Day 1 Casablanca – Marrakech.
Arrival in Casablanca, meeting at the airport. Depending on the time of arrival you will be able to visit the Hasan II Mosque in Casablanca. Departure by motorway to Marrakech.
Day 2 Marrakech.
Breakfast. In the morning visit of the city. Guided tour of the Medina. Palais el Bahia. The construction of the Bay Palace was commissioned by Ahmed ben Moussa, an influential, skilful and powerful man, who was vizier (the highest office after the monarch) of Sultan Abdelaziz at the end of the 19th century. Starting from an old residence, which was owned by his father, and taking over a group of adjacent houses, the vizier commissioned the work of designing and building his palace to the Moroccan architect Muhammad al-Mekki. It is said that Ahmed ben Moussa dedicated this magnificent palace especially to his favourite among the 4 wives and 24 concubines that made up his harem; in fact, palace of the bay means palace of the beautiful or the brilliant. Only one third of the palace can be visited; the rest is the private property of the royal family
Saadies Tombs. Located in an enclosed garden next to the Kasbah mosque, the Saadian tombs represent a beautiful royal cemetery that is visited by hundreds of tourists every day. Although the construction dates from 1557, when Ahmed El Mansour ordered the construction of a mausoleum on the tomb of his father, with the arrival to power of the Alaouite sultan Moulay Ismail, it was decided to hide the cemetery behind a great wall. Because of this, the place remained hidden for a long time, until in 1917 it was rediscovered and then restored by the Fine Arts and Historical Monuments Service.
The Medersa. Ben Youssef, also called Ben Youssef’s Madrasa, is the most important medersa in Marrakech. If you don’t have any travel experience in Muslim countries, you probably don’t know what a medersa is. A medersa is a Muslim college or school of higher learning. They specialize in religious studies and in their time they acquired great prestige. On your visit to the Ben Youssef Madrasa you will see that the building is structured around a large central courtyard with a rectangular pond. It has a single classroom, which served as a place of teaching and also of prayer. When you enter the upper floor of the Ben Youssef Madrasa in Marrakech, you will be able to walk through the long corridors and interior courtyards where the 130 cells where the students of the Koranic school were housed are distributed.
The Majorelle Gardens were created in 1924 by Jacques Majorelle, a French painter who settled in Marrakech in 1919. At first the gardens served the painter as a source of inspiration, but in 1947 they were opened to the general public. Since 1980, the Majorelle Gardens have been owned by Yves Saint Laurent. If you like Islamic art, you can visit a small museum in the gardens. The Majorelle Gardens are quite big gardens with a lot of different plants. The plants are divided into cactus, palms, bamboo, garden plants and water plants.
Rest of the day, free time. Accommodation.
Day 3 Marrakech – Ouarzazate – Agdz – Draa Valley – Zagora.
Meeting at your accommodation, and departure to Ouarzazate, passing through Tiz’n’Tichka (or Tichka Pass), the highest road stop in Morocco with more than 2,200 meters above sea level, during the tour we will enjoy some incredible landscapes: during the climb, the green colors predominate and will be replaced by the almost lunar landscape of the Anti-Atlas, with the desert in the background.
At the end of the descent, we will leave Ouarzazate behind and head towards the city of Agdz , crossing the Tizi N’Tinifift pass (1,660 metres), a succession of steep mountains of black and grey rock of unusual beauty from which we will have an incomparable view of the Draa Valley.
Little by little we will enter the majestic palm grove of the Draa Valley, the largest palm grove in Africa with more than 150 kilometers in length, dotted with kasbahs, villages and orchards. We will leave the road to take a track that will take us into the heart of the palm grove and after the journey we will finally arrive at Zagora, the arrival point of the caravans coming from the mythical Timbuktu.
From here, and before sunset, we will go to the point where the Berber tent camp is located where we will spend the night. Upon our arrival and after having a welcome tea, we will contemplate a sunset that we will never forget. To finish the day we will have another wonderful experience, which will be to have dinner by the fire. Now it’s time to rest and we will do it wrapped in a huge blanket of stars, a unique and indescribable experience, which must be lived.
Day 4 Zagora – Ouarzazate – Ait Ben Haddou – High Atlas – Marrakech
It is worth waking up early and enjoying the sunrise. After breakfast visit of the famous kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. Kasbah is an Arabic word meaning citadel or citadel. In Morocco most of the Kasbah are built of adobe and many of them are in a state of ruin. The Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou is a spectacular village of clay and stone with buildings surrounded by large walls, which makes it one of the most beautiful places in Morocco and a must see for all tourists who plan to visit the North African country.
This impressive construction is still inhabited by a few families. It is crowned by a cliff of about one hundred meters high, in which there are remains of an old building and from where you can see a magnificent landscape.
We continue towards Marrakech, lunch on the way. Arrival in the Red City in the afternoon.
Day 5 Marrakech, airport.
After breakfast departure to the airport according to flight time.