What can I do in Morocco in 6 days?

Six days is the sweet spot where the southern loop stops feeling rushed. With five you're back-to-back; the sixth day is the one that turns a good trip into a relaxed one. I use it either to slow the desert run down — two nights in the dunes instead of one — or to bolt on a single, well-chosen extra: the Ourika Valley in the Atlas, or a day on the windswept Atlantic at Essaouira.

My favourite six-day build: two nights Marrakech to start (medina, palaces, gardens, the souks at golden hour). Then the great drive south over the Tizi n'Tichka, Ait Ben Haddou, the Dades gorges, and two nights around Merzouga — one in a comfortable kasbah on the dunes' edge, one in a proper desert camp so you get both the infinity-pool-and-sunset version and the silence-and-stars version. That second desert night is a luxury the shorter trips can't afford.

Alternatively, if dunes aren't your obsession, six days does a lovely Marrakech-plus-coast rhythm: three nights in the city, a day trip to the Atlas foothills and a Berber lunch, then two nights in Essaouira for grilled sardines, ramparts, and gnaoua music drifting off the harbour. It's gentler, less driving, and a beautiful pairing of red-city heat and sea air.

What six days still doesn't comfortably hold is the full Marrakech-Fes-Sahara triangle. You can technically do it, but you'd spend three of your six days in a vehicle, and I'd rather you arrived home rested than just well-travelled on paper. Save the imperial cities for an eight-day-plus trip where Fes gets the time it's owed.