Highlights
- Staying in two special Mr & Mrs Smith hotels: an elegant French-colonial riad and a palace with a panoramic roof terrace
- An insider guide to Djemaa el-Fna
- A speedy sidecar tour of Marrakech
- Learning traditional book-binding in Fez
Medina-hopping from Marrakech to Fez
A North African knees-up
Our mini Moroccan adventure is a sense-engaging spree from Marrakech northwards. Stay in lavish riad and palace hotels; try souk-cessful haggling and hot-sweet harira soup with chebakia cookies in the Medina; take a breathless ride through mediaeval streets in a sidecar; and craft your own souvenir with local artisans. How Fez-inating, indeed…
If you don’t like this trip we’ll eat our… ahem, words, but should you wish to change anything, the genies on our Smith24 Team are skilled in wish-granting.
This five-night trip is £1,154 a person (approximately US$1,487), based on two guests sharing.*
To kick off your trip, contact the Smith24 team around the clock on:
+44 (0)330 100 3180 from the UK,
+1 800 464 2040 from the US.
Need to know
When to go
In spring, (March to May) and late summer (August to October) Morocco’s temperatures are just right, and Marrakech’s Palmeraie is as leafy as its name promises. Temperatures soar to shakshouka-sizzling highs from late May to July; during this period (usually May to June), some businesses keep different hours or shut for the holy month of Ramadan.
Getting there
You’ll need to book a flight to Marrakech Menara Airport, the starting point for your trip, and from Fèz–Saïs Airport, where you depart for home. For hassle-free travel plans, the Smith24 Team can book these for you. Chauffeured transfers are included and there’s one short domestic flight to Fez (a journey of just under three hours).
Packing tips
- A headscarf for glamorous motoring
- A wad of dirhams for the souk
- Something cashmere for cool desert nights
Day 1–4: Marrakech
The Red City – dubbed so for its rose-tinted buildings – can’t be defined by one colour; the Palmeraie daubs the landscape green, Jardin Majorelle adds neon yellow and Yves Klein blue, the tanneries plum and saffron, and the Medina completes the rainbow in just one babouche stall.
Your hotel Riad de Tarabel has its own sense of style, with flower-y frescoes and a smattering of zellige.
Your hotel…
Actually, why not tonight, Josephine? Riad de Tarabel’s helping of Napoleonic romance is laid on as thickly as chantilly atop a café liégeois. This French fancy has lavish frescoes, fully-fanned peacock chairs, chandeliers and a set of unironic gilded cages – nous l'adorons…
Day 1 Your chauffeur will meet you at the airport to whisk you in air-conditioned comfort to Riad de Tarabel (a 20-minute drive), for a three-night stay. Before you hit the chaos of the souk, savour the serenity of your tadelakt-tiled digs. On request, we can arrange cooking lessons with the chef, but you may prefer to float in the garden pool.
Day 2 Today a local guide will take you on a personal tour of the madcap maze that is Marrakech’s souk. You’ll navigate the thronged main square Djemaa El-Fna in search of stalls heaped with nuts and olives, and those emitting the most enticing scents from smoldering tagine pots.
After dark, a melee of belly-dancers, acrobats, fire-breathers and griot story-weavers add to the atmosphere; and, um, alfresco dentists join the toothsome bunch while plying their trade.
Day 3 Brace yourself – if you thought Djemaa El-Fna was a pedal-to-the-metal experience, you’re in for a breathtaking surprise. Today you’ll whizz through the streets in a vintage sidecar on a unique whistlestop tour, and you’ll be given a GoPro for some action shots.
Day 4 Give a regal farewell wave to Riad de Tarabel as you pack up and leave for the airport to catch your flight to Fèz–Saïs Airport.
Day 4–6: Fez
Not just dapper headgear (in fact, the Moroccan name for the hat is tarboosh), Fez is Morocco’s former capital. Its history books are quite padded: it’s home to the world’s oldest, still-active university and Unesco-recognised, medieval old town Fez-el-Bali.
Your opulent decoratively tiled stay for two nights is Palais Amani.
Your hotel…
With 15 rooms spread around a restful, plant-crowded courtyard, this palace cum riad, Palais Amani hotel, is luxurious and serene. It’s not wanting for views or top spa treatments either, with a terrace overlooking the Medina and the Zalagh Hills.
Day 4 On arrival at the airport, a chauffeur will whisk you to the hotel. Charmingly mosaic-tiled throughout, Palais Amani is also kitted out with a hammam and panoramic rooftop terrace. On your first day in Fez don a sun hat and lazily meander through the Medina.
Day 5 Medieval Fez was renowned for its calligraphers: one of the city gates was named for the artisans and there were more than 400 paper factories at one point. Today, you’ll learn the revered art of book-binding in a four-hour class – covering stitching, chiselling and stamping – and make a diary to take home.
Day 6 Pack up your souk finds and handcrafted book in readiness for the chauffeured drive back to Fez’s airport, to catch a flight home or on to another destination.
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Further adventures in Africa…
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If this Moroccan minibreak has piqued your interest, why not take a look at our luxury trips in Morocco and South Africa?
Terms and conditions
Book now
Do you want spiced and sugar-dusted pastillas? Mazes of alleyways to explore? To add to your coffee-table books with one you made earlier? Call our Smith24 Team at any time of day (or night) to enquire.
These high-end trips can be tailored to your needs too – just ask the Smith24 Team if you need international flights, an extra night, or a special meal for two.
To kick off your trip, contact the Smith24 team around the clock on:
+44 (0)330 100 3180 from the UK,
+1 800 464 2040 from the US.
Inclusions
*The package includes all accommodation in Mr & Mrs Smith boutique hotels and local transportation with your own driver; entry fees; local guides; and all applicable taxes.
Not included in your package
- International flights, visa fees, airport taxes or insurance.
- Any increase in government taxes.
General conditions
- All prices are in GBP and are subject to change, depending on what time of the year you travel.
- All prices are subject to any revisions to taxes or tariffs.