Fes, the Sahara and the High Atlas for three generations

1. Day 1: Arrive in Fes

   Fes-Saïss Airport to the Fes medina

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner at about 7 pm
   • Stay in Fes
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Fes-Saïss Airport (FEZ), about 15 km south of the city, and drive you to your riad or hotel at the edge of the medina, chosen so the van can stop close to the door and the bags do not travel far on foot. We ask for family, triple or connecting rooms for every family and confirm them when we name the hotel. Land by mid-afternoon if you can: there is time to rest, and, if the hotel has one, a swim. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Stay at the hotel and join the group for dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free to rest or swim

   

2. Day 2: Fes el Bali at a family pace

   Guided morning in the Fes medina, then a cooking class

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Fes
   Day 2 details

   We start at 8:30 am at Bab Boujloud with a licensed Fes guide, before the lanes fill. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Walk the first hour, then wait with a mint tea at the riad while the others reach the tannery

   More active option: Climb up to the Marinid Tombs at sunset with your guide for the view over the old city

   Free time: Afternoon free: rest, a pool if the hotel has one, or Jnan Sbil garden

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot, mostly downhill on uneven paving and some steps. There are places to sit along the way.

   

3. Day 3: Cedars, macaques and the Middle Atlas

   Fes to Midelt via Ifrane and the cedar forest near Azrou

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Midelt
   Day 3 details

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

   Included

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

   Easier option: Stay by the van at the cedar forest stop; the macaques often come to the roadside

   More active option: A longer walk among the cedars with your guide

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Midelt

   Activity: The longest single leg is about 2 hours. Macaques are wild: we cannot promise them, and we keep children at a safe distance.

4. Day 4: Down the Ziz valley to the dunes

   Midelt to Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi camp

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Erg Chebbi
   Day 4 details

   This is a longer day, about 4 hours of driving, and we split it into three legs of under 2 hours each so nobody sits for long. First we climb over the Tizi n'Talghamt pass, at about 1,900 metres, and stop above the Ziz gorges, where a ribbon of date palms runs through the red rock. 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. The camp has private tents with their own bathroom and electricity, and dinner is early.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Ride into camp by 4x4

   More active option: Walk the last part of the way into camp over the sand

   Free time: Early evening free at camp

   Activity: Longest day, but the longest single leg is under 2 hours. Children 6 and up ride a camel with a handler leading it; anyone can take the 4x4 instead.

5. Day 5: A whole day in the Sahara

   Erg Chebbi, Khamlia and back to camp

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Erg Chebbi
   Day 5 details

   Nobody packs today. 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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Watch sunrise and sunset from the camp, no climbing

   More active option: A longer sunrise walk to a higher dune with your guide

   Free time: Middle of the day free at camp

   Activity: Walking on soft sand is hard work, even for short distances; go as far as you like.

6. Day 6: To the Todra Gorge

   Merzouga to the Todra Gorge via Erfoud and Tinejdad

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Todra Gorge
   Day 6 details

   About 3 hours on the road today, in two legs. 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. 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. We stay near the mouth of the gorge, with an early dinner at the hotel.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Stay on the flat floor of the gorge, about 30 minutes on foot

   More active option: A walk of about 2 hours with a local guide up and out of the gorge and back past the oasis fields

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the hotel

   Activity: Lunch is on your own near Tinghir. The gorge floor is flat and stony; the longer walk has one steady climb.

7. Day 7: The road of the kasbahs to Ait Benhaddou

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Ait Benhaddou
   Day 7 details

   About 4 hours of driving in four short legs, none longer than about an hour and a half. The road follows the Dades valley through Kelaat M'Gouna, the town of the Valley of Roses, where rose water is sold in every shop and the harvest is celebrated each May, to the Skoura palm grove, scattered with old earth-built kasbahs. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay in the van at the Skoura stop and rest at the hotel instead of the dusk walk

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the hotel

   Activity: Longest day, but the longest single leg is under 2 hours. Atlas Film Studios is about an hour on foot on flat ground.

8. Day 8: Ait Benhaddou in the morning, then over the High Atlas

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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 8 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Sleep in, walk only the lower lanes of the ksar, and sit at a cafe on the square in Marrakech

   More active option: Climb to the granary at the top of the ksar

   Activity: The road over the pass has many bends; bring travel-sickness tablets if anyone needs them.

   

Wildlife and weather: Spring and autumn days are warm and desert nights are cool, sometimes cold in March and late October. Barbary macaques often feed in the cedar forest near Azrou; we cannot promise them. Sand blows on windy days in the dunes: bring sunglasses and a camera cover.

• Fes2 nights
• Midelt1 night
• Erg Chebbi2 nights
• Todra Gorge1 night
• Ait Benhaddou1 night