Morocco Sufi Music Tour

You will spend your morning exploring Volubilis, the Roman capital of Northwestern Africa, complete with a meditation session amidst the city’s ruins at the Basilica. You will walk back to your hotel through an ancient olive tree grove, which Martin Scorcese 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 Sufi masters that have shaped the spiritual backbone of the Moroccan society. After walking in the footsteps of our ancestors, you will return for a Kabab lunch 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 a great 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 lunch upon arrival. You will devote your afternoon to the exploration of Fez, with a historic tour including visits to the Mellah (the Jewish quarter), the King’s palace, and the Bat’ha Museum of Moroccan Arts. Then we will drive to the Merinides hill to visit their necropolis where you will enjoy the best panoramic view on 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 an ancient time. Fez has conserved its integrity to its existence and the Medina is still as it was centuries ago. Not even a bicycle is able to be used as a tool of transportation. Only donkeys, mules and horses are able to help to move all that 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 tribesmen 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 then 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, it guild of carpentry, the museum of folk arts at the Fondouk, the tannery and on to visit the great Mosque university of al Quarrawiyyine. Visit the market of dried fruits, the Medersa Attarine 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 lunch 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 were all kind of traditional products are traded in the old fashion. Your discovery will proceed on to the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Tijani and up by foundouk Lihoudi where a family will host you for a traditional meant tea in their home. After dinner, the Ambiance of the Issawa Spiritual drummers will fill up the courtyard of your Riad. 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 the rural Mount Zalagh to visit the shrine of Sidi Ahmed el Barnoussi, an ideal place with a view for contemplation and meditation. For centuries people retreated in 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 your way 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 for Sufis from all over Morocco, as you watch the sun set over Fez. You will complete your day with dinner and dancing in a Moroccan restaurant with entertainment by Chaabi musicians.

As in the medieval time, you will trade in the Medina huggling your way to settle for a price. It is not only trading but interacting with locals in fact. 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.

In the morning, you will leave Fez and venture into the Atlas Mountains. 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’s Berber tribes that is located at a major junction of mountain routes. Your driver will take a little detour in the forest of cedar to introduce you one the oldest inhabitant of this region the Barbary apes.

Today’s tour in the Atlas Mountains may also coincide with the encounter of a nomadic family in its temporary encampment. Initially, nomads are very hospitable people, whenever we encounter them we are all invited at least for a mint tea under their tents. At Midelt, the 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 lunch, 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 of Rissani after lunch. 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, followed by the tribal Rokba Tagmount Dance. You will spend the night 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. Along the Dades River, thousands of majestic Kasbahs appear, timeless in their beauty. You will visit a Berber home where you will experience Ahwash music and Megouna dance, followed by dinner and accommodations at the Hotel Bougafer in Tinghir.

You will depart Tinghir and journey through El Kelaa De Mgouna and Boumalne, exploring the Dades Valley as you continue onward 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 the Belere Hotel, followed by a visit to a local home where you will enjoy a night of tribal music with Howara dancers.

You will depart in the morning for Marrakech, traveling via Taddart and the Tizin’Tishka Pass. The Pass, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, divides the mountains into two totally 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 tribesmen and Berber villagers bring their goods, spend their money, and find entertainment. For tourists, Marrakech is perpetually fascinating, sitting majestically before the soaring Atlas Mountains. You will have lunch at your hotel, followed by a visit to the bustling Jemaa El Fna Square. Afterward, you will visit a local home, where you will enjoy dinner, the local Kekka music, and the famous Gnawa music and dancing.

You will devote your morning to discovering the many historical sites that Marrakech with your guide. Tour city tour will be followed by a festive lunch at La Paix Restaurant, a French restaurant with an art deco theme. 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.

After breakfast, you will leave your hotel for Marrakech Airport, where you will catch a transfer flight to Casablanca. There, you will board your plane for the flight back Home. Remember this unique Morocco music tour.