Signature Morocco - twelve days
This is a real route, not a sample. It is the one I build most often for a first visit, and the one I change most often once I know who is coming. Dates, pace and rooms move. The shape below is what works.
Day 1 - Casablanca
Arrive, rest, and see the Hassan II mosque late in the day when the light comes off the water. Dinner somewhere ordinary and very good.
Day 2 - Casablanca to Rabat
Morning in Casablanca, then the capital in the afternoon - the Kasbah of the Oudayas, the Chellah, and a city that most itineraries skip for no good reason.
Drive 1 hour 30.
Day 3 - Rabat to Chefchaouen
North into the Rif. You arrive with the afternoon still ahead of you, which is the point.
Drive 3 hours 30.
Day 4 - Chefchaouen to Fes
The blue town early, before the day visitors. Then east.
Drive 4 hours.
Day 5 - Fes
A full day in the medina with a licensed Fes guide who grew up in it. Tanneries, the Qarawiyyin, and the workshops - and nowhere that pays me to bring you.
Day 6 - Fes to the Sahara
The long day, and I will not pretend otherwise. Seven hours through the cedar forest, the Middle Atlas and the Ziz valley, with real stops. We leave early and you are on a camel by sunset.
Drive 7 hours.
Day 7 - Erg Chebbi
The dunes, a nomad family who have known me for years, and a night in camp. Nothing scheduled after four o'clock.
Day 8 - Merzouga to Dades
The Todra gorge, lunch by the water, and the valley road.
Drive 4 hours.
Day 9 - Dades to Ait Ben Haddou
Skoura's palm groves, Ouarzazate, and the kasbah in the evening once the coaches have gone.
Drive 3 hours.
Day 10 - Ait Ben Haddou to Marrakech
Over the Tizi n'Tichka at 2,260 metres.
Drive 3 hours 30.
Day 11 - Marrakech
The medina in the morning, the gardens in the afternoon, and dinner away from Jemaa el-Fna.
Day 12 - Marrakech
Home, or three more days on the coast at Essaouira if you have them.
What I would change
Day 6 is the one I argue about. Most operators sell it as two days with a night in Midelt, which costs you a day in the desert and gains you nothing. If you have thirteen days, I would rather give the extra one to Fes or the dunes than to a motorway town. If you are travelling with children or anyone who does not like a long car day, say so and I will rebuild it with a flight. Tell me what you want and I will tell you honestly whether twelve days is enough for it.