How do I plan a Morocco trip all the way from Australia?

I design a lot of itineraries for Australian travellers, and the single most important thing I tell them is this: Morocco is genuinely far from Australia, so plan the trip around the distance rather than fighting it. From Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth you're looking at roughly 22 to 28 hours door-to-door with one stop, and there is no direct flight — there never has been. Accept that reality early and the rest of the planning falls into place.

The cleanest routings go via the Gulf hubs. Emirates through Dubai, Qatar Airways through Doha, and Etihad through Abu Dhabi all connect smoothly onto Casablanca, and Qatar in particular has a strong Doha–Casablanca leg. The alternative is via Europe — Paris, London, Madrid, Amsterdam or Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) — which suits you if you want to tack a few European days onto the trip. I usually price both; the Gulf route is often a touch faster, the European route opens up a stopover city.

Because the flying is so long, I push back hard on short trips. Ten to fourteen days is my honest minimum for an Australian to make this worthwhile — anything less and you spend a disproportionate share of your holiday in transit. With two weeks you can do imperial cities (Fes, Marrakech), the Sahara, and the Atlas Mountains at a civilised pace. If you only have ten days, I'd cut one region rather than rush all three.

On the practical side: Australian passport holders do not need a visa for stays up to 90 days, which removes a big planning headache. Build in a genuine recovery day at the start — I always schedule the first night somewhere calm, a riad in Marrakech or Fes, rather than launching straight into a long desert drive. Fly into one city and out of another (an 'open-jaw' ticket) so you never backtrack. And come in spring (March–May) or autumn (September–November) when the weather is kind across the whole country.

One more Australian-specific tip: the time difference is large (Morocco is 9–11 hours behind eastern Australia depending on daylight saving), so jet lag hits in both directions. I tell clients to treat the first 24 hours as deliberately gentle, and to plan the most demanding day — the desert overnight or the long Atlas drive — for the middle of the trip when your body clock has caught up.