Seven days in Morocco is the sweet spot for families. Long enough to get beyond Marrakech and see the country properly, short enough to manage with kids without everyone running on empty by day five. This is the itinerary we’d build if we had one week.
Morocco rewards families who stay longer than a long weekend. The country is so varied that three days in Marrakech only scratches the surface. Add the Sahara, the Atlantic coast, or the High Atlas Mountains, and you start to understand why Morocco makes such a deep impression on families who visit. In a single week you can hit all three.
This itinerary is built around Marrakech as your base, with a multi-day desert excursion in the middle and Essaouira as a coastal bookend. It’s designed to minimize backtracking, keep driving days manageable, and give kids genuine variety across different landscapes and experiences.
Before You Plan: A Few Decisions to Make
Will you end in Marrakech or Fes? The most popular route for a week in Morocco is Marrakech in, Fes out (or the reverse), using the Marrakech to Fes desert tour as the journey between cities. This works beautifully and avoids retracing your route. The alternative is a Marrakech loop, returning to where you started. Both work with this itinerary.
Private driver or group tour? For a family with kids, a private driver for the multi-day portion is worth the extra cost. You control the stops, the pace, and the bathroom breaks. Shared tours are cheaper but require fitting around other passengers, which rarely works well with children’s rhythms. For Essaouira, a day trip works either way.
How many kids and what ages? This itinerary works for school-aged kids and up. For families with toddlers, consider reducing the scope and spending more days based in Marrakech with the Agafay Desert as your one big excursion. See our Marrakech with Toddlers guide for that version of the trip.
The 7-Day Morocco Family Itinerary
Days 1 and 2: Marrakech
Arrive on day one and give yourself the first two days entirely in the city. Marrakech deserves time and it repays it.
Day 1: Settle in, explore the medina, Jemaa el-Fna at dusk. Don’t try to see everything on arrival day. Check into your riad, let the kids adjust, and do a gentle wander toward the square as the sun goes down. Your first evening at Jemaa el-Fna, watching the food stalls appear and the entertainers take their positions, is one of the highlights of the whole trip.
Day 2: The main sights. Early start for Jardin Majorelle before the crowds arrive, then the Koutoubia Mosque gardens, Bahia Palace, and the Saadian Tombs. Rooftop lunch at L’Mida or Terrasse des Epices. Afternoon rest at the riad. Evening souk wander with the kids in charge of picking their own souvenirs.
Our kids’ favorites from both visits were Ben Youssef Madrasa and Dar el Bacha Palace, and we’d slot one of those into day two if time allows. The madrasa in particular has the kind of hidden stairwells and unexpected rooms that kids find genuinely exciting to explore.
For a full day-by-day Marrakech breakdown, see our 3 Days in Marrakech with Kids itinerary.
Where to stay: A family-friendly riad in the medina with a courtyard pool. Two nights in Marrakech is enough to justify the full medina experience. See our Best Riads in Marrakech for Families for specific picks.
Day 3: Marrakech to Dades Valley via Aït Benhaddou
This is the first day of your multi-day desert section. Start early, ideally by 8am pickup from your riad.
The drive from Marrakech heads south and east over the Tizi n’Tichka pass through the High Atlas Mountains at 2,260 meters. The views are extraordinary, the road is winding, and this is the part where children prone to carsickness need to be in the front or prepared. Bring snacks and medication if needed.
Aït Benhaddou is the midday stop and a genuine highlight for families. This UNESCO World Heritage site is a hillside fortress of ancient earthen Berber architecture that has served as a backdrop for Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and dozens of other films. Older kids with any awareness of these will find it thrilling. A local guide here is strongly recommended. Without context the ruins are impressive. With a good guide they become a story.
After Aït Benhaddou, continue east through Ouarzazate (the “Hollywood of Morocco”) and the Valley of Roses toward the Dades Valley. Arrive in the late afternoon, dinner at your hotel overlooking the valley, early night. Tomorrow is a long and spectacular day.
Day 4: Dades Valley to the Sahara Desert (Merzouga)
This is the day most families name as the most memorable of the trip.
The morning starts with the Todra Gorge, where 300-meter rock walls frame a narrow valley with a river running through it. A walk through the gorge is manageable for any family and the scale is genuinely awe-inspiring. Kids who’ve never seen a canyon before will not believe how tall the walls are.
From Todra the drive continues through the Ziz Valley palm groves and Berber villages toward Merzouga and the Erg Chebbi dunes of the Sahara. You arrive in the afternoon, swap to camels as the sun starts to lower, and ride into the dunes for sunset.
The camel ride into the Sahara at sunset is the moment. The dunes of Erg Chebbi are what people picture when they picture the Sahara: massive, golden, shifting in the light. Watching them change color with the setting sun, riding single file on camels with your kids, is one of those experiences that doesn’t require any explanation or sell. It just works.
Dinner in the desert camp, traditional Moroccan music around the fire, a sky full of stars with no light pollution. If your kids sleep well anywhere, they’ll sleep here.
Day 5: Sahara Sunrise, then Drive to Fes
Wake before sunrise. The desert at dawn is as good as sunset, maybe better, and the light on the dunes in the first minutes of morning is something you don’t forget. A short camel ride back to camp, breakfast, then the long drive north toward Fes.
The route passes through the Ziz Valley gorges, stops in Midelt (the Apple City, with good lunch options), and winds through cedar forests in the Middle Atlas where Barbary macaque monkeys live in the trees. This is another guaranteed kids’ highlight. The monkeys are wild and bold and will come close if you have food, which makes for memorable photos and slightly chaotic moments.
Arrive in Fes in the early evening. Check into your riad, which in Fes is a slightly different experience than Marrakech: the Fes medina is the largest car-free urban zone in the world, which means navigation is even more on foot. A riad rep meeting you at the outer lanes is especially important here.
Where to stay: A riad in the Fes medina. One night in Fes is a minimum. See if your schedule allows two.
Day 6: Fes Medina
Fes is Marrakech’s older, deeper, more disorienting sibling. The medina here is genuinely ancient in a way that even the Marrakech medina isn’t, and navigating it with kids requires more patience and a good guide.
The main highlights for families: the Bou Inania Madrasa (similar to Ben Youssef in Marrakech but larger and more ornate), the famous Chouara tanneries viewed from above (unmissable, smelly, and fascinating), the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts with its extraordinary cedar woodwork, and wandering the dyers’ souk where fabrics are colored in huge vats of pigment.
A guided half-day walk through the medina is not optional here. Getting lost in Fes without a guide is a fundamentally different experience from getting lost in Marrakech, and not in a good way. The streets are narrower, the layout less intuitive, and the risk of genuinely not knowing where you are is higher. Book a guide for at least the morning.
Afternoon at a rooftop restaurant with views over the medina. Late afternoon wander or rest before dinner.
Day 7: Essaouira or Back to Marrakech
How you use day 7 depends on whether you’re flying out of Marrakech or Fes.
If flying out of Marrakech: Consider adding Essaouira as a final stop, staying one night on the Atlantic coast before driving back for your flight. Essaouira is 2.5 to 3 hours from Marrakech, breezy and beautiful, with a relaxed medina that’s a wonderful contrast after the intensity of Marrakech and Fes. The wide streets, ocean air, and excellent seafood make it a natural decompression day for families. Arrive, wander the ramparts and port, lunch by the water, and drive back the following morning for your flight.
If flying out of Fes: Spend a final morning in Fes or take a half-day excursion to the Roman ruins at Volubilis (40 minutes outside Fes, manageable with older kids, and genuinely impressive in scale and preservation).
What to Know Before You Book
Private driver for the desert section is the key investment. For a family of four doing the Marrakech to Fes route, a private driver for three to four days typically costs $200-400 total, split across your party. For the control over pace, stops, and flexibility that comes with a private vehicle, it’s consistently worth it with kids.
Pre-book everything before you leave home for spring and fall travel. Morocco is popular in March to May and September to November. Desert camp spots, good riads in both Marrakech and Fes, and popular experiences book out. A family trip planned three to four weeks out in peak season will find good options gone.
Expect driving days to be long. The Marrakech to Fes route covers significant ground. Day 3 and Day 5 in this itinerary both involve five to seven hours of driving with stops. Kids who travel well by car handle this fine with good snacks, downloaded shows for stretches between stops, and frequent breaks. Kids who don’t do well in cars need more buffer time built in, which means a 10-day trip rather than seven days.
The medina arrival experience is the first impression for kids. In both Marrakech and Fes, cars cannot access riads directly. You will be dropped off and walk in with your bags through narrow alleys. Pre-arrange for a riad rep to meet you. It sounds like a small thing and it makes a very big difference on arrival with children and luggage.
For our full cost breakdown of a Morocco family trip, see How Much Does a Family Trip to Marrakech Cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, comfortably. Seven days gives you Marrakech, the Sahara, and one additional destination (Fes, Essaouira, or both briefly). It’s enough to feel like you’ve genuinely experienced the country rather than just one city.
Yes. The main consideration is the long driving days, which are manageable with the right vehicle and preparation. The camel ride, desert camp, and Aït Benhaddou are consistently among the most memorable family experiences in Morocco. See our Marrakech Desert Excursions guide for more detail on the desert portion.
For most families, Marrakech first is the better choice. It’s more tourist-friendly, the medina is slightly less overwhelming to navigate, and starting in the more accessible city lets everyone find their feet before tackling Fes. The desert tour then takes you naturally from Marrakech to Fes.
No. English is widely spoken in tourist areas of Marrakech, Fes, and along the desert tour route. A few words of greeting in Darija (Moroccan Arabic) or French are warmly received but never required.
Spring (March to May) and fall (September to November). See our Best Time to Visit Marrakech with Kids guide for a full seasonal breakdown.
