Should I plan a loop or an A-to-B Morocco route?

This is one of the first questions I settle with any client, because it shapes the flight booking and the whole shape of the trip. A loop means flying in and out of the same city — usually Marrakech — and returning to your starting point at the end. An A-to-B, or "open-jaw", route means flying into one city and out of another, typically into Marrakech and out of Fes (or the reverse), so you never have to retrace your path to collect your departure flight. Both are valid; the right one depends mostly on how long you have and what you want to see.

The loop's great virtue is simplicity. One arrival city, one departure city, a single straightforward flight to book, and the option to leave a bag at your first riad and collect it at the end. The classic Marrakech-to-Sahara-and-back circuit is a natural loop — the desert sits south-east of Marrakech, and the kasbah valleys give you a genuinely different return road through the Dades or Draa, so you are not literally driving the same route twice even though you finish where you started. For trips of five to seven days focused on the south, the loop is usually the smarter, cheaper choice.

The A-to-B route comes into its own the moment you want to link the south and the north — Marrakech and Fes — because returning all the way to your start just to fly home wastes a precious day on a road you have already travelled. Flying into Marrakech and out of Fes lets the whole trip flow in one direction along the country's arc, covering the desert, the imperial cities and the north without a single repeated kilometre. The catch is the flight: you need an open-jaw or two one-way tickets, which can cost a little more and takes a moment to find, though both Marrakech and Fes have good international connections.

So my rule of thumb is this. Short trip, or a focus on the southern desert circuit: plan a loop, keep it simple, enjoy the different return road. Ten days or more, or any itinerary that wants both Marrakech and Fes: plan A-to-B with an open-jaw flight and let the route run straight through. The deciding factor is almost always whether the extra ground an A-to-B unlocks is worth the slightly fiddlier flight — and for the grand cross-country journeys, it nearly always is.