Are there direct flights from the UK to Morocco?

Yes, and this is exactly why Morocco is such an easy sell from the UK. London to Marrakech is roughly three and a half hours non-stop — about the same as flying to Greece — on easyJet, Ryanair, British Airways and Royal Air Maroc. Marrakech (RAK) is the busiest route by far, but you'll also find direct flights to Casablanca, Fes, Agadir and Tangier depending on the season and carrier.

It's not just London, either. Direct services run from regional airports including Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and Edinburgh on various routes, mostly seasonal and mostly to Marrakech or Agadir. The presence of easyJet and Ryanair means fares are often genuinely cheap, especially if you can travel midweek and dodge the school holidays. I tell clients to set a fare alert and pounce — the price swing between a Tuesday and a Saturday in half-term can be enormous.

Because the flight is so short, the smart play is often an 'open-jaw' booking: fly direct into Marrakech and home out of Fes or Casablanca. You'll usually pay a little more than a simple return, but it saves a whole day of backtracking across the country and lets your itinerary flow in one direction. When the routes don't line up, I'll book a one-way in and a one-way out on different carriers — it's frequently cheaper than it sounds.

A couple of practical pointers. The budget airlines fly to RAK but watch the baggage rules — Morocco trips tempt you to bring rugs and ceramics home, so pay for hold luggage upfront rather than at the gate. And while Agadir flights are handy for a beach-and-desert combination, Marrakech is the better first-trip arrival because the medina, the riads and the Sahara routes all begin there. Pick your gateway around your itinerary, not just the cheapest fare.