Marocko

This windswept coast is home to Morocco's cultured capital, Rabat, and its economic hub, Casablanca. The refined Moorish architecture and liberal attitudes on display in both cities are a far cry from the medieval medinas and conservative lifestyles of inland cities such as Fez and Marrakesh.

Monkeys and fragrant cedar forest trails are what draw visitors to Azrou, but the town itself is a thoroughly unhurried, relaxing spot in which to wind down if you're feeling frazzled after too many big cities. It's an important Berber market centre deep in the Middle Atlas, with a shaggy mane of woods and high meadows that burst into flower every spring.

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.

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.

Morocco’s political and administrative capital may be short on top-drawer tourist attractions, but it compensates with plenty of charm. The ville nouvelle's palm-lined boulevards are clean, well kept and relatively free of traffic – a blessed relief for those who have spent time in Casablanca. There's a clean central beach, an intact and evocative kasbah, and an attractive walled medina that is far less touristy than those in other large cities. All in all, the city is a good choice for a short sojourn.

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.

As the local saying goes, the wind has a son who lives in Boumalne, which is why he rips down this valley to visit him in winter. Sitting in the rain shadow of the Central Atlas, the Dadès Gorge presents a dramatic landscape: ancient rust-red and mauve mountains stripped back to zigzagging layers of strata and knobbly rock formations. A rush of springtime water puddles in the valley where irrigation channels siphon it off to fields of wheat and orchards of fig, almond and olive trees. A series of crumbling kasbahs and ksour (fortified villages) line the valley in the Berber villages of Aït Youl, Aït Arbi, Aït Oudinar, Aït Ouffi and Aït Toukhsine.

After crossing the rocky and forlorn expanses of the hamada (stony desert) south from Tarfaya, the Western Saharan city of Dakhla is an appealingly relaxed destination. A constant feature is the cobalt intensity of the Atlantic Ocean, softened here by palm trees, a pleasant oceanfront esplanade and a shallow island-studded lagoon.

Against the soaring peaks of the Atlas mountains, picturesque Berber villages, palm-filled oases and undulating desert landscapes set the stage for an extraordinary range of adventures. There's hiking along craggy clifftops overlooking the stunning scenery of Todra Gorge and Dadès Gorge, mule treks through Skoura and lush river valleys, and desert wanders by camel amid the sculpted sand dunes surrounding Merzouga and M’Hamid.