MOROCCO SULTANS’ DOMAINS
DAY 1 – RABAT – THE CAPITAL
Transfer from Casablanca airport to stately capital Rabat. Visit the highlights of Rabat in the afternoon: The picturesque Oudaya Casbah, a former lair of Barbary Coast corsairs, with its Andalusian garden. The Chellah fortress, lush garden and the intricate necropolis. The mausoleum to modern Morocco’s “father” Mohamed V and the adjoining ruins of the Hassan mosque, meant to have been the world’s largest in the 12th C.
DAY 2 – FES, CITY OF CULTURE
Depart East to Fes, first stopping en route in Imperial City Meknes to see its immense granary, built by 17th-C. Sultan Moulay Ismaïl to withstand a year-long siege.. Next is Roman Volubilis, the capital of the northwestern province until the 3rd C.
DAY 3 – THE MAGIC OF FES
A morning walking tour of 9th-C. “Old” Fes, considered to be the last true example of a typical medieval Arab city (both the Fes and Meknes medinas are World Heritage Sites). Visit the famed leather tannery and observe craftsmen at work in the bazaars around the world’s oldest functioning university, the Qarawïne. Driving tour of the ramparts and visit of 14th-C. “New” Fes, with its Blue Gate.
DAY 4 – TRAVEL IN TIME
A full-day transfer southwest, first into the Middle Atlas range, via mountain station Ifrane. Berber towns and hilly farmland, through the vast Tadla plains, until legendary Marrakech.
DAY 5 – THE SPLENDORS OF MARRACKECH
Full-day tour of Marrakech. Begin in the morning with the prime monuments: the 12th-C. Koutoubia minaret (a “sister” to Sevilla’s Giralda), the symbol of the city and a reference of world Islamic art. In the afternoon, the exotic garden of French Orientalist Jacques Majorelle and YSL’s Museum of Islamic Arts within.
DAY 6 – SEA SIDE ORIENTAL TALE
A full-day excursion to picturesque fisheries and art center Essaouira on the Atlantic, whose history spans Phoenicians, Romans, Portuguese, Jews and the hippie era! massive battlements with their thuya wood ateliers, and the galleries for the town’s original naive art movement.
DAY 7 – INSIDE THE SOUKS
Marrakech’s busy bazaars, the country’s largest, observing a myriad wares being made and sold. Stop in time and live the experience of the past today at the Place Jamaa el fna. Stop at the vast 15th-C. Ben Youssef school and the Museum of Marrakech, set in a former palace.
DAY 8 – END OF TOUR
Morning transfer to Marrakech airport for the outbound flights.
*** DO you want one more day???
HIGH ATLAS MOUNTAIN
A morning departure for the Mt. Toubkal National Park in the magnificent High Atlas, Africa’s longest range. Meet an English-speaking mountain guide and undertake a mule ride (or hike) through walnut-shaded terraced fields and simple hamlets, observing daily ways of life and work nearly unchanged in centuries of the indigenous Berber tribesmen. Back to Marrakech.