Fes, Cedars and the Middle Atlas
4-Day Middle Atlas & Volubilis Tour from Fes
Four days from Fes through the cedar forest and the Roman north
- 4 days · 3 nights
- Fes → Fes
- About 11 hours over 4 days, none of it a long haul. driving
Most people fly into Fes, spend two days in the medina and leave. The Middle Atlas starts an hour south of the city and almost nobody goes. This is the short loop that fixes that: the medina properly, the Roman and imperial north, and then up into cedar forest and lakes that feel like a different country. It's the easiest route I run for families with children — the driving days are short, the macaques are a guaranteed win, and there's a swimming lake most of the year. It starts and ends in Fes, so it works either side of a longer trip or on its own.
Why I run it this wayInside the Fes medina I hand you to a local guide who knows it — that's their city, not mine. I handle the road, the timing, and everything outside the walls.
The things worth stopping for
- Fes with a guide who actually knows the alleys
- Volubilis mosaics still in the ground where they were laid
- Barbary macaques in the cedar forest above Azrou
- Ifrane, which looks nothing like the rest of Morocco
Where this trip takes you
Straight lines between stops, not the exact roads — the driving is the winding version of this.
How the trip goes
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Day 1: Fes, from the inside
Driving: NoneA full day in Fes el Bali with a local guide — the tanneries from a terrace, the brass and the weavers, Al-Attarine, and the tight streets between them that no map helps with. We work around the heat and the prayer times rather than against them.
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Day 2: Volubilis, Moulay Idriss and Meknes
Driving: About 3 hoursWest to the Roman city at Volubilis, where the mosaics are still in the floors of the houses they were made for. Up to Moulay Idriss on its two hills, then Meknes for the gates and the granaries before heading back to Fes for the night.
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Day 3: Up into the cedars
Driving: About 4 hoursSouth through Ifrane, which was built to look Alpine and does. Then the cedar forest above Azrou, where the Barbary macaques come down to the road — the last wild population north of the Sahara. Sefrou and its cherry orchards on the way back down.
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Day 4: Lakes, and back into the city
Driving: About 3 hoursThe Dayet Aoua lakes and the plateau country around them, at whatever pace the morning allows, then back into Fes by mid-afternoon.
I'll email you this itinerary — every day, what's included, what it costs — so you can think it over and share it.
One email with the itinerary. No account, and I don't pass your address to anyone — see the privacy policy.
What's included
Included
- Private air-conditioned van with me driving
- 3 nights accommodation
- Breakfast each morning
- Fuel, tolls and parking
- Fes pickup and drop-off
Not included
- Flights and visas
- Travel insurance
- Lunches and dinners unless listed
- Entrance fees to monuments and museums
- Local guides inside the medinas
- Tips
Read more about where you'll be
A closer look
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Every route bends: more time somewhere, a different start, a night added. Send your dates and I'll plan it around you.