What's the ideal pace for a Morocco trip?

When guests ask about pace, I tell them the truth that surprises them: nearly everyone plans too fast. The Morocco that people fall in love with is not seen at speed — it is the slow unfolding of a medina, the long mint-tea conversation, the dunes changing colour over an hour you did not rush. So my ideal pace is built around staying put more than people expect. Two or three nights per base, not one, is the rhythm that turns a tour into a holiday.

A good practical structure is to alternate. Have a travel day where the drive itself is the experience — over the Tizi n’Tichka pass, through the gorges, with stops — and then follow it with a day where you barely move the car at all and simply explore on foot. This stops the trip becoming a grind of consecutive long drives, which is the surest way to arrive home tired. As a guideline I try to keep most driving days under about four hours of actual road time, accepting that the desert leg will be longer.

The two non-negotiables for me are the desert and the cities. The Sahara needs a genuine overnight — ideally arriving with daylight to enjoy the dunes, a night at camp, and a sunrise — not a flying visit. And the great imperial cities, Marrakech and Fes, each reward at least two nights, because one night gives you a frantic half-day and you miss the early-morning and evening hours when the medinas are at their most magical and least crowded.

My honest summary: if your plan has you in a different bed almost every night, slow it down. Cut a destination, add a night where you already are, and protect the unscheduled hours. The travellers who go slow consistently report the best trips; the ones who raced almost always say they would do it more slowly next time. Pace is the lever that most determines whether you come home refreshed or wrecked — verify your drive times and adjust accordingly.