Custom Morocco Culinary Tour

Please note: the timing for each day is very flexible – you can set and adjust the exact times to start each day and to do many of the sightseeing stops as you wish by coordinating with your private driver who will be with you throughout your trip! Please also note that the driving time listed below are indicative only and subject to change depending on weather, traffic, and the type of vehicle used.

Friday, March 13th: Arrival & Welcome to Casablanca!
Overnight: Barcelo Anfa (or equivalent)
You will be greeted at the gate when you land at the airport, your greeter will accompany you through the customs formalities and bring you to your private driver who will be waiting outside.
From the airport, your driver will take you to your hotel to check-in and have some time at leisure.
Dinner for that night will be at Rick’s Cafe (not included) and the rest of the evening is at leisure.

Saturday, March 14th: Volubilis Ruins, Imperial Meknes doors & Welcome to Fes
Overnight: Palais Amani (Or equivalent)
After breakfast, you’ll depart for 4.5 hours drive to Fes with stops to Meknes and Volubilis ruins.
Your driver will take you to the splendid roman ruins of Volubilis. Imagine Morocco in the 1st Century: an epoch of tumultuous transformation, where people from all over the Mediterranean and Northern Africa were migrating to the fertile Middle Atlas Mountains. Volubilis, located about 30 kilometers from Fes, is an ancient Berber and Roman city considered by many as not only the capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania but also the administrative center of Roman Africa. On this day, you’ll wander among the dramatic ruins up-close-and-personal through the homes, temples and public buildings of the Greek, Syrian, and Jewish city dwellers. Exceptionally well preserved, the ruins offer beautiful and colorful mosaics adorning many of the floor spaces, and you can just picture what it was like to wander the cypress-lined city in its Golden Age!
You’ll leave Volubilis to sit down for lunch (which is not included) and a tour of the stunning imperial gates that dot the neighboring city of Meknes (45 minutes away from Volubilis).
After lunch, you’ll continue to Fes, you will arrive in the afternoon and check into Palais Amani (or equivalent), your heavenly retreat tucked into the old medina. The former home of an old noble family in Fes, Palais Amani has been painstakingly restored with great care by its current owners, and you’ll be impressed by the expert craftsmanship in the riad’s plaster, tiles, and woodwork!
Enjoy a welcome mint tea and have the rest of the day at leisure. Your dinner for that night is not included but we’ll be happy to give some tasty meals recommendation!

Sunday, March 15th: Into the Wonders of Fes & Tasting Tour
Overnight: Palais Amani (Or equivalent)
After breakfast, you’ll depart for a jam-packed day of touring with your guide! Founded in 781AD, Fes is now considered the world’s largest car-free urban zone. Beware of mule-drawn carriages that speed through the alleyways, and check out a local pharmacy with its mysterious canisters of roots, flowers and powders.
Your lunch is not included this day but you will be settling in for an amazing experience on Tasting Trails of Fes: We’ll visit three different food souks allowing the chance to try traditional Moroccan street food including dried meats, milawi, harsha, briwats, spicy sardines, spicy potato cakes, soups, olives and more. At the honey souk where you’ll be able to taste an array of delicious wild honeys, discuss their flavors and health-giving properties and find out why honey is so important in Moroccan cooking and Islamic culture. We’ll investigate traditional cooking methods by visiting a furnace where the water for the communal bath house ‘hammam’ is also heated, and a 400 year old ‘furan’ or communal oven and bakery. Discover the world of spices and their uses and the secrets of the male-oriented domain of the tea den under the guidance of a culinary leader and story-teller.
Your day will also include stops at the medina’s Jewish quarter and the medersas. In addition, you’ll also stop by the world’s oldest and longest operating learning institution, the University of Al Quaraouiyine, founded in 859AD.
Your dinner this evening is not included and the rest of the evening is at leisure.

Monday, March 16th: Welcome to the Kingdom’s Capital!
Overnight: Riad Zyo (or equivalent)
After breakfast, you will drive to Rabat (~3.5 hours) to break up the drive to Marrakech. After lunch on the route (not included), you will continue to Rabat and check-in at your riad and freshend up.
Once you’ve freshened up, you will check out the city’s key sights: First off, you’ll stop at the Chellah necropolis. Established originally as a Phoenician colony, the ruins feature remnants of Roman settlements from the 2nd century, and early Arab rebuilds as early as the 7th century.
From the Chellah, you’ll head to the Yacoub al-Mansour Esplanade which is home to two must-see monuments: First, the King’s Mausoleum, which was built in 1971 and which houses the remains of the late king Hassan II, Prince Abdallah, and their father King Mohamed V. In front of the Mausoleum, you will find the Hassan Tower, an incomplete red sandstone minaret which began construction in 1195AD.
The next stop in your visit will be the the Kasbah des Ouadayas, an Almohad fortress built in 1150AD. After sightseeing the Kingdom’s capital, you can take a stroll through the winding blue streets in the Ouadayas, and enjoy a mint tea at Cafe Maure overlooking the Bou Regreg River.
Once you come back from your visits, you will have dinner (not included) and an evening at leisure to relax.

Tuesday, March 17th: Welcome to Marrakech!
Overnight: La Maison Arabe (or equivalent)
After breakfast, you will continue your adventure to Marrakech (4.5 hours) with stops for lunch (not included). Upon your arrival, you will check-in at your riad and have some time to freshen up. After freshening-up, you will head to the Majorelle Gardens & the YSL Museum. Global fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent made his 2nd home in Marrakech for many decades, and his vision drove every detail behind the lush Gardens, accompanied by a small but must-see Berber Museum! After your visit to the Majorelle Gardens, you can head next door to the Yves Saint- Laurent Museum, which honors the fashion icon’s love of Marrakech and builds upon the collections housed at the Majorelle gardens. The building itself if a work of art and houses a permanent collection of some of YSL’s best known designs along with rotating installations dedicated to themes about which he cared. Taking your time to enjoy every garden and the two museums should take no more than 2 hours in total.
As day turns to night, you will follow your visit of the medina by a guided walking tour of Djemaa El Fna Square. You should expect a sensory overload as you make their way around this legendary square! From snake charmers to acrobats, story tellers, fortune-tellers, henna tattoo artists, musicians, and food vendors, the atmosphere creates a place of unparallelled energy.
The final activity of the day will be dinner at La Maison Arabe’s (which is included) famous Trois Saveurs restaurants which offers a mix of Moroccan, Thai and international cuisine, you will dine by the poolside enjoying the calm live performance by a talented luth player.

Wednesday, March 18th : Sightseeing in the Ochre city!
Overnight: La Maison Arabe (Or equivalent)
We won’t judge you for wanting to linger at La Maison Arabe’s fantastic breakfast table, but we hope you’ll be ready to go to tackle your jam-packed day of sightseeing in Marrakech! Your day will break up into a morning and afternoon block, with a stop for lunch in between at Le Nomad (which is included). In the morning, you’ll see the Koutoubia Mosque (the iconic sight of Marrakech), the Bahia Palace (a stunning example of traditional Moroccan architecture), and the Saadian tombs. Afterwards you will head to the medina for lunch at Le Nomad, followed by afternoon visits of the medina and the souks.
During this guided tour, you will visit the medina and souks of Marrakech, including the Jewish quarter Morocco’s rich history includes a long period of Arab and Jewish communities accepting their differences and living and working together to bring success to their respective businesses.
As you walk through the medina, you will also see medersas or religious schools, the Jewish quarter, and delve into the myriad pathways of the Souk.
The term Souk refers to the markets, and the markets of Marrakech are located in a serpentine set of alleyways with twists and turns that can confuse even frequent travelers to the city! Our expert guide can give you an overview of how the souk is laid out and where the different sections are located, each focused on a different set of goods (Clothes, spices, lamps, shoes, traditional crafts, etc). After your guided tour, you’ll have dinner (which is not included) and the rest of the evening at leisure.

Thursday, March 19th: Agafay Desert & Moroccan Tagine cooking class
Overnight: La Maison Arabe (Or equivalent)
Around 10AM, you will head to La Maison Arabe to enjoy an immersive and fun experience: a Moroccan Tagine Cooking Class! Accompanied by a local “dada”, or expert cook, and with the help of an English translator, you will dig into all of the key components of a Moroccan meal, starting with how to prepare the famous Moroccan mint tea. Next, you’ll sample some tasty local bread and here all about how we cook traditional Moroccan bread. From there, the hands-on portion of the course begins as you will prepare two different staples of Moroccan starters, a tomato and cucumber salad and a 2nd salad using eggplant (please note: the exact salads may change depending on the day’s ingredients). After that, you’ll finally learn to prepare your main course, the famous Moroccan Tagine of chicken with preserved lemons. While your tagine is cooking over the fire, you’ll also prepare Moroccan cookies with almond paste. The class ends with lunch where you eat your very own masterpiece!
After lunch, make sure to be at La Maison Arabe to unwind with a luxuriating 90 minute Royal Hammam and Spa Treatment, where you will delve into the complete ritual of Moroccan wellness. Hammam means “spreader of warmth”, and walking into a hammam is like walking through time in a spacious and ornate sanctuary, a quiet retreat in an atmosphere of half-light, silence, seclusion and heat. Silence is an integral part of the cleansing process and helps the body and spirit liberate itself from excess and the superfluous. The hammam traditional ritual involves several steps to cleanse, detoxify, and help in relaxation. You’ll experience one of the world’s most ancient traditions, a black-soap cleanse, followed by a cascading cold-water rinse. This prepares your skin for an invigorating scrub, which leaves you soft and free of accumulated toxins and impurities.
After another rinse, a Ghassoul mask of Moroccan volcanic clay is applied to the body, face and hair. The last step of this centuries-old practice of purification is the relaxing massage using pure oils, Morocco’s precious youth elixir!
Around 5pm, you will head directly to the Agafay Desert that is a rocky terrain 1 hour away from Marrakech. You will drive from Marrakech to Agafay in the late afternoon, hop on a camel for a 30-45 min sunset camel ride, and segway into a tented dinner overlooking the desert. To be clear, there is no sand in the Agafay desert so you don’t get the flowing dunes of the Sahara, but it’s the next best thing that’s feasible without unduly long travel. You will have free time to stargaze and drive back to Marrakech to spend the night at your hotel.
The rest of the evening is at leisure.

Friday, March 20th: : Into the Atlas Mountains!
Overnight: La Maison Arabe (or equivalent)
After breakfast, your driver will take you to the Atlas Mountains for around ~1.5 hour drive. This day will mark your introduction to a very different component of Moroccan culture: the berber way of life in the High Atlas Mountains. After breakfast at Kasbah Tamadot, you’ll depart to the nearby town of Imlil where you’ll meet our expert mountain guide who will accompany you throughout your day. We will provide walking sticks, rental hiking boots if needed, as well as a mule for you to ride in case you get tired during the hike.
The hike can be adjusted entirely depending on your physical aptitude and desires, but the typical route is a 3-hour moderate difficulty climb into the Atlas Mountains where you see phenomenal landscapes and learn all about the local culture, history, and fauna / flora from our mountain guide. The payoff to the hike comes when you settle down in the terrace of a local family home with a stunning view of Mt Toubkal. A warm mint tea awaits you as sit down, followed by a tasty homemade meal. The lunch break (included) leaves plenty of time to admire the view, and you’ll return back on a different route to be back in Imlil by the late afternoon. But, we can easily adjust the hike to instead be a leisurely guided walk through the local Berber village with time to shop from local artisan cooperatives and admire the Berber way of life. No matter if you prefer to do the longer hike or just a short stroll, this day will be an incredible chance to learn about a unique facet of Moroccan culture. Finally, you’ll then return to Marrakech for a well-deserved dinner! (which is not included)

Saturday, March 21st: : Departure
After breakfast , you’ll check out of your hotel and drive to Casablanca (~3 hours) or Marrakech airport (0.5 hours) for your departure flight with fast track at customs.