5 Days in Morocco (or 4): 4 Plans, With or Without Desert

Five days is enough to see Morocco if you pair Marrakech with one other landscape: the Sahara, the High Atlas or the Atlantic coast. It is not enough for Marrakech, the desert and Fes together, unless you fly into Fes and home from Marrakech. Here are four short plans, the honest trade-off of each, and what to cut if you only have four days.

Is 4 or 5 days enough for Morocco?

For Marrakech and one other world, yes. Count your days from landing to take-off: a 5-day trip usually means four nights, and the first and last days are half days at best. Marrakech airport is only about 7 km from Jemaa el-Fna, so even an afternoon landing leaves you the evening in the square.

Two things don't fit, whatever you try:

Fes, the Sahara and Marrakech on a return ticket to Marrakech. Fes is about 530 km away, a full day by road or rail, and the desert road back takes another three days. You would spend the whole trip in transit.
Chefchaouen. It is about 570 km from Marrakech. Keep it for a trip of ten days or more.

For longer stays, our guide to how many days you need in Morocco compares a week, 10 days and two weeks.

The four plans at a glance

Plan	Where you sleep	Desert	Long road days
1. Marrakech and Merzouga	Marrakech, Dades, desert camp, Marrakech	Erg Chebbi, dunes up to about 150 m	Two days of 8–10 h with stops
2. Marrakech, Zagora and the Atlas	Marrakech, desert camp, Marrakech, Marrakech	Smaller dunes near Zagora	Two days of about 7 h with stops
3. Marrakech and the coast	Marrakech, Taghazout, Taghazout, Essaouira	None	Drives of 3 to 4 h
4. Fes to Marrakech	Fes, Fes, desert camp, Dades, Marrakech	Erg Chebbi	Three full road days

Plan 1: Marrakech and the Merzouga dunes (5 days)

The plan for travellers who came for the big dunes. Its middle is our 3-day Merzouga desert tour:

Day 1: land in Marrakech; evening on Jemaa el-Fna.
Day 2: leave at 8:00 over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, visit Ait Ben Haddou, sleep in the Dades Gorges.
Day 3: the Todra Gorges, then Merzouga: a camel trek into Erg Chebbi at sunset and a night in a desert camp.
Day 4: sunrise on the dunes, then back through Rissani, N'Kob and the Draa Valley to Marrakech in the evening.
Day 5: a morning in the medina, then your flight.

The trade-off: days 2 and 4 each mean 8 to 10 hours on the road with stops, and Marrakech gets one evening and one morning. The road is half the trip, and our guide to the Marrakech–Merzouga route describes its stops. At the end of it, the highest dunes of Erg Chebbi rise to about 150 metres. Choose this plan if the dunes are the reason you are coming and long drives don't put you off.

Plan 2: Marrakech, Zagora and the Atlas (4–5 days)

Less driving and more variety, with real sand, though the dunes are smaller than at Merzouga.

Day 1: Marrakech.
Days 2–3: our 2-day Zagora desert tour: Ait Ben Haddou, the Tizi n'Tinififft pass and the palm groves of the Draa Valley, a camel ride at sunset and a night in a camp, then back through Ouarzazate. Count about 7 hours each way with stops; you are back in Marrakech around 19:00 in summer, 20:00 in winter.
Day 4: the mountains: a walk through the Berber villages around Imlil, at the foot of Toubkal and about an hour and a half away, or the greener Ourika Valley. Our Atlas day trips from Marrakech compare the options.
Day 5: a last morning in Marrakech and the flight.

Zagora's dunes look modest next to Erg Chebbi: you go for the camel ride, the camp and the night sky more than for the height of the sand. If one evening of desert is enough, the stony Agafay desert is 45 minutes from Marrakech, with a sunset and dinner in a camp: see a desert trip from Marrakech in 1 or 2 days. Spanish passport holders: since the 2023 earthquake, Spain advises against travel to Al Haouz province, which includes Imlil, the Ourika Valley and part of Agafay, so check that advice and your insurance.

Plan 3: Marrakech and the Atlantic coast (no desert)

This plan follows our 5-day coastal tour:

Day 1: Marrakech, and Jemaa el-Fna in the evening.
Day 2: to Taghazout, a surf village north of Agadir (about 4 hours).
Day 3: a half-day surf lesson with local instructors (beginners welcome), then the beach.
Day 4: up the coast to Essaouira (about 4 hours), with a stop at a women's argan oil cooperative, then a guided walk through the medina, the port and the sea walls.
Day 5: a last morning in Essaouira, then Marrakech (about 3 hours) and an evening flight.

A lighter version, without the surf: two days in Marrakech, a day in the Atlas, then a night in Essaouira, about 180 km from Marrakech, before driving back for the flight. The whole coast, from Tangier down, is in our Atlantic coast itinerary.

This is the plan for July and August. Ouarzazate, on the way to the desert, then averages about 39 °C (102 °F) in the afternoon and Marrakech about 38 °C, while Agadir, next to Taghazout, stays around 27 °C. It also suits families: the drives are short and the beach waits at the end of them. Surfers should know that the biggest waves come from October to April; summer is calmer, which beginners prefer.

Plan 4: in at Fes, out at Marrakech

Only if your flights allow it: a ticket into Fes and home from Marrakech. Fes has direct flights from a number of European cities, many of them low-cost.

Day 1: land in Fes.
Day 2: the Fes medina with a guide.
Days 3–5: our 3-day desert crossing from Fes to Marrakech. Day 3 is the long one, about 470 km: Ifrane, the cedar forest near Azrou, the Ziz Valley, then a camel trek and a camp at Merzouga. Day 4: the Todra Gorges and the Dades Valley. Day 5: the Rose Valley, Skoura, Ait Ben Haddou and the Tichka down to Marrakech.
Day 6, morning: the flight home.

These are the most varied five days you can have in Morocco: two imperial cities, the Middle Atlas, the Sahara and the kasbah road, without driving the same road twice. The catch is Marrakech. The crossing arrives in the late afternoon or early evening, so book your flight for the next morning, which makes five nights, and Marrakech gets a single evening. The tour also runs the other way, if your flights do.

Only 4 days?

Four days usually means three nights. Plan 2 fits as it is, without the Atlas day: Zagora on days 2 and 3, and the morning of day 4 in the medina before the flight. Plan 3 shrinks well too: Marrakech and a night in Essaouira, or Marrakech and a day in the Atlas.

Plan 1 squeezes into four days only with a flight home early on the morning after the tour gets back, and then Marrakech gets one evening: the one you land. Do it only if the dunes are the whole point. And don't try Essaouira and the desert in the same four days: each needs its own road, in opposite directions.

Which plan for whom

The dunes, whatever it takes: Plan 1. For a softer night, our luxury desert camp in Merzouga has real beds and private bathrooms.
A first trip with children: Plan 3, or Plan 2 if they dream of camels. Our guide to Morocco with kids covers the practical side, and our family tours set the pace and the drives around their ages.
Walkers: Plan 2, with a longer day in the Atlas around Imlil.
Winter: every desert plan works, but from December to February nights in the camp can drop close to freezing. Check the best time to visit the Sahara and pack a warm layer.
Six or seven days: take our 5-day Marrakech–Merzouga tour instead of the 3-day one, for a full day around Erg Chebbi and shorter drives. Our one-week itineraries build the rest of the week around it.