Marrakech & Atlas Mountains Family Holiday | 8 Days | Imperial City — Souks — Mountain Walks — Mule Rides

Day 1: Arrive — Transfer to Marrakech

Your guide meets you at Marrakech Menara Airport and transfers you to your riad in the medina. Take the rest of the day gently — explore the immediate neighbourhood, sit on the riad's roof terrace with a glass of mint tea and let the sounds and scents of the medina slowly work their magic.

Day 2: Marrakech — Medina & the Djemaa el Fna

Your first full day in the city is best spent simply getting lost — in the best possible way. The souks that radiate from the Djemaa el Fna are organised by trade: dyers here, leather workers there, jewellers, lamp makers, spice merchants and carpet weavers each in their own quarter, the whole medieval system still functioning exactly as it has for centuries. Spend the afternoon exploring at your own pace, or retreat to the riad's roof terrace with a good book.

As evening falls, make your way to the Djemaa el Fna: the food stalls, acrobats, snake charmers and storytellers that converge here each night create an atmosphere completely unlike anywhere else on earth, and equally compelling for adults and children. Dinner in the square or at a rooftop restaurant overlooking it is a must.

Day 3: Marrakech — Palaces, Madrasas & Spice Market

Today is for the monuments. The Medersa Ben Youssef — a 14th-century Quranic school whose central courtyard is one of the most beautiful spaces in Morocco, its walls a riot of carved stucco, zellij tilework and cedarwood screens — is a perfect first stop. The Palais el Badi, now a romantic ruin of sunken gardens and crumbling walls, and the Bahia Palace, with its extraordinary painted wooden ceilings and shaded courtyards, complete the morning.

A leisurely lunch watching the storks that nest on the ramparts of the ancient city, or a coffee and people-watching session at a café on the edge of the Spice Market, makes for a perfect afternoon pause. In the evening, the Foundouk restaurant — atmospheric, delicious and serving a wonderful Moroccan-French fusion menu — is well worth a booking through your riad host.

Day 4: Marrakech — Majorelle Gardens, Calèche & Palmeraie

A petit taxi to the Majorelle Gardens starts the day in the best possible way: these botanical gardens, designed by French painter Jacques Majorelle and later restored by Yves Saint Laurent, are an island of extraordinary calm — bamboo groves, cacti, water lilies and the famous electric-blue pavilion, with a lovely shaded café for a mid-morning break.

In the afternoon, a calèche — a traditional horse-drawn carriage — offers a delightfully unhurried way to see the ancient city ramparts and the surrounding Palmeraie, and children tend to love it. For summer visits, the water park in the Marrakech Palmeraie is an excellent alternative afternoon option. The final Marrakech evening is yours to spend as you please: back to the Djemaa el Fna, or perhaps a venture to the Gueliz neighbourhood for more Western-style restaurants and a different side of the city.

Day 5: Marrakech → Imlil, Atlas Mountains

Your driver picks you up from the riad and the road climbs south into the High Atlas, the city giving way to olive groves, then terraced fields, then the soaring peaks of the Toubkal massif. Imlil — a small, animated mountain village at 1,740 metres, famed as the trailhead for the summit of Jebel Toubkal — is your base for the next three nights.

Settle in at your guesthouse, take a gentle wander through the narrow lanes of the village, perhaps stroll to the viewpoint above the valley as the sun begins to set over the Atlas ridgeline. The air is clean, the pace is slow and the mountains are magnificent.

Day 6: Atlas Mountains — First Guided Family Walk

Your English-speaking mountain guide meets you after breakfast to discuss the day's walk. Routes are tailored entirely to your family's ages, fitness levels and ambitions — this might be a gentle loop through the Berber villages of the Mizane Valley, where traditional terraced farms and wandering goats make for a wonderfully authentic walking experience, or a more ambitious climb to a high pass with panoramic views of the Toubkal massif and the surrounding snow-capped peaks.

A mule accompanies the group throughout, giving younger children a ride whenever their legs need a rest. At midday, the guide and mule driver lay out a traditional Berber picnic on the trail — a spread of fresh bread, olives, mountain cheeses, boiled eggs, fruit and tagine from a clay pot, eaten in the mountain sunshine with views that make it the best meal of the holiday.

Day 7: Atlas Mountains — Second Guided Family Walk

A second day in the mountains, and the choice is yours. Those who found their legs on Day 6 might want to push further — perhaps up to the Toubkal base camp refuge at 3,206 metres for unbeatable high-mountain views, or along the beautiful Ait Mizane valley to the pastoral shrine of Sidi Chamarouch. Families who prefer a more relaxed pace might opt for a shorter village walk, a visit to a Berber family in one of the surrounding settlements or simply a morning stroll followed by an afternoon of rest and reading in the guesthouse garden.

Your guide will be on hand to suggest the perfect route. Another Berber picnic on the trail rounds off the day beautifully before dinner at the guesthouse and an early night ahead of tomorrow's return to Marrakech.

Day 8: Imlil → Marrakech Airport — Departure

After breakfast, your driver transfers you back to Marrakech Menara Airport in good time for your departure flight. The mountains recede in the rear-view mirror, the medina disappears into the distance and the holiday is over — though Morocco has a way of making you start planning the return trip before the plane has even landed.