Celebrating Morocco Music Tour

You will spend your morning exploring Volubilis, the Roman capital of Northwestern Africa, complete with a meditation session amidst the city ruins at the Basilica. You will walk back to your hotel through an ancient olive tree grove, which Martin Scorsese used as a filming location for the Last Temptation of Christ. This will lead you up the hills to the caves that have served as a shelter and isolated premises for many stoics and Sui masters who have shaped Moroccan society's spiritual backbone. After walking in the footsteps of our ancestors, you will return for a Kabab midday meal in the hotel gardens overlooking the legendary Roman ruins. Continuing on this music tour, you will be offered an hour-long drumming workshop, including an introduction to the local trance dancers and drummers of the Hmadsha Sufi drummers, who have earned an excellent reputation with haunting rhythms and chants throughout the Islamic Sufi world.

Starting your tour in the morning, you will depart for Fez, where you will check into your hotel, a Moorish Riad in the Medina, and eat midday meal upon arrival. You will devote your afternoon to the exploration of Fez, with a historical tour including visits to the Mellah (the Jewish quarter), the Kings palace, and the Batha Museum of Moroccan Arts. Then we will drive to Merinides Hill to visit their cemetery, where you will enjoy the best panoramic view of the Old Walled Medina, brimful with all its countless minarets to call for the prayers in a city that has responded to these calls for 12 centuries. Drive down the hills to the gate of Bab Guissa to leave your vehicle and enter a world that belongs to ancient times. Fez has conserved its integrity to its existence, and the Medina is still as it was centuries ago. Not even a bicycle can be used as a tool for transportation. Only donkeys, mules, and horses can help move all the city produces and needs as supplies.

The first guilds you will immediately encounter are the cobblers, the saddlers, and blacksmiths, interlaced by some caravansaries for tribespeople who come from the surrounding areas to trade and supply their needs. Down the hill to Juteya, you will encounter all sorts of crafts, but noticeably, carpenters and leather workers as one of the traditional tanneries is not far. This walk will lead you to El Ashabine Square with its different activities, from there we will wind our way to the Sgha Square, which will lead us to Attarine, the souk el henna, and the Mausoleum of Moulay Idris, the founder of Fez.

In the same vicinity, you will visit the Nejjarine Square with its famous fountain, its guild of carpentry, the museum of folk arts at the Fondouk, the tannery, and to see the great mosque of the University of al Quarrawiyyine. Visit the market of dried fruits, the MedersaAttarine to Sbetryyine bookbinders street, the Seffarine Square, where the tapping of metalworkers on copper and Brass is still deafening the passersby as it was the case for centuries.

You will break for midday meal and then continue exploring the marvels of Fez Medina. Initially, this will highlight the Dyers of silk and other yarns workshops, Foundouk Tetouani, a medieval warehouse where all kinds of traditional products are traded in the old fashion. Your discovery will proceed on to the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Tijani and up by foundoukLihoudi, where a family will host you for traditional meant tea in their home. After dinner, the Ambiance of the Issawa Spiritual drummers will fill up the courtyard of your iPad. Enjoy dancing and chanting in the Ambiance of a family circle.

You will have the morning at your leisure, free to do what you please. In the afternoon, you will take an excursion outside of Fez to rural Mount Zalagh to visit the shrine of Sidi Ahmed el Barnoussi, an ideal place with a view to contemplation and meditation. For centuries people retreated to this Hill of serenity and peace. Mules will be at your disposal if you prefer to ride up to the shrine. A local group of Tebbala from the neighboring village will escort you up the hills leading to the shrine and entertain you with their drums and traditional oboes (Ghita). Dance up the almond and olive groves to attend an introduction to Jajouka rhythms and other traditions, followed by an excursion to Mount Zallagh in the Riff Mountains. Afterward, you will enjoy a mint-tea party at the shrine of Sidi Ahmed el Barnoussi, a pilgrimage to Sufis from all over Morocco, as you watch the sunset over Fez. You will complete your day with dinner and dancing in a Moroccan restaurant with entertainment by Chaabi musicians.

As in medieval times, you will trade in the Medina, huggling your way to settle for a price. It is not only selling but interacting with locals. You will devote your morning to shopping in the Medina, where you will find a variety of musical instruments and other artifacts. In the afternoon, you will attend a workshop about Gnawa rhythms rooted in Africa and Subsahara trance rituals and customs. After dinner, you will return to the heart of the Medina, where you will attend the Jilala Ceremony, trance dancing, and a Henna ceremony at Dar El Haj Moorish palace.

You will leave Fez and venture into the Atlas Mountains in the morning. Your first experience with the Atlases will probably surprise you since the hills of the Middle Atlas seem oddly un-Moroccan. Passing by Imouzzer, with a break stop at the Suisse like the town of Ifran, you will soon come across the first real town of the Middle Atlas, Azrou, an important market center for the region Berber tribes that is located at a significant junction of mountain routes. Your driver will take a little detour in the cedar forest to introduce you to one of this region's oldest inhabitants, the Barbary apes.

Today's tour in the Atlas Mountains may also coincide with the encounter of a nomadic family, whenever in its temporary enbase campment. Initially, nomads are very hospitable people; whenever we encounter them, we are all invited at least for a mint tea under their tents. Midelt's Middle Atlases give way to the High Atlas Mountains, whose peaks are visible through the haze, soaring to over 12,000 feet. You will stop in Midelt for midday meal, enjoying the dramatic sight before you. You will then continue to Erfoud, one of the most delightful southern regions consisting of a dry, red belt of the desert with a sudden drop into the lush valley of Ziz, with copious date palm groves and flowing streams. You will conclude your day with dinner in your hotel.

You will have the morning at your leisure, followed by an excursion to the holy city ofRissani after midday meal. You will then continue your journey to Erg Chebbi and watch the sunset behind the spectacular Merzouga dunes of the Sahara, a sight so beautiful that words cannot describe it. Afterward, you will have dinner with the Tuaregs and the tribal Rokba Tagmount Dance. You will spend the night base camping on the dunes.

Only fifteen kilometers from Tinghir, you will find the highest, narrowest gorges in the region: the Todras. You will then travel through the Dades Valley, where you will find thousands of rose bushes acting as hedgerows to divide plots of land used for local produce. Thousands of majestic Kasbahs appear along the Dades River, timeless in their beauty. You will visit a Berber home where you will experience Ahwash music andMegouna dance, followed by dinner and accommodations at the Hotel Bougafer inTinghir.

You will depart Tinghir and journey through El Kelaa De Mgouna and Boumalne, exploring the Dades Valley as you continue to Ouarzazate. Ouarzazate is defined by one large Oasis that intercepts the flow of water between the Dades, the Draa valleys, and the majestic High Atlases. Dinner and accommodations will be provided in theBelere Hotel, followed by a visit to a local home where you will enjoy a night of tribal music with Howard dancers.

You will depart in the morning for Marrakech, traveling via Taddart and the TizinTishkaPass. The Pass, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, divides the mountains into two different aspects. The first side acts as a shield, protecting the hinterland from the Sahara's harsh, dry climate. The second side is soft and evergreen, collecting moisture brought by the Gherbi winds from the Atlantic Ocean. You will arrive in Marrakech, a pleasant city where Southern tribe members and Berber villagers get their goods, spend money, and find entertainment. Marrakech is perpetually fascinating for tourists, sitting majestically before the soaring Atlas Mountains. You will have midday meal at your hotel and visit the bustling Jemaa El Fna Square. Afterward, you will see a local home to enjoy dinner, the local Kekka music, and the famous Gnawaand dancing.

You will devote your morning to discovering the many historical sites in Marrakech with your guide. A festive midday meal at La Paix Restaurant, a French restaurant with an art deco theme, will follow the tour city tour. Including in this Music tour of Morocco, you will have a farewell dinner at the Moroccan Palace of Marrakech, followed by festivities complete with Andalusian and Sephardic music. Accommodations will be provided at the Atlas Hotel.

In the morning, you will leave your hotel for Casablanca Airport; you will board your plane for the flight back Home. Remember this unique music tour of Morocco.