What are the most underrated experiences in Morocco?

Top of my underrated list is Essaouira. Everyone rushes the imperial cities and the desert, but this windswept Atlantic port — with its blue fishing boats, ramparts, fresh-grilled sardines and easy artist-town pace — is where people finally exhale. It is also a relief from the heat and intensity inland. Clients who add two nights here almost always tell me afterward it was their favourite stop, which is exactly what "underrated" means.

The Atlas valleys are the next thing people skip and regret skipping. Beyond the Toubkal trekkers, the Ourika valley and the villages above Imlil offer green terraces, river-side Berber lunches and snow-capped peaks just an hour or two from Marrakech. It is the easiest way to swap city chaos for cool mountain air, and most first-timers never realise it is even possible as a relaxed day out rather than a serious hike.

History buffs miss two gems. Volubilis, the remarkably intact Roman city near Meknes, has mosaics and standing arches in an open landscape with almost none of the crowds you get in Europe — you can wander it nearly alone. And Meknes itself, the most overlooked of the four imperial cities, has the monumental Bab Mansour gate and vast granaries without the crush of Fes or Marrakech. Both are a quiet, civilised counterpoint to the medinas.

Finally, the in-between landscapes that people treat as just driving time. The Dades and Todra gorges as a slow road trip, with their red rock and switchbacks, are worth lingering over rather than racing through. The Ouzoud and Ourika waterfalls give you cool spray and shaded pools, and the cedar forests near Azrou hide Barbary macaques in crisp mountain air. None of these top a "highlights" list, and that is precisely why they so often steal the trip.