Should I base in one place or move every night in Morocco?

This is one of the most useful planning questions you can ask, and the honest answer is "neither extreme." Basing in one place for the whole trip means you never see the desert or the deep south, because they are simply too far for day trips — you cannot day-trip the Sahara from Marrakech and have it be anything but misery. But moving every single night is the other trap, and it is the one that produces the universal regret: "we spent the whole holiday packing, driving and unpacking."

The model I use most is hub-and-spoke for the cities and point-to-point for the scenery. In Marrakech or Fes, base for several nights and radiate out on day trips — the Atlas, the Ourika valley, Essaouira from Marrakech; Volubilis, Meknes and Moulay Idriss from Fes — sleeping in the same comfortable riad each night. That gives you a relaxed, low-logistics base while still seeing a lot. The cities themselves also need those extra nights to be enjoyed properly.

For the desert and the southern circuit, though, you have to move, and that is fine — the journey is the point. The classic loop down through the High Atlas, the gorges, the kasbah trail and out to the dunes is a point-to-point route where each night somewhere different is part of the adventure, not a chore. The key is to keep these single-night stops to a sensible number and to make sure the drive between them is itself rewarding, so the moving feels like travel rather than transit.

My honest rule of thumb: minimise bases, and never change hotels two nights running unless the drive between them is short and scenic. If your draft has you in seven different beds in seven nights, it is too fragmented — consolidate around two or three hubs with day trips, plus a short desert loop. The travellers who get this balance right enjoy both the depth of staying put and the romance of the road. Confirm drive times for the point-to-point legs before booking.