6 days in Morocco, suggestions please

[tok78]

I'd like to start by saying what a blessing it has been finding this site; clear, concise information without ranting - a real blessing for the internet!

My girlfriend and I will be touring down to Morocco (Ferry to Santander) in late June and we are looking to spend up to 6 days in Morocco.

(UK - Spain - Morocco - Spain - France)

I have to be in Paris by a certain date (end of the holiday), so want to enjoy some of Spain and France as well.

I hope to be riding no more than 3.5 hours or 300km per day whilst in Morocco as it will be tres chaud.

I will be sticking to tarmac only.

I'd love to see the Sahara, but realise it might not be possible.

If anyone can offer some advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[tok78]

I'd like to start by saying what a blessing it has been finding this site; clear, concise information without ranting - a real blessing for the internet!

My girlfriend and I will be touring down to Morocco (Ferry to Santander) in late June and we are looking to spend up to 6 days in Morocco.

(UK - Spain - Morocco - Spain - France)

I have to be in Paris by a certain date (end of the holiday), so want to enjoy some of Spain and France as well.

I hope to be riding no more than 3.5 hours or 300km per day whilst in Morocco as it will be tres chaud.

I will be sticking to tarmac only.

I'd love to see the Sahara, but realise it might not be possible.

If anyone can offer some advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

To qualify my initial post:

Could anybody suggest some places to visit?

I was thinking of Chefchauoen, Fes, Ouarzazate, M'Hamid and possibly Marrakech.

Are there 'better' places to visit? It is my first time in Morocco.

 

[Blue Sweeper]

To qualify my initial post:

Could anybody suggest some places to visit?

I was thinking of Chefchauoen, Fes, Ouarzazate, M'Hamid and possibly Marrakech.

Are there 'better' places to visit? It is my first time in Morocco.

You'll need to be prepared for more than 3.5 hours or 300Km per day if you want to get anywhere!

Fes is easily reachable in one day from the border at Ceuta or Tanger, provided you leave first thing in the morning and don't stop too much for sight seeing. Fes is also in my opinion, THE best place to see an original souk (medina) and you would probably want to stay for a day there to see it.

Chefchaouen is a largish village and is quite pretty with pale blue painted houses instead of the usual white, worth a detour to see it 'en route to Fes.

Ouarzazate is a frontier town, not much to see apart from the Movie studio, although the route over to the Atlas to Marrakech is stunning.

Marrakech is MUCH more for the tourist, although it's probably still worth seeing one day, you can always go back on another trip. It's a very long trip back to the border from Marrakech in one day, you'd probably want to use the motorway if you were stuck for time.

The route if you want to see some desert:

If you only have six days, I would say that seeing the Sahara is worth the trip to Erfoud and then onto Merzouga, where you will find the giant sand dunes (M'Hamid is way to far to go with only six days in Morocco, if you don't like the idea of more than 300Km per day). You could do the trip to Merzouga in one day from Fes (fairly long day) and you may want to spend a night there before making the trip back to the border via say Azrou/Meknes and then onto Spain. I've done the trip from Erfoud to Spain in one day, but it was a VERY long day, I left at first light and it was getting dark as I reached Marbella in Spain.

But if you want the desert, Marrakesh will be beyond reach with only six days to see Morocco, as you would be spending a lot of time just looking at the road in front of you.

 

[bladerunner]

Ceuta 1st night?

Mecknes/Ifrane
Marakech
Ourzazate (Peter's place)
Errachida
Fez ?2 nights

home

My best memory of Morocco was the souq in Fez. Bloody brilliant and worth the journey in itself.

The above is fairly easy (5 hours per day) to give you some indication.

Factor in:
water stops, view stops, stop stops, and emergency loo stops!

 

[Tim Cullis]

Many people come to Morocco and spend long days tarmac bashing in order to tick all the boxes on places to visit, but as you rightly point out it will be tres chaud.

3.5 hours per day will be a limiting factor on distance as safe average 2-up speeds in Morocco are fairly low--say 70 kph--so that means around 200km per day. But there is still much that you can do with small distances.

My advice would be not to go below Midelt and to make the most of cool air, stick with the Rif and Middle Atlas area plus maybe the Atlantic coast around Asilah or Larache. Fez is a great city to spend a couple of nights if it's not too hot. Azrou is at 1450m so is cooler and has a great Tuesday market.

Some specific routes you might try:

- The R419 in the Rif between Chefchouen and Ourtzarh and on to Fes.
- The R507/R504 in the eastern Middle Atlas below Taza, also Goufre Friouato.
- Azrou to Knénifra via Sources Oued Oum Er Rbia

On the way north again to Asilah you could travel through the Jebel Mouchchene to the north west of Khénifra.

 

[Blanche]

Hello,

Does annybody know if the R507/R504 is completed wited tarmac yet or is it still piste at the pass? My maps says ists still piste at the pass.

Thanxs!

Blanche

 

[casperghst42]

Hello,

Does annybody know if the R507/R504 is completed wited tarmac yet or is it still piste at the pass? My maps says ists still piste at the pass.

Thanxs!

Blanche

Part of it is not with tarmac (we where there 3 weeks ago), but they are working on it.


Casper

 

[Blanche]

Thanxs for answering Casper!
Was the part without tarmac difficult to ride?
Muddy or lot of stones?
How manny km's was not tarmac and where was it?
Do you have tips for the region?
Thanks for your info !

 

[Blanche]

Thanxs for answering Casper!
Was the part without tarmac difficult to ride?
Muddy or lot of stones?
How manny km's was not tarmac and where was it? Afther Merhaoua?
Do you have tips for the region?
Thanks for your info !

 

[casperghst42]

Thanxs for answering Casper!
Was the part without tarmac difficult to ride?
Muddy or lot of stones?
How manny km's was not tarmac and where was it? Afther Merhaoua?
Do you have tips for the region?
Thanks for your info !

Sorry, not good at following the threads....

Depends, I had a fall (bike decided to take a nap at some point), otherwise I would say that if you take it easy it should not be impossible.

Casper

 

[Blanche]

we're back already
They working on the road but the new surface has been washed by the rains already as you head further on to taza. By the way, we're not bikers but ride a bicycle

 

[Peter Buitelaar]

Ofcourse "cycle-"bikers are also welcome... we had quite some cyclists visiting us, passing our sign at the mainroad reading 'Bikershome" they came to have a look, did some maintenance on their bikes and spend the night with us.

Greetings,
Peter and Zineb