9-Day Jewish Heritage Tour of Morocco: Casablanca to Marrakech

About This Tour

· Morocco

Morocco held the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world for centuries, and the traces of it are still here: the mellahs of Fes and Marrakech, synagogues that are still cared for, cemeteries whitewashed every spring, and a museum in Casablanca that exists nowhere else in the Arab world. This private 9-day route visits them in the order history left them, from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the Sahara.

Most Jewish Morocco tours are run as fixed group departures on fixed dates. This one is private: your own driver-guide, your own vehicle, your own dates, and licensed local guides in Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech who know these quarters properly rather than reciting a script at the gate.

Tour Highlights

The best of this journey

Photo Gallery

9-Day Jewish Heritage Tour of Morocco: Casablanca to Marrakech

‹ ›

Tour Itinerary

Day by day, 9 days

• Iti1

  Day 1: Arrive Casablanca — the Jewish Museum and Beth-El

  Your driver meets you at Casablanca airport. Depending on your arrival time, we begin at the Museum of Moroccan Judaism, the only museum of its kind in the Arab world, housed in a former Jewish orphanage and holding Torah scrolls, textiles, and reconstructed synagogue interiors from across the country.

  Then Temple Beth-El, still in use and known for its stained glass, and a drive past the Hassan II Mosque on the ocean before dinner.

  Accommodation: Val D'Anfa, Casablanca — or similar Meals: Breakfast
• Iti2

  Day 2: Casablanca to Fes by way of Rabat and Meknes

  We drive north to Rabat for the mellah in the old city and the Jewish cemetery above the river, then on to Meknes, where the Jewish quarter sits beside the imperial walls of Moulay Ismail.

  Into Fes in the late afternoon, with two nights there.

  Accommodation: Riad Fes Salam, Fes — or similar Meals: Breakfast
• Iti3

  Day 3: Fes — the mellah, Ibn Danan, the cemetery

  A full day with a licensed Fes guide. The mellah of Fes el-Jdid was the first Jewish quarter in Morocco, created in the fourteenth century, and its houses still carry the balconies that distinguish them from the rest of the medina.

  The Ibn Danan Synagogue, seventeenth century and carefully restored, with its bimah and the mikveh beneath. Then the Jewish cemetery, its white tombs stepped down the slope, and the tomb of Solica. In the afternoon the wider medina: Al-Qarawiyyin, the tanneries, Bab Boujloud.

  Today is on foot with a licensed local guide, because the old city is a place you have to be walked through to understand.

  In Fes that means Fes el-Bali, the walled medina founded in the ninth century, the Chouara tanneries seen from the terraces above, the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque and university, and the mosaic and brass workshops still working in the lanes.

  The Bou Inania madrasa is one of the few religious buildings in Fes open to non-Muslim visitors, and its cedar and zellij work repays the stop.

  The mosaic workshops still cut each zellij tile by hand with a chisel, which is the only way the pieces lock without a gap.

  Accommodation: Riad Fes Salam, Fes — or similar Meals: Breakfast
• Iti4

  Day 4: Sefrou, the Middle Atlas and down to Erfoud

  South to Sefrou, a small town that held one of the oldest and proportionally largest Jewish communities in Morocco and was known as Little Jerusalem. The mellah and the old synagogue buildings remain, quieter and less visited than those in Fes.

  Then up through the cedar forest at Azrou, across the Middle Atlas by Midelt, and down the Ziz Valley with its long palm oasis to Erfoud.

  Accommodation: Hotel Meteorites, Midelt — or similar Meals: Breakfast
• Iti5

  Day 5: Rissani, the Tafilalet and the Erg Chebbi dunes

  The Tafilalet oasis was a trading crossroads for centuries, with Jewish merchants working the caravan routes that ran south across the Sahara. We visit the market at Rissani and the ruins of Sijilmassa, the caravan city those routes were built around.

  In the afternoon, camels out onto the Erg Chebbi dunes for sunset and a night in a desert camp.

  The desert takes the second half of the day: a camel ride into the dunes timed for the light, with the sand turning from gold to deep orange as the sun drops.

  Dinner is at camp under a sky with no light pollution at all, usually with drums around the fire, and the night is spent in a tent before the sunrise back over the dunes.

  Sunrise over the dunes comes early but nobody regrets it: the light arrives before the heat, and the sand is still cold underfoot.

  Dinner at camp is tagine cooked over the fire, and the drums usually come out once the plates are cleared.

  Accommodation: Tawada Desert Camp, Erg Chebbi — or similar Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
• Iti6

  Day 6: Merzouga to the Dades Valley through the gorges

  Sunrise over the dunes, then west along the old caravan road. The Todra Gorge, where the cliffs close to a few metres apart, and lunch beside the river.

  Along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs to the Dades Valley for the night.

  Accommodation: Riad Paradise Dades, Dades Valley — or similar Meals: Breakfast & Dinner
• Iti7

  Day 7: The Rose Valley, Ouarzazate and Ait Ben Haddou

  Through the Valley of Roses and Skoura's palm grove, then Ouarzazate and the Taourirt kasbah.

  We reach Ait Ben Haddou in time to walk up through the earthen village before the light goes. Night facing the kasbah, or on into Marrakech if you would rather have the extra evening there.

  Accommodation: Riad Aslal, Marrakech — or similar Meals: Breakfast
• Iti8

  Day 8: Over the Tizi n'Tichka to the Marrakech mellah

  We cross the High Atlas by the Tizi n'Tichka pass and come down into Marrakech.

  The afternoon is the mellah: Slat al-Azama Synagogue, founded in the sixteenth century by Jews expelled from Spain and still in use, the spice and jewellery lanes that grew up around the quarter, and the Miaara cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Morocco.

  Accommodation: 4-star hotel in Morocco — confirmed before departure Meals: Breakfast
• Iti9

  Day 9: Marrakech — the medina, then onward

  A morning with a licensed Marrakech guide if you want it: Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, the souks and Jemaa el-Fna.

  Your driver takes you to the airport whenever your flight leaves. If you would rather add Essaouira for its Jewish quarter, the Haim Pinto Synagogue and the Bayt Dakira heritage centre, we can extend the trip by a day or two.

  Today is on foot with a licensed local guide, because the old city is a place you have to be walked through to understand.

  In Marrakech that usually means the Koutoubia minaret, the Bahia palace, the Saadian tombs and the souks behind Jemaa el-Fna, ending in the square itself as the food stalls are lit.

  The souks are organised by trade, so you pass a lane of dyers, then one of slipper makers, then the ironworkers, each with its own noise and smell.

  The Ben Youssef madrasa housed students for four centuries, and its carved stucco and zellij are the finest surviving work of their kind in the city.

  Departure: Departure day — transfer to the airport

What the Price Includes

Everything covered in the price

If this itinerary does not quite match what you had in mind, tell us your ideas and we will rebuild it around them.

Tour Map

Morocco

Why Book This Tour

What makes it worth the time

The sites are scattered across the country, and the ones that matter are not always the ones signposted. Reaching the Ibn Danan Synagogue, the Miaara cemetery and the Sefrou mellah in one trip needs a route planned around them, not a standard tourist loop with a synagogue added at the end.

Nine days gives the heritage sites the time they need and still crosses the country properly — the Middle Atlas, the Erg Chebbi dunes, the Todra and Dades gorges and Ait Ben Haddou. The Jewish south was not only in the cities, and the drive through the Tafilalet and the kasbah road is part of the story rather than filler between museums.

Know Before You Go

Practical travel notes

• Pricing is per person and drops as your group grows. Tell us how many of you there are and we will send an exact quote.
• Some synagogues and cemeteries keep irregular hours or are opened by a caretaker. We contact them ahead of your dates, but access is never guaranteed on a fixed schedule, and we will tell you honestly when something is uncertain.
• Essaouira is the most common addition to this route, for the Haim Pinto Synagogue and the Bayt Dakira heritage centre. It adds one to two days.
• Kosher catering can be arranged in Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech with notice. Outside the cities it is not available, and we will say so rather than promise it.
• There is no fixed group departure. The dates are yours and the pace is yours.