I would choose the journey before the airport
A good flight can be a tempting beginning to a holiday. But I would hesitate before letting it choose the whole route. Morocco's cities lead towards different experiences, and the days spent connecting them are days you cannot also spend walking through a medina or sitting beside the Atlantic.
If the north is what draws you, give it a northern beginning. If your main wish is the Atlas and a road journey towards Merzouga, look seriously at Marrakech. There is no single winning city. There is a direction that gives your own priorities more room.
Before comparing tickets, I would mark the places I most want to linger. Then I would trace a route between them, including the city where the holiday ends. That small change in order can prevent a week becoming a series of journeys arranged to repair the first decision.
Casablanca: let the arrival lead into a city journey
Casablanca sits on the Atlantic side of the country. It can be a useful arrival point when your holiday will continue through the cities, perhaps towards Rabat and Fes, or south towards Marrakech. The right direction depends on the rest of the route rather than a rule that everyone should leave immediately for the same destination.
Give the arrival a realistic shape. Landing, reaching your accommodation and beginning a long onward journey are separate activities. A night in the arrival city may make more sense than treating the first calendar day as a full sightseeing day elsewhere.
If you are joining one of our published Marrakech departures, the journey from Casablanca to Marrakech belongs in your wider holiday plan. It is not automatically included in the desert tour. For independent rail connections, use the official ONCF journey search for your dates rather than relying on an old timetable.
Fes is a place I would give a morning to
The view over Fes gives an impression of dense roofs and streets folded into one another. Walking inside the medina asks for a different kind of attention. You notice passages, thresholds and changes of direction. I would keep time for that shift, rather than treat the city simply as the next place on a route.
If Marrakech and Fes both matter to you, the published three-day journey through Merzouga can connect them in that direction. You cross the south and continue north after the camp night. The guided visit of Fes is not automatically included: arrival opens the city chapter instead of completing it.
If you start your independent holiday in Fes, that can also be a good choice. It simply needs its own onward logic. The existence of a Marrakech-to-Fes tour does not establish a reverse shared departure.
Choose Tangier when the north is part of the reason you came
I would be reluctant to arrive in Tangier and immediately measure the holiday by how quickly I could reach the Sahara. The north deserves a different curiosity: coastal atmosphere, the Rif and the possibility of continuing towards Fes. A shorter northern journey can feel fuller than a long dash south.
If you have enough time and genuinely enjoy the road, linking regions can be rewarding. With a short stay, I would choose which part of the country matters most. That choice gives the places you keep a chance to become more than passing names.
An arrival by sea also has a real terminal and a real onward connection. Build the first night around those details. They should support the northern days you want, rather than consume them in an avoidable rush.
Marrakech: a practical start when the journey goes south
Marrakech is the starting city for the three shared desert tour families currently published on our website. The road south crosses the High Atlas before the valleys and dunes. This gives the beginning of the trip a clear progression, but substantial driving remains part of the programme.
Choose the return or the onward destination deliberately. The three-day Merzouga return route fits a holiday continuing in Marrakech. The Fes route keeps moving north after the dune night. The five-day Marrakech–Merzouga programme adds a city stay and splits the return with a night near Aït Benhaddou; it still has one desert camp night.
Marrakech itself deserves attention outside the departure morning. A journey through its medina and a road over the Atlas are different experiences. A late arrival followed immediately by an early tour start may leave the city as only a name on the booking.
Compare the whole connection, not just the flight
A lower airfare may be useful, but add the cost and time of reaching the tour departure. Include any extra accommodation, independent transport and the hours needed to make the connection comfortably. Compare that total with arriving nearer the itinerary you actually want.
Do the same at the end. If a shared route finishes in Fes and your flight leaves Marrakech, the return between the cities is another journey to organise. If you can depart from a different city, an open-jaw plan may remove that return. Whether it helps depends on the fares and connections you find, not on a universal rule.
Count nights on paper. An arrival night before the tour, the nights included in the programme and a final city night are three different parts of the booking. This simple exercise often reveals a missing day before it becomes a rushed journey.
My recommendation is to let the route keep its direction
For an Atlas-and-Merzouga holiday, I would begin by considering Marrakech and decide whether to return there or continue to Fes. For a northern holiday, I would give Tangier and Fes their own time. Casablanca can make sense when its Atlantic position fits the city journey you actually want.
Morocco Tour Marrakech looks at shared travel across Morocco. Our currently published short desert tours start in Marrakech; daily departures are 100% guaranteed. Other cities discussed here help you plan the wider holiday, rather than represent interchangeable scheduled starts.
Choose the beginning that leaves you glad to be where you are on the first proper morning. That is a stronger foundation than spending the whole first day trying to reach the place you meant to visit.
Explore the related guide: three-day Marrakech–Merzouga–Fes tour · guide to the shared journey.
Photography credits
China Crisis · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Adapted.
Rux (Rubén Maté Lecumberri) · CC BY 2.5 · Adapted.
