Marocko

With a busy port and beach resort sprawling beneath its kasbah, Agadir was completely rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in 1960. It is now the country’s premier destination for sun, sand, pubs and pizza. Laid out as a large grid of downtown streets, surrounded by spacious residential suburbs, Agadir’s concrete-covered inland quarters are sterile. However, the city hits its stride on the beachfront promenade, where Moroccan street life comes with a refreshing sense of space. Arching south of the shiny white marina, the sandy beach offers clean water and 300 sunny days a year.

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.

Strategically located Ouarzazate (war-zazat) has gotten by largely on its wits instead of its looks. For centuries, people from the Atlas, Draa and Dadès Valleys converged to do business at Ouarzazate’s sprawling Taourirt Kasbah, and a modern garrison town was established here in the 1920s to oversee France’s colonial interests. The movie business gradually took off in Ouarzazate after the French protectorate left in the 1950s, and "Ouallywood" movie studios have built quite a resume providing convincing backdrops for movies supposedly set in Tibet, ancient Rome, Somalia and Egypt.

The Rocade (coastal road) from Al Hoceima to Nador (81 miles/130km) is a delight to travel. It passes through red cliffs, verdant gorges and, midway, an enormous sculpture of deeply eroded hills.

Being stuck between a rock and a hard place is a sublime experience in the Todra Gorge, where a 300m-deep fault splits the orange limestone into a deep ravine at some points just wide enough for a crystal-clear river and single-file trekkers to squeeze through. The road from Tinerhir passes green palmeraies (palm groves) and Berber villages until, 15km along, high walls of pink and grey rock close in around the road. The approach is thrilling, as though the doors of heaven were about to close before you.

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.

Who would expect to find hundreds of modernist buildings, the second-largest such collection outside Barcelona, in North Africa? Yet here they are, along with one perfectly preserved medieval fortress, several fascinating museums and a wealth of tapas bars. The result is Melilla, a great place to spend the weekend.

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.

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.