Morocco by Auto

My wife and I are experienced travelers and want to spend 17 days on the ground. We plan to Rent a car when we arrive in Cassablanca and wing it. I am looking at various itineraries and am open to guidance from natives or other travelers. Our interests lie in meeting the people and enjoying the culture, and photo's. We try to get off the beaten path, but at the same time want to see as much as possible as we may not get back.

My rough itinerary is as follows (* -> spend the night ??)

* Arrive Cassablanca around 11:00 AM Cassablanca to Rabat * Rabat to Larache Larache to Asilah Asilah to Tangier* Tangier to Tetouan Tetouan to Chefchaouene* Chefchaouene to Quezzane Quezzane to Souk-el Souk-el to Meknes Meknes to Moulay Moulay to Fes* Fes to Azruu Azruu to Ar-Racidma Ar-Racidma to Erfoud* Erfoud to Tinejdad Tinejdad to Tinerhir Tinerhir to Quarzazate* Quarzazate to Marrakesh* Marrakesh to Essaouira* Essaouira to Cassablanca

suggestions, other places to see, not see, etc. Only shopping planned would be at the end. We don't collect stuff.

Is not too much for only 17 days??

I agree. This is a crazy itinerary for 17 days. You will spend most of your time driving or looking for accommodation, you won't see anything of people or culture at all.

1 night in Fes? 1 night in Marrakech? What is the point?

Skip Casablanca (big dirty industrial city with nothing to see) and all that stuff in the north and concentrate on the central and southern parts. Spend at least 2 nights in Marrakech and Fes.

Just my opinion.

I was only listing possible destinations and if you noticed I had only 8 days listed for spending nights, and was looking for suggestions, etc. Some of those locations are enroute to various destinations. What I'm looking for is something besides a Guide book itinerary. I have done this before, only not in Morocco and therefor am looking for suggestions on where I should go, specifically. If I only drove 100KM/Day I would cover 1700KM during the 17 days, based on my map I could cover an awful lot of territory and spent almost (1 -2hrs/day) driving.

I would like to overnight in as few as possible places, centrally located for each area, and take day trips.

John

Covering an awful lot of territory is not the same as seeing or enjoying anything.

To each his own, obviously, but I think you'll find that there's enough to keep you occupied within a short walk of your hotel that any day trips will just be a lot of pressure and hassle on such a brief trip.