Overview
Six days. Five nights. From the gate of Africa to the golden dunes and back, entirely private.
This is the Tangier round trip — Morocco from the Strait of Gibraltar, where Africa meets Europe across nine miles of water, all the way down to the Sahara and back to your starting point. It's the trip for travellers arriving and departing through Tangier: cross from Spain on the ferry, see the blue city, Fes, and the great dunes, and return to the same port for your onward plans. The market sells this as a fixed minibus with a fixed group. This is the opposite: your own vehicle, your own driver-guide, your own desert camp, and your own pace from the first kilometre to the last.
Day 1 leaves Tangier and drives south into the Rif to **Chefchaouen**, the blue city, arriving for the afternoon and evening light. Day 2 is a morning in the blue medina before driving to **Fes**. Day 3 tours the **Fes el-Bali medina** with a local guide in the morning, then crosses the **Middle Atlas** — Ifrane, the cedar forests and Barbary macaques — and descends the **Ziz Valley** to **Erg Chebbi**, reaching the dunes for the sunset camel trek into your **private desert camp**: proper beds, private facilities, a Berber dinner, drumming, and a sky with no light pollution for a hundred kilometres.
Day 4 is the desert immersion day — the dune sunrise, then a slower day in the Sahara with a **4x4 excursion**, **nomad family visits**, **sandboarding** on the dunes, the **Khamlia Gnaoua music village**, and the **Rissani** caravan souk, with a second night in the desert region. Day 5 begins the return north, retracing the route up through the Middle Atlas toward Fes for the night. Day 6 completes the loop back to **Tangier**, where the trip ends — in good time for an onward ferry or flight.
Prefer not to double back? We can finish the trip in Marrakech instead of returning to Tangier — tell us at booking.
Best for: travellers arriving and departing through Tangier (especially the Spain-ferry crowd returning to the same port), anyone drawn to the "gateway to Africa" loop, couples and families who want the journey to themselves, travellers who want a deeper desert leg than the 5-day one-way.
Not the right fit if: you don't want to double back (the one-way Tangier-to-Marrakech version, WPVMTCFM5, avoids retracing the route — though it ends far from Tangier), you want a slow, low-mileage holiday (this is the most driving-intensive of our short trips), you want the imperial cities of Rabat, Meknes, and Volubilis (see WPVMCFM7), or you're travelling in peak summer and can't tolerate desert heat (spring and autumn are far more comfortable).
Hakim founded Morocco Way in 2014 with one rule: every guide is born in the region they show you. Your driver-guide knows the Rif, the Atlas passes, and the desert country as home ground — and a private trip means the loop bends around you, not around a minibus timetable shared with strangers.
Day by Day
Your driver-guide collects you from Tangier — the airport (TNG), the Tanger Med or Tanger Ville ferry port, or your hotel, your party only, included in the trip price. Provide your arrival details at booking (flight number, or the ferry you're crossing on from Tarifa or Algeciras) so we can time the pickup. If your ferry is delayed, the driver tracks the crossing and waits.
If you have time in Tangier before departing — the white city on the Strait of Gibraltar, with its kasbah, its medina, the Cap Spartel lighthouse, and the Caves of Hercules — your driver-guide can include a short Tangier orientation before heading south (tell us at booking). Tangier has been the meeting point of Europe and Africa for three thousand years, and it's worth a look.
Then south by private vehicle into the **Rif Mountains** to **Chefchaouen** — about 2 to 2.5 hours, the closest of the highlights to Tangier. **Chefchaouen** — "the blue city" — is a small town of indigo-washed lanes stacked on a hillside, founded in 1471 and famous for the blue paint covering nearly every wall, door, and stair in the medina. You arrive with the afternoon ahead and the evening to wander the blue medina at your own pace — the main square (Plaza Uta el-Hammam), the kasbah, the lanes that everyone photographs. The town is small, safe, and made for walking.
Dinner is included tonight at your accommodation or a recommended local restaurant.
Night: private room at a hotel or riad in Chefchaouen (1 night, en-suite, your party only). Dinner included; lunch en route at your own choice; no other meals on Day 1.
The blue-city morning. Breakfast at your accommodation, then time in the **Chefchaouen medina** in the morning light — the best hours for photography, before the day-trippers arrive.
With your driver-guide (or at your own pace, your choice) you take in the washed-indigo lanes, the **Plaza Uta el-Hammam** and its red-walled **kasbah**, the **Ras El Maa** spring at the edge of the medina, and the climb to the **Spanish Mosque viewpoint** above the town for the panorama over the blue rooftops and the Rif behind (a gentle 20-to-30-minute walk up). There's time to browse the local crafts — Chefchaouen is known for wool goods, woven blankets, and goat's cheese.
Late morning, drive south to **Fes** — about 4 hours by private vehicle, with a lunch stop on the way (your own choice and expense, typical bill 80 to 150 MAD per person). You arrive in Fes in the late afternoon.
Your accommodation is a **riad in the Fes el-Bali medina** — a traditional courtyard house, private to your party. Dinner is your own choice tonight at a Fes restaurant (typical bill 150 to 300 MAD per person), as tomorrow morning you'll tour the medina.
Night: riad in Fes el-Bali (1 night, en-suite, your party only). Breakfast included; lunch on the road and dinner at your own choice.
The big crossing day — the medina in the morning, the desert by nightfall. Breakfast at the riad, then a guided walking tour of **Fes el-Bali** with a local guide who knows the maze as home ground.
The morning takes in the **tanneries** (the centuries-old dye pits, seen from a leather-shop terrace — your guide brings mint to hold against the smell), the speciality souks organised by trade, the **El-Attarine and Bou Inania madrasas** (Marinid religious schools in carved cedar, stucco, and zellij), the **Al-Qarawiyyin** (founded 859, often called the world's oldest existing university, viewed from the gates), and the **Nejjarine fountain and woodwork museum**. About 3 to 4 hours with a tea break.
Around midday you leave Fes and head south into the **Middle Atlas**. Stops on the way: **Ifrane**, the "Switzerland of Morocco," an alpine-style hill station; the **cedar forest near Azrou**, home to troops of Barbary macaques; and the long, scenic descent through **Midelt** and the **Ziz Valley**, where a vast palmery threads the canyon floor and a panoramic viewpoint opens over thousands of date palms. Lunch on the way at your own choice (typical bill 80 to 150 MAD per person). This is a long driving afternoon — roughly 7 hours from Fes to the desert in total — but the landscape changes the whole way.
You reach **Merzouga** and the edge of **Erg Chebbi** in the late afternoon. You meet your camels (well cared-for working animals with a local handler) and ride into the dunes as the sun drops — about an hour in the saddle, with a 4x4 alternative available on request at no extra charge.
Your **private desert camp** sits among the dunes, booked for your party only. Proper beds, blankets, private or en-suite washing facilities. Dinner is a Berber meal around the fire — soup, tagine, fruit, mint tea — followed by drumming and a sky with no light pollution for a hundred kilometres. The Milky Way is visible in season.
Night: private tented desert camp in Erg Chebbi (1 night, proper bed, private/en-suite facilities, your party only). Breakfast at the riad, dinner at the camp included; lunch on the road at your own choice.
The desert immersion day — the reason the 6-day round trip is worth the extra day over the 5-day one-way.
The morning begins before dawn for the **Erg Chebbi sunrise** — the dunes shifting through grey, pink, orange, and gold as the sun comes up over Algeria to the east. About 30 to 45 minutes. Camel trek (or 4x4) back from the camp and breakfast at the edge of the dunes.
The rest of the day explores the Erg Chebbi region at a slower pace, with a **4x4 desert excursion** into and around the dune sea. Depending on your interests, the day includes:
- A visit to a **nomad family** living in or near the dunes — tea and conversation (translated by your guide), a genuine window into Saharan life
- The **Khamlia village** and its **Gnaoua music** — descendants of sub-Saharan communities who play a hypnotic, trance-style music; you sit in for a session
- **Rissani**, the old caravan town and gateway to the Sahara, with its busy traditional souk (one of the most authentic markets in the south, especially on market days)
- **Sandboarding** on the dunes — board down the slip face of a big dune (no experience needed; the handler shows you how)
- The **fossil beds and old mining settlements** of the region, or the **Source Bleue de Meski** spring oasis (optional, route-dependent)
Lunch is your own choice at a desert-town restaurant or arranged at your accommodation (typical bill 80 to 150 MAD per person).
You overnight in the **Erg Chebbi region** — either a second night at a desert camp or a kasbah-style hotel near the dunes, your party only. Dinner is included tonight.
Night: private accommodation in the Erg Chebbi region — desert camp or kasbah-style hotel (1 night, en-suite or private tent, your party only). Breakfast and dinner included; lunch at your own choice.
The return north begins. Breakfast at your accommodation, then the long, scenic drive back up out of the desert toward Fes.
The road retraces the route of Day 3 in reverse — up the **Ziz Valley** with its palmeries, back over the **Middle Atlas** through **Midelt**, the cedar forests near **Azrou**, and **Ifrane** — but the light and the direction make it a different drive, and your driver-guide can stop at anything you passed too quickly on the way out (a particular viewpoint, the macaques in the cedars, a roadside cooperative). Lunch on the way at your own choice (typical bill 80 to 150 MAD per person).
This is a long driving day — roughly 7 hours — but it's the price of a round trip, and a private vehicle with only your own party, stopping when you want, makes it far easier than a packed minibus on a fixed clock.
You arrive in **Fes** in the late afternoon for the night — back in the riad (or an equivalent Premium riad), with the evening free to enjoy the medina you toured on Day 3, this time at your own pace, or to rest. Dinner is your own choice tonight (the riad can arrange dinner on request).
Night: riad in Fes el-Bali (1 night, en-suite, your party only). Breakfast included; lunch on the road and dinner at your own choice.
The loop closes. Breakfast at the riad, then the drive north from Fes back to **Tangier** — about 4.5 to 5 hours by private vehicle, up through the northern plains and back toward the coast and the Strait of Gibraltar.
Your driver-guide breaks the drive with a coffee or lunch stop (your own choice and expense, typical bill 80 to 150 MAD per person). You arrive in Tangier in the afternoon, in good time for an onward ferry to Spain or a flight from Tangier airport (TNG).
We drop you at the **Tanger Med or Tanger Ville ferry port, the airport, or your Tangier hotel**, your party only, timed around your onward plans (tell us at booking — if you have a specific ferry sailing, we plan the day to get you there with margin).
**Prefer to finish in Marrakech?** If your onward plans are in the south, we can end the trip in Marrakech instead of returning to Tangier — in that case Day 5 and Day 6 run south over the High Atlas via Aït Benhaddou and the Tizi n'Tichka pass to Marrakech rather than north to Tangier. Tell us at booking and we'll route it that way (it turns the round trip into a one-way and may adjust the price).
If you'd like to extend — a night in Tangier at the end, more time in Chefchaouen or the desert, or a Tangier city tour before your departure — tell us at booking and we'll build it in.
Breakfast at the riad included. Other meals on Day 6 are at your own choice and expense.
Includes & Excludes
What's included
Not included
Frequently Asked
Morocco has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and, compared to the US and Europe, is considered a very safe destination. Moroccan people are known for their hospitality and they will make you feel very welcomed, for more information on the topic contact us and we’ll provide you with some personal single-traveller experiences.
No. You may wear whatever you feel comfortable in, we only have one exception on tours of the Mosque like Hassan II. To enter you would need to dress conservatively as you would in a church (no shorts, tanks tops, etc.).
As in any country you should use direction with your attire if you want to avoid unwanted attention.
US Dollars, Sterling and Euros are readily exchangeable. We recommend you take a mixture of cash and credit cards. Scottish bank notes and Australian dollar travellers cheques and cash are NOT normally accepted in Morocco.
With accurate information on the schedule of your arrival, our guide and our driver await you at the customs exit at the airport, with a sign with your name and first name. It’s always easy, this appointment. In case of concern, you can contact us by phone with our contact information noted in our emails. We are always at your disposal 24 hours a day
Fully private, from the Tangier pickup to the Tangier drop-off. The vehicle is yours alone — your party only, with Morocco Way's driver-guide, never pooled with other bookings. Your rooms are private throughout, and the desert camp is booked for your group, not shared with strangers. This is the key difference from the standard market version, which runs a fixed minibus with a fixed group on a fixed clock. With Morocco Way you set the start times, the stops, and the pace — which matters most in Chefchaouen (the early-morning light) and on the long crossing and return days, where stopping freely makes all the difference. The trade-off is cost: a private trip costs more per person than a minibus seat, and the per-person price depends on how many of you are travelling (larger parties pay less each).
Both start in Tangier and follow the same blue-city-to-desert spine (Chefchaouen, Fes, the Middle Atlas, the Ziz Valley, the Erg Chebbi dunes). The difference is the ending and the desert depth. The 5-day tour (WPVMTCFM5) is a one-way that finishes in Marrakech — you don't double back, but you end far to the south, which suits travellers flying out of Marrakech. This 6-day tour is a round trip back to Tangier — ideal if you're returning to Spain by the same ferry or flying out of Tangier — and the extra day adds a full desert immersion day (a 4x4 excursion, nomad family visits, the Khamlia Gnaoua music, the Rissani souk, sandboarding, and both a sunrise and a sunset over the dunes). Choose the 5-day one-way if you want to end in Marrakech and don't mind a one-way; choose this 6-day round trip if you need to return to Tangier and want a richer desert leg. And if you want the round-trip desert depth but a Marrakech finish, we can run this 6-day itinerary ending in Marrakech instead — just ask.
Yes — this round trip is built for exactly that. Tell us at booking which crossing you're on (most travellers come from Tarifa to Tanger Ville, the fast 1-hour passenger ferry, or from Algeciras to Tanger Med, the larger vehicle port about 45 minutes east of the city). Your driver-guide meets you at the port on Day 1, tracks the crossing in case of delay, and waits. On Day 6 we get you back to the port — or the airport, or your hotel — in good time for your onward sailing or flight; if you give us your specific return ferry sailing, we plan Day 6 to reach the port with comfortable margin. The ferry tickets themselves are not included (you book those separately with the ferry operator), but we handle everything on the Morocco side.
It's an honest trade-off. A round trip to Tangier means the Day 5 and Day 6 return retraces part of the Ziz Valley and Middle Atlas you crossed on Day 3 — so you do see some ground twice. We make a virtue of it: the return is a different drive in different light and a different direction, and your driver-guide stops at anything you passed too quickly on the way out (a viewpoint, the macaques in the cedars, a cooperative). If doubling back genuinely bothers you, the one-way Tangier-to-Marrakech tour (WPVMTCFM5) avoids it entirely — but it ends in Marrakech, far from Tangier, so you'd need onward transport or a flight from the south. The round trip exists because many travellers, especially the Spain-ferry crowd, specifically need to return to Tangier. Pick the shape that matches your arrival and departure.
Day 4 is the payoff of the 6-day frame. It starts with the dune sunrise, then a full slower day around Erg Chebbi with a 4x4 desert excursion. The day typically includes: a visit to a nomad family living near the dunes (tea, conversation, a genuine look at Saharan life, translated by your guide); the Khamlia village and its Gnaoua music (a hypnotic trance-style music played by descendants of sub-Saharan communities — you sit in for a session); the Rissani caravan souk (one of the most traditional markets in the south); and sandboarding on the dunes (board down a big dune — no experience needed, the handler shows you how). Depending on your interests and the season, the 4x4 can also take in the fossil beds, old mining settlements, or a spring oasis. It's a flexible day — tell your guide what appeals and they'll shape it. The camel ride, the sunrise and sunset, and the private camp are all part of the desert experience too.
The camp is a proper private tented camp at Erg Chebbi, booked for your party only — proper beds (not mattresses on the floor), blankets, and private or en-suite washing facilities, with a Berber dinner around the fire and a sky with no light pollution for a hundred kilometres. The camel trek into the dunes at sunset (about an hour) is included but optional: the camels are well cared-for working animals with a local handler, and if you'd rather not ride — a back issue, a fear, a young child, simple preference — we arrange a 4x4 transfer to the camp instead at no extra charge. You can ride one way and take the 4x4 the other. If you'd prefer an upgraded luxury camp with full en-suite bathrooms and more space, tell us at booking and we can arrange it at additional cost.
Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are ideal across the whole route — warm days, cool nights, comfortable for Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, and the dunes, and the calmest seas for the ferry crossing. Summer (June to August) is hot in Fes and the desert (Erg Chebbi regularly exceeds 40°C); the north stays more pleasant, but the desert leg is timed for the cooler hours and it's not the comfortable season overall — it's also peak ferry season, so book the crossing early. Winter (December to February) brings cool, sometimes rainy and windy weather in the north (ferries occasionally delayed by wind in the Strait), and cold desert nights. We run the trip year-round; tell us your dates and we'll advise honestly. Because the route is mostly northern and central (no High Atlas pass on the standard round-trip version), winter weather delays are less of a concern here than on the Marrakech-finish trips.
Book through our website, or send a WhatsApp (+212 628 848 511) with your dates and party size for an exact per-person private-tour quote. We confirm within 12 hours during Morocco business hours. A deposit secures your dates; the balance is paid in cash to your driver-guide on Day 1 or in advance via PayPal — most travellers pay the balance on arrival. At booking, please provide: (1) your dates and number of travellers (and children's ages if any), (2) your Tangier arrival details — flight number, or the ferry crossing and port (Tanger Med or Tanger Ville) — for the pickup, and your return ferry or flight details for Day 6, (3) any dietary restrictions (forwarded to the hotels, riads, and camp), (4) any mobility or travel-sickness concerns, (5) camel or 4x4 preference for the dune transfer, (6) whether you want a Tangier orientation, any extensions, an upgraded luxury camp, or a Marrakech finish instead of the Tangier round trip. We are flexible for genuine reasons such as illness or family emergency — talk to us.