Africa · Morocco
Casablanca to Fes to Chefchaouen to Marrakech — Morocco resisting the surface and insisting on depth, arranged through a decade of private introductions.
About This Expedition
“Morocco has always occupied a singular position in the traveller's imagination — close enough to Europe to feel accessible, yet profoundly other in every conceivable way.”
This ten-day private journey through four of Morocco's most extraordinary cities resists the surface entirely and insists on depth: private riad dinners in candlelit courtyards that the public never enters, after-hours medina access with scholars who know every alleyway, artisan ateliers closed to ordinary visitors, and the Atlas Mountains at sunset from a private terrace with no other guests in sight.
Morocco rewards preparation. The medina of Fes contains 9,000 alleyways; most visitors see fewer than twenty. The Chefchaouen sunrise from the Spanish Mosque requires knowing exactly where to stand and when. La Mamounia's garden — one of the finest in Africa — requires a guide who understands its 18th-century Persian geometry.
This itinerary has been refined over a decade of returning clients. Every guide, every riad, every private door has been found through relationship, not research.
What Is Included
Day by Day
Every day has been sequenced to create a natural rhythm — arriving rested, departing enriched, and never once conscious of the machinery moving beneath you.
“The best journeys are felt in the body before they are understood by the mind.”
Casablanca & Rabat
Arrival into Casablanca and immediate private transfer north to Rabat — Morocco's actual capital, and one of its least visited cities. This is a deliberate choice: Rabat at its most unhurried, its UNESCO-listed medina still functioning as a living city rather than a tourist stage. The Hassan Tower and the royal necropolis of Chellah — a ruined Roman city reclaimed by the medina wall, now home to nesting storks — are visited in the early morning with a guide who has advised three heads of state and whose family has lived in the medina for six generations. Lunch at a private riad in the kasbah, then the contemporary art galleries of the Oudayas — the best art collection in North Africa — in the afternoon. The following morning: the El Jadida underground cistern, and then the coast road south toward Fes.
Sofitel Rabat Jardin des RosesFes el-Bali
Fes el-Bali — the medina of Fes — is the largest car-free urban area on earth and the oldest intact medieval city in the world. It was founded in 789 AD. The University of al-Qarawiyyin, established in 859 AD, is the oldest continuously operating university in the world. The Chouara Tannery has been dyeing leather by hand since the 11th century using the same techniques, the same natural dyes, the same stone vats. Your stay is at Palais Amani — a restored 17th-century palace with twelve suites and a kitchen considered the finest in the medina. On the evening of Day 3, a private candlelit dinner within the Al-Attarine madrassa itself — a space of matchless geometric beauty that otherwise closes to the public at 5pm — is arranged exclusively through Martins Travel.
Palais Amani, Fes el-BaliChefchaouen
Chefchaouen exists at 600 metres above sea level in the Rif Mountains, its medina washed every spring in the shade of blue that has made it one of the most photographed places on earth. The effect, in person, is more extraordinary than any photograph conveys — not merely blue, but blue in twenty variations, the walls and stairways and flower pots conspiring to create an atmosphere of impossible, sustained beauty. Lina Ryad & Spa is the most private address in the city: a restored traditional house at the high end of the medina with views over the rooftops and the mountains beyond. On Day 6 at 5:30am, a sunrise hike with a local mountain guide reaches the Spanish Mosque above the city precisely as the light breaks over the Rif range — the blue medina below, the forest above, the silence total.
Lina Ryad & Spa, ChefchaouenMarrakech
La Mamounia — the most celebrated hotel in Africa, reopened after a four-year restoration to its original 1920s splendour — receives you in the way that only the world's truly great hotels can: as if it has been waiting specifically for you. The Garden Pavilion suite looks directly onto the 18th-century Persian-influenced gardens, where orange and olive trees have been growing since the time of the Alaouite sultan who planted them. Day 8: the Djemaa el-Fna at dusk — not as a tourist spectacle but as a living social institution, experienced from a private riad rooftop above the square with dinner served as the storytellers and musicians begin below. Day 9: a private dinner in the Jardin Secret — the recently restored 16th-century palace garden near the medina's edge, lit by lanterns, accessible after hours only through Martins. Day 10: a private car to the Atlas foothills and the Kasbah Tamadot for sunset over the mountains before return.
La Mamounia, Marrakech — Garden PavilionWhere You Will Stay
Signature Property · Fes
Fes el-Bali Medina, Morocco
Twelve suites within a 17th-century palace at the heart of the world's oldest living medieval city. The kitchen is considered the finest in Fes. The riad garden is a sanctuary of geraniums and orange blossom.
Signature Property · Chefchaouen
Old Medina, Chefchaouen
The finest address in the blue city. A traditional Moroccan house converted into an intimate retreat, with a spa incorporating hammam treatments using locally-sourced argan and rose water, and a rooftop terrace with views over the entire Rif Valley.
Signature Property · Marrakech
Avenue Bab Jdid, Marrakech
The most famous hotel in Africa. Opened 1923 on gardens dating to the 18th century. Redesigned by Pierre-Yves Rochon and recently restored to its original magnificence. The bar was Winston Churchill's favourite room in the world.
Private Enquiry
This itinerary is a point of departure, not a fixed schedule. We will adapt every element to your preferences, your travel party, and the season of travel. Submit your details and a Martins Travel advisor will respond personally within 24 hours.