One Week in Morocco: Marrakech, the Erg Chebbi Dunes and the Red City

A licensed local guide takes you through the medina on foot, which is the only sensible way into it. The Koutoubia minaret first, then the carved cedar and painted ceilings of the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs that were sealed for two centuries and only reopened in 1917, and the blue and yellow paths of the Jardin Majorelle. Then the souks - spice pyramids, leather stalls, and streets that only make sense with someone who knows where they come out. Dinner is in the medina.

East out of the city and straight up into the High Atlas. The Tizi n Tichka crosses at 2,260 metres, switchback after switchback, with Berber villages holding on to the slopes. On the far side a local guide walks you through Ait Ben Haddou, the earthen ksar above the Ounila river whose towers have stood in for a dozen other countries on film. Then Ouarzazate and the pise walls of Kasbah Taourirt, and east along the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs to Boumalne Dades, arriving as the light softens over the gorge country.

The best driving day of the trip. First up into the Dades Gorge for the switchback viewpoints and the cliffs carved into the shapes locals call monkey fingers. Then east to the Todgha Gorge, where limestone walls rise three hundred metres on either side and the canyon narrows to a cool corridor with a sliver of sky overhead. Through Tinghir and its palmery, then the long run east past Erfoud as the ground turns to sand. At Merzouga camels carry you into the Erg Chebbi dunes for sunset, and the night is spent at a camp with dinner and music around a fire.

Rise before dawn for the sunrise over the erg - the light crosses the sand in about ten minutes and there is no sound at all. Then the long crossing home. It is 586 km and about seven hours of driving, closer to nine door to door once you add lunch and the photo stops, retracing the gorges and the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs before the final climb back over the Tichka in the late afternoon light. It is a real day in the car, and we say so on this page rather than in the small print. You reach the riad in the early evening, and the next three days ask nothing of you at all.

The day the itinerary is designed around. A traditional hammam - steam, black soap, a scrub that is more thorough than you expect - and an argan-oil massage afterwards. Then nothing on the schedule. Some people spend the afternoon by the pool, some go back to the one thing in the souks they kept thinking about. The car and driver are still yours if you want them.

Marrakech beyond the medina walls, which most visitors never see. Gueliz and Hivernage are the modern city: wide streets, contemporary art galleries, design boutiques and cafes that look nothing like the old town twenty minutes away. Lunch on a terrace, an afternoon at your own pace, and dinner at one of the restaurants the city is now genuinely known for.

A free morning at your own pace, then a private transfer to Marrakech airport for your flight. If you are flying out of Casablanca, Fes, Tangier or Agadir instead, we drive you there and the transfer is included.