What's the best 4-day Morocco itinerary?

Four days is the point where Morocco stops being just a city break and lets you fold in one genuine adventure, so I treat it as 'Marrakech plus one big thing.' The classic version is two days in Marrakech — medina, palaces, gardens, Jemaa el-Fnaa, a hammam and good food — followed by a two-day desert escape. You drive out on day three over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, stop at the cinematic kasbah of Aït Benhaddou and Ouarzazate, then push to a desert camp near Zagora for camel riding, a fireside dinner and an unforgettable night under the stars, returning to Marrakech on day four.

I deliberately point 4-day travellers at Zagora rather than Merzouga. Merzouga has the towering, postcard Erg Chebbi dunes everyone pictures, but it's a long haul — realistically a 3-day round trip minimum — so cramming it into four days means brutal driving. Zagora's dunes are smaller and a touch less dramatic, but they're close enough to give you the full desert experience (camp, camels, silence, stars) without wrecking your trip with road time. It's the honest trade-off that makes a 4-day desert run actually enjoyable.

If the desert doesn't pull you, the other strong 4-day shape stays closer to base. Spend two days in Marrakech, then give a day to the Atlas Mountains — a walk and Berber lunch around Imlil or the Ourika Valley — and a day to Essaouira on the coast. That mix of imperial city, mountains and Atlantic in four days is wonderfully varied, all on easy day-trip distances, and you sleep in the same comfortable riad each night rather than living out of a bag.

Whichever way you lean, my rule is the same: pick one direction and commit, don't try to also squeeze in Fes. With Fes a long way north, adding it here turns four lovely days into a transit marathon. Done right, four days delivers a complete little Morocco — a great city and one knockout experience — and leaves you wanting the week-long version next time.