What's a good 12-day Morocco itinerary?

Twelve days is where you can stop making hard choices. The seven-to-ten-day trips always involve trade-offs — desert or coast, Atlas or Chefchaouen — but with twelve you can thread most of the classics into one flowing journey and still keep a sane pace. I build these as one-way arcs, usually south-to-north, so every day moves you forward into new territory instead of doubling back.

A favourite twelve-day route: open with two days in Marrakech, then drop to the coast for a couple of nights in Essaouira to ease in with sea air and seafood. Come back inland and spend the next leg on the great desert journey — a night in the High Atlas around Imlil, then the run through Aït Benhaddou, the Dades and Todra gorges and the oases out to the Merzouga dunes, with a night (or two, if you fancy) in a desert camp. That's the heart of the trip, and twelve days lets you linger in it.

From the desert you cross the Middle Atlas to Fes for two full days in its labyrinthine medieval medina — tanneries, artisans, the old university, the maze of souks — before continuing north. Days near the end go to the blue-washed mountain town of Chefchaouen, which everyone falls for, and then a finish in either Rabat (the elegant, walkable capital), Tangier (the storied port where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic), or Asilah's whitewashed ramparts. You fly home from the north, having traced the country end to end.

Because you have the days, twelve is also the length to indulge a special interest. Swap a city day for a real two- or three-day Atlas trek, add a second desert night, build in a cooking class and a hammam, or slow the coastal stretch right down. My advice is to use the extra time for depth, not just more dots on the map — twelve well-paced days through Marrakech, the coast, the Sahara, Fes and the blue north is one of the most complete and satisfying Morocco trips there is.