Film Studios, where children can walk through sets from films shot in the desert. Ait Benhaddou is half an hour on: a fortified village of earthen houses on the old caravan route, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

Soir

We arrive in the late afternoon with time for a pool if the hotel has one, a walk to the riverbank to see the ksar at dusk, and an early farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Kelaat M'Gouna and the Valley of Roses
• Skoura palm grove
• Sit-down lunch in Ouarzazate
• Atlas Film Studios entry
• Ait Benhaddou at dusk
• Farewell dinner

Ait Benhaddou in the morning, then over the High Atlas

Ait Benhaddou to Marrakech over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, then Djemaa el-Fna

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

Early risers can join the guide at the hill facing the ksar about 30 minutes after sunrise, when the low light picks out every tower. After breakfast we cross the shallow Ounila river on the footbridge and walk up through the ksar to the ruined granary at the top, for the view over the valley; grandparents can stop at any terrace on the way. We leave at about 9:30 am. The first leg, about an hour and a half, climbs to the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 metres, the highest point of the trip, where we stop.

Après-midi

Then lunch on the way down, and about 2 hours more on the long bends of the N9 through Amazigh villages to Marrakech, arriving at about 2:30 pm.

Soir

Your guide walks you for about an hour on flat ground through the Koutoubia gardens and into Djemaa el-Fna, where musicians, juice sellers and henna artists work by day and the food stalls set up towards evening. We drop you at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK), about 6 km away, by about 4:30 pm. Book flights leaving after 7:30 pm, or ask us to add nights in Marrakech.

Compris

• Sunrise viewpoint and walk up through the ksar of Ait Benhaddou with your guide
• Stop at the Tizi n'Tichka pass
• Lunch on the road
• An hour's walk through the Koutoubia gardens and Djemaa el-Fna, Marrakech
• Drop-off at Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) or your Marrakech hotel