How do I plan around Morocco's weather?

The mistake I see most often is people checking "the weather in Morocco" as if it were a single number. It is not — the Atlantic coast, the imperial cities, the High Atlas and the Sahara can be living in completely different seasons on the same day. Essaouira can be breezy and mild while Marrakech roasts and the mountain passes hold snow. So the real skill in planning around the weather is matching each region to the time of year, and routing yourself through the parts of the country that are at their best for your dates.

Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the safe, all-round answer, and there is a reason they top every recommendation: warm comfortable days nearly everywhere, cool pleasant nights, clear desert skies, and landscapes at their greenest or most golden. If your dates are flexible, aim for these shoulder seasons and you can move freely across the whole country without fighting the climate. Spring can throw the odd hazy or windy desert day, and these months are also the busiest, but the trade-off is weather that simply works wherever you go.

Summer demands that you follow the cool air. The interior — Marrakech, Fes, and above all the Sahara — becomes punishingly hot, with desert days well past forty degrees, so I steer summer travellers firmly toward the Atlantic coast and the High Atlas. Essaouira and the beaches stay breezy thanks to the sea; the mountains, kept comfortable by altitude, turn into prime hiking country with cool nights. A summer trip built around coast and peaks is lovely; a summer trip that insists on the deep desert at midday is an ordeal. Plan to the strengths of the season.

Winter rewards the prepared. The cities and coast are mild, sunny and gloriously uncrowded, with beautiful low light — but evenings are chilly, the High Atlas sees real snow that can briefly close passes like the Tizi n'Tichka, and Saharan nights plunge toward freezing even after warm days. None of that rules out a winter trip; it just means packing proper layers, a warm hat and a flexible attitude to the mountain roads. Whatever your season, my standing advice is to carry a fleece for the evenings and never assume the desert will be warm after dark — the temperature swing between a Saharan afternoon and night is the single biggest weather surprise for first-timers.