Day Trip from Fes to Atlas Mountains

Your Middle Atlas day trip begins when your driver from Fes Desert Trips picks you up from your hotel or riad in Fes at 10 am. (times can be adjusted to suit if needed, just ask us, we are always willing to help and are very flexible.)

   This day trip incorporates visits to villages in the Middle Atlas Mountains (elevation up to 1360 meters above sea level) where you can enjoy breathtaking panoramas and breathe deeply of the clear, fresh, cool mountain air.

   Firstly, you will be driven to the village of Immouzer, famous for its apples, fragrant and beautiful with apple blossom in the spring and in July hosts the famous National Apple Festival.

   Next, you can see the delightful Ifrane, a charming Alpine-styled, chalet filled town, nestling prettily in the atlas mountains and known as “The Switzerland of Morocco“. It is a relief to visit these cool atlas mountain towns if you visit in the summer, a pleasant escape from the oppressive heat and if you visit in the winter, Ifrane and the nearby ski-resort of Michliffen offer many snow sport activities.

   Catching tantalizing glimpses of the Middle Atlas Mountains as you ascend into them through huge forests of cedar and cork, your next stop will be to explore Azrou, ‘The Rock‘ in the local Berber language, an ancient settlement still lived in by the Amazigh (Berbers), Morocco’s original inhabitants before the arrival of the Arabs. It is a lovely village with flower bed and cherry tree-lined streets and green tiled roofs in the heart of the magnificent cedar forest, the largest in Morocco. Near here live the Barbary Apes, actually a type of macaque monkey, who may try to share your lunch. You will be able to see the tribal herdsmen and hard at work milling flour or engaged in traditional carpentry and carpet making. Enjoy haggling for a rug if you wish, especially if you arrive for the Tuesday market, as the prices here can be much lower than in Fes and the people are very friendly.