What's the best 10-day Morocco itinerary?

Ten days is, for my money, the length that finally lets Morocco breathe — you can put together the two iconic imperial cities and the deep Sahara comfortably, with proper time in each, and that's exactly what the best 10-day route does. I almost always run it one-way rather than as a loop, so you're not retracing your steps: you start in Marrakech and finish in Fes (or vice versa), flying in and out of different airports, which is easy to arrange and saves a whole day of backtracking.

Here's the shape I love. Days one and two: Marrakech in full — medina, souks, palaces, gardens, Jemaa el-Fnaa, a hammam. Day three: into the High Atlas, perhaps a night around Imlil with a Berber lunch and a valley walk. Days four to six: the great desert journey south and east — Aït Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, the Dades and Todra gorges, the palm oases, and out to the Merzouga dunes for camels, a camp under the stars and a desert sunrise. This is the part people dream about, and ten days lets you do it without the white-knuckle pace.

Then you head north toward Fes. Days seven and eight: cross the Middle Atlas (cedar forests, the Barbary apes near Azrou, maybe a night in Midelt or the lakes) and settle into Fes for a full immersion in the world's largest car-free medieval medina — the tanneries, the ancient university, the artisan quarters, getting gloriously lost in the lanes. Fes rewards two days; it's denser and older-feeling than Marrakech and deserves the time.

That leaves days nine and ten for a finale, and you've got great options: continue north to the blue mountain town of Chefchaouen for a dreamy, photogenic day or two, or swing to the coast — Essaouira if you loop back south, or Tangier/Asilah if you stay north. Ten days is where you stop choosing between Marrakech and Fes and simply do both, with the Sahara in between and a relaxed coastal or blue-city flourish to end. It's the trip I'd recommend if you want the definitive, unhurried first taste of the whole country.