Marocko

This mountain village, perched at 2650m in the High Atlas, offers a peaceful escape from the hustle of Marrakesh 75km to the north. It's a fine year-round destination with hiking amid wildflower-strewn valleys in springtime and downhill skiing in winter. Aside from its beckoning outdoor adventures, however, there isn't much to Oukaimeden.

The tortilla, paella and rioja (Spanish wine) served in most of Asilah's restaurants are reminders that this compact town was Spanish territory for a long time. Today, it's an easy introduction to Morocco, offering a good selection of budget and midrange accommodation and an extremely pretty medina to explore. There are also plenty of clean swimming and surf beaches close by.

As you travel along the N10 east of Taroudant, you will see frizzy argan trees, beloved of local goats and international chefs, growing near the road.

The whitewashed town of Moulay Idriss sits astride two green hills in a cradle of mountains and is one of the country’s most important pilgrimage sites. Given its picturesque setting, pretty historic core and national importance, it's a mystery why more tourists don't visit. The good news is that its lack of popularity means you can often have the place all to yourself.

The lanes that spool north from Djemaa El Fna sum up this old caravan city’s charm. Scents of cumin and grilled meat intermingle in alleyways where shafts of sunlight strike through palm-frond roofing and hawkers bid you hello in 10 languages. Throw away your map and go get lost in the helter-skelter for a while.

There are numerous trekking opportunities of various durations in the vast 580-sq-km Talassemtane National Park, which begins just outside Chefchaouen. The name means ‘cold spring’ in Berber. Some popular destinations include the small villages of El Kelaâ and Akchour, and God’s Bridge, a natural formation that looks like a stone arch. The duration of these excursions depends on how much you wish to drive versus walk.

One of Morocco's most significant national parks and bird reserves, Souss-Massa stretches down the coast from Inezgane, a block of more than 330 sq km of protected land between the main north–south highway and the beach. It is a spectacular and wild place of cliffs, sand dunes, farmland, coastal steppes and forests.

A little village that’s seen a whole lot of tourist action in the past decade, Setti Fatma is a scenic stop for lunch by the river and for hikes to seven waterfalls. The village is neatly nestled in a canyon beneath the High Atlas mountains at the southern end of the Ourika Valley road, 24km south of the Oukaimeden turn-off at Aghbalou.

By the time caravans laden with gold and spice reached Skoura, the camels must’ve been gasping. After a two-month journey across the Sahara, blue-robed Tuareg desert traders offloaded cargo from caravans in Skoura, where Middle Atlas mountaineers packed it onto mules headed to Fez. Ouarzazate, 39km west, is now the region’s commercial center, but Skoura’s historic mudbrick castles remain, and traders throng Monday and Thursday souqs brimming with intensely flavorful desert produce. When market days are done and palm-tree shadows stretch across the road, no one seems in a hurry to leave.