What's the ideal Morocco route and order of cities?

The ideal Morocco route is built around one principle: keep moving in a single direction so you never retrace your steps. Morocco's headline destinations sit roughly along a great arc — Marrakech in the south-west, the Sahara to the south-east, Fes and the imperial cities to the north, and Chefchaouen and Tangier further north still — so the most efficient trips flow along that arc rather than darting back and forth across the country.

For most itineraries, the classic order is: start in Marrakech, head south and east over the High Atlas to the Sahara, loop back through the kasbah and gorge country, then continue north to Fes through the Middle Atlas, and if time allows push on to Chefchaouen and the north. This works because it groups the demanding southern desert loop together, gets the longest drives done as a continuous journey, and saves the gentler northern cities — well connected by train — for the back half of the trip.

The direction is genuinely flexible, though. Many travellers run it the other way: fly into Fes, explore the north and Chefchaouen first, then drive south through the Middle Atlas to the desert, and finish in Marrakech. Either works; what matters is choosing your start and end cities to match your flights. Both Marrakech and Fes have good international connections, so book whichever pairing of arrival and departure airports is cheapest and most convenient, and design the route to fit.

The two big sequencing tips are these. First, don't put the deep Sahara in the middle of a city-hopping plan — it sits at the far south-east, so visit it as part of the southern loop rather than darting out and back. Second, group the imperial cities and the coast logically: Marrakech and Essaouira pair naturally (under three hours apart on the coast), while Fes, Meknes, Volubilis and Chefchaouen cluster in the north. Mixing those clusters randomly is what creates wasted driving days.

A worked example for ten days: Marrakech (2 nights) → over the Atlas to the dunes (2 days, 1 night camping) → back through Dades and Skoura → up to Fes (2 nights) → day trip to Volubilis and Meknes → Chefchaouen (1 night) → fly home from Fes. It flows in one direction, front-loads the long drives, ends near a good airport, and never makes you cover the same road twice. Adjust the nights to taste, but keep the underlying loop and you'll spend your time arriving rather than backtracking.