Morocco — From Casablanca to Marrakech

Why Morocco


I work with Morocco because it’s one of the most layered countries I send our clients to — Berber, Arab, Andalusian, and French traces all in the same city — and because the version of Morocco that’s worth your time is not the version on the bus-tour circuit. The honest part first: same-sex relationships are not legal under Moroccan law. In practice, this means we don’t recommend public displays of affection on the street, and we don’t book hotels we haven’t personally vetted for discretion and welcome. What we do book is the network of riad-owners, boutique properties, and private drivers we’ve worked with for years — places where two men checking in together is unremarkable, where the staff is professional and the experience is yours alone behind the riad walls. The Morocco we design for our clients moves between the medinas, the Atlas Mountains, and the Sahara at the right hours, with the right people on the ground.

When to go


March / May — September / November

Ideal length


11 — 12 nights

Price


From $7,200 pp (flights not included) (based on double occupancy)

The trip in a nutshell


Twelve days, six bases, one arc that begins on the Atlantic coast at Casablanca and ends in the red city of Marrakech. You move through Chefchaouen‘s blue medina in the Rif Mountains, the medieval depth of Fes, two nights in the Sahara at Erg Chebbi, the Dades Gorges and Skoura Valley with their kasbahs, the walled town of Taroudant, and finally Marrakech — souks, palaces, and the Jardin Majorelle. The drive between bases is long on some days, beautiful all of them, and broken by stops that earn themselves: the Roman ruins of Volubilis, the Moulay Idris pilgrimage town, the Tizi n’Test pass through the High Atlas.

This is not a checklist trip. The pace is calibrated for travelers who’d rather spend an extra afternoon in a Fes riad than tick another monument. The Sahara night, in particular, is set up to be slow — camel ride or 4×4 by choice, dinner at the camp, stars overhead, no rush to leave the next morning. The thread that runs through is craft: argan oil cooperatives in the south, Berber rug weaving in the Atlas, the tannery and brass markets of Fes, saffron from Tallouine. Most of what we book on this trip is built around people who make things by hand.

What we take care of


A tailor-made itinerary, built around your pace


Handpicked hotels in the right neighborhoods


Local experts, guides and key reservations


Private door-to-door transfers


Experiences designed around you, never a checklist


24/7 support — before and during your trip

Who this is for


This trip is for the gay traveler who’s read about Morocco for years and wants to finally do it properly — without the Marrakech-only short-haul that misses three-quarters of what the country actually is. The kind of traveler who’d rather see the Roman mosaics at Volubilis at nine in the morning with no one else around than queue at Bahia Palace at noon. Who knows that the Sahara is not the desert from a Lawrence of Arabia poster — it’s a series of dunes you walk into and a camp you sleep in, and the real luxury is the silence at three a.m.

It’s not a beach trip. Essaouira is reachable as an extension if you want one, but the spine of the route is mountains, medieval cities, and the desert — with Marrakech as the finale. It’s also not a party trip. Morocco’s gay scene exists, quietly, in private spaces; this route is built around the privacy of the properties we work with and the relationship-driven access they give you, not around bars and clubs.

What this country does well, for the traveler I’m describing, is the welcome inside the right doors. Our riad partners and DMC contacts have worked with LGBTQ+ travelers for over a decade. The legal context is what it is — we tell our clients clearly and once, then we route around the friction so the trip itself feels effortless and entirely yours.

Sample itinerary


A representative twelve-day flow from Casablanca to Marrakech. Every itinerary is rebuilt around your dates, pace, hotel preference, and how much time you want in the desert versus the medinas.

Your driver meets you at Casablanca airport — a name on a card, a face you’ll recognize for the rest of the trip. Transfer to a centrally placed boutique stay near the Hassan II Mosque. The first evening is yours: a slow walk along the Corniche if you have the energy, an early dinner of grilled fish from the Atlantic and a glass of Moroccan rosé. Casablanca is not the prettiest city in the country, but it’s the right one to start in — it sets the geography and gives you a soft landing before the medinas.

Morning: the Hassan II Mosque, a guided visit of one of the few mosques in Morocco open to non-Muslims, with the Atlantic breaking against the seawall just beyond the prayer hall. Then a long, beautiful drive north — past Rabat, through fertile farm country, and up into the Rif Mountains. By late afternoon you arrive in Chefchaouen, the blue city built into the side of a mountain. Check-in at a small riad in the medina. Evening walk through the old town as the light softens the blue washes on the walls — Chefchaouen is famously photogenic but the best time to walk it is the hour after sunset, when the tour groups have left.

A slow day. Wander the medina with a local guide for the first half of the morning — handcrafted goods, Berber wool, the distinctive striped traditional dress of the local women, Monday and Thursday markets if you’re there on the right day. Afternoon is open: a hike up to the Spanish Mosque for the panoramic view of the town below, a hammam visit at one of the properties we recommend, or simply reading on the riad terrace. Dinner in town — Moroccan tagine done the right way, slowly.

Drive south, stopping first at the Roman ruins of Volubilis — a UNESCO site that’s the best Roman archaeology in North Africa, with mosaic floors still in situ. Then Moulay Idris, the pilgrimage town built around the tomb of the first Idrisid ruler, set between two hills. Lunch in Meknes — Bab El Mansour gate, the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, the storied royal granary. By early evening you arrive in Fes and check in to a riad in the medina, where the alleys are too narrow for cars and your luggage arrives by handcart.

A full day with a Fes guide who knows the medina the way only locals do. Start with the panoramic view from Borj Sud — Fes el Bali (800 AD) on one side, Fes el Jdid (1200 AD) on the other. Then descend into the medina on foot: Bab Bou Jeloud, the Al Quaraouiyine mosque-university (founded 859 AD, one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world), the Chouara tannery from the rooftop terrace of a leather shop (mint sprig provided), the Attarine Madrasa, the Mellah (Jewish Quarter) with its distinct architecture and history. Lunch in a courtyard restaurant. Afternoon is yours — a brass workshop, a private cooking class, or rest at the riad. Dinner on a rooftop with the call to prayer rolling across the city.

A long day on the road, but the right kind of long. Drive east through the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas where you might spot Barbary macaques, then through Ifrane (the strangely Alpine university town), down through Midelt and the apple orchards. Cross the High Atlas via the N’Talghemt Pass, descend into the Ziz Valley where Berber shepherds tend their flocks alongside the road. Pause in Erfoud, then leave the asphalt for the off-road run to Erg Chebbi — the great sand sea on the Algerian border. Check in to a desert kasbah at the foot of the dunes. Sunset on the first dune is yours alone.

Choose your morning: sunrise camel ride into the dunes, or a 4×4 expedition to nomad families and Gnawa musicians. Lunch back at the camp. Afternoon at your pace — a hammam, a long nap in the riad, or wander to the edge of the dunes with a book. As the light softens, the camel ride back into the deep desert for the night under the stars — a tented camp, a tagine cooked over coals, Berber drummers if you want music, silence if you don’t. The night sky over Erg Chebbi is among the darkest in the inhabited world.

Morning: another sunrise over the dunes for the early risers, or a slow breakfast for everyone else. Then west across the southern fringe of the Sahara — through Tinjdad, the date-palm oases of the Todgha, a walking stop in the dramatic Todgha Gorges where the walls of the canyon close to a few meters apart. Continue through Tinghir and the Berber villages of the Dades Valley, with their abandoned 19th-century kasbahs crumbling among the palm groves. Overnight at a country property in the Dades Valley with views back over the gorge.

Morning visit to Kasbah Amerhidil in Skoura Valley — one of the finest examples of traditional Moroccan earthen architecture, with the palm grove of Skoura surrounding it. Then through Ouarzazate, the so-called Hollywood of Morocco where the David Lean and Ridley Scott desert sequences have all been shot. Continue south through Tallouine, the heartland of Moroccan saffron — a stop at a cooperative if you’d like to buy. Arrive in Taroudant by late afternoon — one of the best-preserved walled cities in the country, sometimes called “the grandmother of Marrakech” for its more intimate, slower-paced version of the medina format. Overnight inside the walls.

The most cinematic drive of the trip. Argan tree country first — argan oil cooperatives run by women’s collectives in this region, worth a stop if you’d like to see the process. Then up into the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Test pass, a winding mountain road that crosses the range at 2,100 meters and opens onto views you’ll remember in still photographs for years. Descend the northern side into the plains around Marrakech. Check in at your Marrakech riad in the late afternoon — likely inside the medina, ideally on a small derb where the door is plain and the courtyard behind it is not.

A full day in the city with a private Marrakech guide. Morning in the medina: the souks (carpets, spices, brass, leather), Bahia Palace and its painted ceilings, the Saadian Tombs, Bab Agnaou. Lunch in a quiet courtyard riad-restaurant — the right way to do Marrakech in the heat is to retreat into the shade in the middle of the day. Afternoon outside the walls in the Ville Nouvelle: Jardin Majorelle (the garden Yves Saint Laurent rescued from decay), the YSL Museum next door. Late afternoon at the riad, then dinner with views over Djemaa el-Fnaa as it shifts from market by day to outdoor stage by night.

Final breakfast at the riad. Driver to Marrakech airport, twenty minutes from the medina. Not ready to leave Morocco yet? We can add an extension — a slow finale in Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, a few extra nights in a country property in the Ourika Valley, or an upgrade to a desert camp with private en-suite tents and a private chef.

Hotels we love


Six properties across Morocco, each chosen for a different register of hospitality — and each one we know personally. We match the right property to your trip and your style, and we’ll upgrade individual stays where it matters most to you.


Kenzi Tower Hotel · Casablanca


A high-rise five-star in the Twin Center of downtown Casablanca, with floor-to-ceiling views over the city and the Atlantic. Modern register, polished interiors, a generous spa floor. The right opening note for the trip: comfortable, central, and a clean step into Morocco before the medina cities begin.


Riad Lina · Chefchaouen


A small, traditionally-restored riad inside the blue medina of Chefchaouen — eight or so rooms around a tiled courtyard, terrace with views over the rooftops to the Rif Mountains. Slow breakfasts, a hammam on-site, the kind of property where you can leave your bag at reception and walk out into the medina knowing you’ll find it just as you left it.


Riad in Marrakech medina


The Marrakech riad we book depends on your trip. For a quieter finale: a small private riad on a derb in the Mouassine quarter, owned by a single family, no more than ten rooms, plunge pool in the courtyard. For an iconic Marrakech ending: a larger property closer to Djemaa el-Fnaa with rooftop views over the medina. Either way, walking distance to the souks, twenty minutes by driver to the Ville Nouvelle.

Make this itinerary yours


Tell us your dates, pace, hotel style — and within 48 hours we’ll come back with a tailored version of this itinerary, adjusted for the season you want, the number of desert nights, the level of activity, the riad style you prefer, and any extensions (Essaouira, Ourika, or a longer Sahara stay) you’d like to add.


PLAN YOUR TRIP

Gay Up Travel

Travel as you are.