For my final Spring Break in grad school I knew I wanted to go on a proper adventure but wasn’t sure where and had a restricted student budget. After a google search on the best places to travel in March I decided Morocco would be a fantastic place to go during that time. The country is pretty budget friendly and the weather is great in the spring. I was a little nervous about solo traveling for the first time, especially in a place that I had read was less safe for women so I looked into tours I could join. I ended up taking Intrepid’s Southern Moroccan Discovery tour and I absolutely loved it!

Day 1: Marrakech

The tour was starting in Marrakech which is the 4th largest city in Morocco but less connected to international flights. Since I was joining the tour from my Egypt trip I had to fly from Luxor to Casablanca and then take a train to Marrakech which ended up being a 14 hour day of travel. After the tour’s intro meeting I went down to the Medina with some of the folks on the tour to walk around and grab dinner. The Medina was a chaotic mix of food and souvenir vendors, street performers and small shops. Some of the people in my group had a monkey thrust on them and were forced to take pictures with the monkey, then the monkey’s owner asked for payment. These kind of scams are common in areas like the Medina so afterwards we would only engage with a performer or vendor if we were comfortable paying them. The restaurants around the main square are quite touristy so I don’t recommend eating there, instead you can find cheaper and better restaurants a few blocks away where locals are more likely to frequent.

Day 2: Aroumd

The second day of the tour after having breakfast at the hotel we departed for Aroumd which is a small village in the High Atlas mountains where we would stay in a small guesthouse overlooking the mountains. The drive up the mountains was beautiful and once we got to Imlil we had to get off our minibus and walk with our backpacks about 45 minutes to get to the guesthouse since the roads to get there are too small. After having a beautiful lunch of lentils, tagine, salad and bread with Moroccan mint tea of course we departed for our hike. We hiked up the beginning of the trail to Toubkal, the second highest mountain in Africa, to a pre-Islamic sacred shrine of Sidi Chamharouch where Moroccans will come to pray for healing or good luck. The shrine itself was a large white rock in a valley in the mountains and the 8 km hike to go there and back was well worth the trek. Luckily we got beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the high 60s despite there still being snow on some parts of the trail. After getting back from our hike our guesthouse hosts served us some more mint tea with dates and cookies. For dinner we had a cozy group dinner in the guesthouse dining room with a fire going to heat us up and more tagines with bread and harira soup. At night the temperature dropped quite a bit and it was freezing in the rooms we were sleeping in. I think a combination of the cold and altitude made it difficult for everyone in the group to sleep very well that night. I definitely woke up a few times and had to add a blanket and put on a hat to stay warm.

Day 3: Ait Benhaddou

Most of this day was spent driving through mountain passes to get from the High Atlas mountains to the edge to Ait Benhaddou, a small town where caravans would stop and trade. After having a traditional breakfast at the gite we all hiked back down to the mini bus in Imlil before setting off on the 6 hours long drive for the day. We went through beautiful mountain passes but the roads were extremely windy and made much of the tour nauseous. Luckily I popped a Dramamine early on and was able to sleep for much of the bus ride but some of my tour-mates were not so lucky and felt quite ill most of the day. We reached Ait Benhaddou in late afternoon and did a small walking tour of the historic kasbah. This area was a bit touristy but still incredible to walk around such a well preserved site. The few families that still live there are not allowed to have running electricity to preserve the historic nature of the site. After our tour of the Kasbah we stopped by a local women’s cooperative where we had tea. The cooperative was originally founded by a women named Leila who In the evening we had dinner at our hotel before falling asleep pretty early after the long day.

Day 4: Ourzazate- Zagora

This day was another heavy driving day. Before leaving Ait Benhaddou we stopped off at a women’s cooperative that handmakes beautiful rugs. Each rug would take 300+ hours to make and were made with traditional Berber designs. I picked up a rug for my living room which they packaged up small enough that I could cram it into my carry on. Afterwards we stopped off at Ourzazate studios where a lot of the studio scenes are filmed for movies such as Gladiator, Cleopatra and 7 Years in Tibet. It was funny to see recreations of Egyptian temples after visiting the actual sites just a few days prior. This site was fun to explore and learn more about the flourishing film industry in Morocco. Afterwards we continued on to Zagora, only stopping for a picnic lunch at a roadside tea shop. Finally we finished off the day with a walk through the date palm farms in the area. Since Zagora is a desert Oasis they can grow Saudi dates there. The riad we stayed at here was beautiful with massive gardens and al fresco dining space we could enjoy dinner at.

Day 5: Tamegroute – Erg Chigaga

We are finally to the much-anticipated desert portion of the trip. We left Zagora and made a short stop at Tamegroute where we saw a library filled with ancient scripts of science, literature, the Koran, and stories of the prophet Mohammed. Afterwards we toured their pottery making workshops where they produce the green pottery used throughout all of Morocco. Afterwards we continued driving until we stopped for lunch at a guesthouse. Here we waited out the peak afternoon heat in the cool shade earthen living room of the house. Then we transferred to 4×4 vehicles to navigate the drive into the dunes. We had an hour long bumpy ride before we finally reached our camp for the night. There we had a main tent we would dine in and then several smaller tents that had rugs and cots for us to sleep in. We even had a bathroom with a flushable toilet and sink with running water. While we couldn’t take showers, it was a pretty luxurious camping experience for being in the Sahara. Before sunset we rode single-humped camels or dromedary farther into the dunes. We sat atop a large dune to take in the gorgeous sunset in the Sahara. This was a beautiful experience with the group. Afterwards we rode back into camp and had a traditional Moroccan dinner of salad, lentils, tagine and bread. Before falling asleep we had a campfire and the camp workers played traditional Sahara music. The stargazing here was magical. Stars were even visible along the horizon and not just above.

Day 6: Oulad Berhil

This day mostly consisted of driving. We woke up early to catch the sunrise over the sand dunes before starting a grueling 3 hour 4×4 drive out of the desert. The drivers stopped a few times to give us a little break and we even had a little dance party in the desert jamming out to Sahara music. We also saw many Berber nomads selling little handicrafts or making bread out in the desert. It was surprising for me to see people still living this way in our modern world. After leaving the desert we transferred back to the minibus before driving another couple of hours. We reached out hotel for the night in the late afternoon in time to relax by the pool and cool down after driving in the heat all day. This was the best hotel we stayed at during the tour and it came at the perfect time to rejuvenate the group after camping and a lot of driving. The rooms were beautiful and huge and the gardens were full of flowers, orange trees and palms.

Day 7-9: Taroudant, Essaouira

We had to drive 5 hours to Essaouira the next day. We could break up the long drive with a couple stops. First we quickly stopped by Taroudant which is called the mini-Marrakech since there are red ramparts similar to the big city. Next we stopped in Agadir for a seaside picnic taking in the view of the ocean and surfers. Our last stop was to an Argan oil cooperative. Argan nuts only grow in this western region of Morocco so it was interesting to see the Argan orchards and how the oil is made. We even spotted some goats climbing on Argan trees on our drive! When we finally made it Essaouira we only had energy to have dinner and fall asleep. I tried pastilla which was sort of like a meat pie covered in phyllo instead of traditional pie crust. It was nice to have something other than tagine and lentils since at this point we were all suffering from tagine fatigue.

The next day we had a full day to explore the city. We started off with a walking tour through the stone ramparts, whitewashed stone neighborhoods and silver and wood workshops. It was nice to understand some of the history of the place before we were let loose to shop and sightsee on our own. In the afternoon I decided to get a Hammam or traditional bath and massage. It was a lovely experience and the perfect way to relax during our first free time on the tour. In the evening most of the folks from the tour met up to catch the sunset at the boardwalk as our tour guide suggested and then we headed to grab drinks at a jazz bar right outside the main medina. Since Morocco is a pretty dry country this was the first real bar our group had visited since we left Marrakech.

Day 10-12: Marrakech, Ourzad

After our tour completed in Marrakech I had another 3 days before my flight out. I decided to see a few of the more famous Marrakech sites such as Jardin Marjorelle, Bahia Palace, Le Jardin Secret and roam around the Medina. The sites were beautiful with the stunning gardens and tile work that everyone expects from Morocco. While the Jardin Marjorelle was pretty crowded I the other spots were not too busy and I could enjoy having a tea on the terraces. Walking around the Medina, especially on my own was a bit nerve wracking since the vendors can be aggressive and its easy to get lost. Since the hostel I was staying at as located inside the Medina I became a pro at navigating the narrow winding streets by the time it was time to go.

Ourzad

In between the end of my tour and flying out I had a free day that I booked a day tour to Ourzad falls through my hostel. The falls were a 3 hour drive each way from Marrakech. While the drive was beautiful I didn’t necessarily think the falls were worth all the driving. The falls were really cool but the area has become very developed and crowded making it lose its natural charm for me.

While I hadn’t been thinking about visiting Morocco much before 2023 I’m so glad that I ended up booking this trip. The trip ended up being the perfect blend of nature and cities for me to feel like I really understood Morocco. The stunning landscapes and chaotic cities definitely kept me interested and inspired all throughout my trip. While I do feel like I missed out on some of the more well known places like Fez and Chefchaouen, I think the trip through the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert suited my travel style much better. I would love to go back to Morocco one day to explore more of the North.