Morocco’s Most Exquisite Gardens

Day 1 – Arrival in Tangier

Step off a ferry, hop off a train, or jet into the local airport – no matter how you arrive in Tangier you can expect the same welcome. It’s catching a whiff of spice and salt and diesel smoke in the air. It’s wandering narrow cobbleways that date back to the time of Phoenician traders. It’s hearing the sea crash and froth, against the ancient marinas.

You’ll leave the city’s noisy sprawl behind and head straight to the place you’ll be staying for the next three nights. Get comfy, freshen up, and find your feet before an early dinner meet-up with the whole crew – at a local restaurant. The menu? Cinnamon-scented tagines and saffron couscous, before you hear all about Moroccan garden design led by your expert guide.

Accommodation: Occidental Tanger (or similar), Tangier
Included: Dinner

Day 2 – Yves Saint Laurent, Madison Cox & Umberto Pasti Wanders 

The whole group should be bubbling away like a tagine this morning, as your first garden visit awaits and the excitement is clear. It’s a real showstopper too, cascading down a series of terraces that soar above the Strait of Gibraltar. As you step into the artfully designed grounds of Villa Mabrouka, you’ll feel the city recede. Eyes dart up to blooms of bougainvillea that waterfall onto lush lawns. You spy green shocks of bamboo and banana palm, peppered with plane trees and agapanthus. It’s a masterful showcasing of Mediterranean planting wrapped up in the trademark landscaping of Madison Cox – think Mudejar archways here, rough herringbone pathways there.

There’s also time to go inside the villa, which was once the home of Yves Saint Laurent and is now part of a luxury hotel. As you’d imagine, it’s glorious, and lunch should be too, since you’re dining on-site in the sun-dappled terrace of L’Orangerie, overlooking the gardens you just got lost in.

That fizzy excitement from this morning is replaced by the audible buzz of bees this afternoon, as your group wanders into the Garden of Rohuna. This is a real homage to the native flora of Tangier. Meadows burst from the earth as rolling hills peak and trough in the background like something out of Tuscany. As you walk, your limbs brush against irises, crocuses, narcissus. Above, gnarled olive trees and fig trees twist and turn to form natural canopies against the shade. It’s the work of Italian writer Umberto Pasti, who saved many of the plant specimens from building sites in the neighboring village.

Legs tired, you’ve got the evening to do with as you please, though, in-the-know recommendations of the best tagine houses in town are most certainly available.

Accommodation: Occidental Tanger (or similar), Tangier
Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Day 3 – Donabo Botanical, a Private Garden Surprise & Tangier’s Ancient Medina

What if we said there was a fertile mountainside rising above the Mediterranean Sea where everything from Chinese hibiscus to African umbrella papyrus danced in the salty breezes? Surely you’d want to see it? Don’t worry, you will. The Donabo Botanical Garden is an odyssey in 10 stages, each showing off yet another of the designer’s sleight of hand. You’ll begin in fragrant tea gardens and move through pepper gardens where there’s a trace of capsicum in the air.  

This afternoon is reserved for something that most garden travelers simply don’t hear about. We’ll keep the mystery alive for now, but let’s just say you’ll be peeking behind closed doors to see green spaces the public rarely gets to.

Later, the whole Carex crew will set loose in the urban labyrinth that is the Tangier medina. Follow your guide’s lead through alleys that knot and unknot – bazaars bursting from the sides, hammams steaming alluringly in the corners, and somewhere in there is the enticing local spot that’s planned for dinner.

Accommodation: Occidental Tanger (or similar), Tangier
Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 4 – Rabat to Casablanca

Of all the garden tours in all the towns in all the world, you chose this Carex one! Quite right, too, because today, Casablanca buffs, you head to the city made famous by Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart all those years ago. Tonight, you’ll even dine in Rick’s Café to a backing track of jazz!

But all that must wait for the evening. First, you’ll hop on your bus and head straight for the Jardin d’Essais Botaniques in the capital of Rabat. It’s a grand name for a grand place. Step into a 17-hectare oasis that’s hemmed in by traffic-clogged boulevards on all sides. The sounds of tooting horns disappear quickly, and you’ll begin to wander a garden designed by one Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, the same man responsible for crafting many of the avenues of Paris. Notice his trademark wide promenades and sweeping public spaces framed by trees. It’s at once spacious and intimate, grand and green.

You’ll then whiz further along the Atlantic coast to Casablanca for a dose of wartime nostalgia and impressive mosques. Here’s looking at you, garden buffs. (Sorry, we’ll stop with the movie quotes now!)

Accommodation: Barceló Casablanca (or similar), Casablanca
Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 5 – Casablanca to Essaouira via Oualidia

Today is like planting a daffodil bulb. The flower you get will be stunning, no doubt, but you do have to wait all winter for it to come up. Labored horticultural metaphor over, what we mean to say is: you have a long drive today but it’s going to be worth it. We promise exquisite views of the wild Moroccan Atlantic and a lunchtime pitstop somewhere very special.

That somewhere special is the oyster town of Oualidia, where we’ve engaged the help of a local oyster expert to take you around the lagoons. Just think about that for a moment – five days ago you had never set foot in Morocco, Africa even. Now, you’re cruising around a bay surrounded by sand dunes in the company of storks and flamingos, looking for the oysters you’ll eat for lunch (don’t worry – we’ve got you covered if you’re not a fan). Whoever said this was strictly a garden tour?!

Drift like salt flakes off the Atlantic into the walled city of Essaouira as evening approaches. They say this is one of the most beautiful towns in the country, but we’ll let you decide as you wander the white-painted medina and trace along the medieval walls where the waves bash against the rocks below.

Accommodation: Madada Mogador (or similar), Essaouira
Included: Breakfast, Lunch 

Day 6 – Essaouira to Taroudant

Another big travel day – about five hours on the road – but not without time to stretch your legs exploring Essaouira’s Le Jardin Michel Vu, where the artist created his visionary work and garden, inspired by the landscape around him.Then you’ll take the next scenic stretch of road, accompanied by the strange, sculpture-like beauty of the Argan trees (you might even spot some local goats perched on their branches). Watch outside your window as the Atlas Mountains crash down, from way up high, into the foothills right in front of you. 

Break up the rest of the drive with a stop at a local argan oil cooperative to see the women workers behind the creation of this famous oil – they call it “liquid gold” in these parts.

Accommodation: Dar al Hossoun (or similar), Taroudant
Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 7 – Taroudant’s Designer Gardens

We hope you filled up on flatbreads, mint tea, and honey this morning, because there’s a huge drive to the next garden. Just kidding! It’s actually just outside your door, in the form of the expertly designed Dar al Hossoun hotel gardens. Experience the intermingling of the rustic and the refined that landscapers Arnaud Maurières and Eric Ossart are known for, as you move between the agaves and the olive trees.

Today’s lunch is not any old lunch – it’s a farm-to-table feast prepared by local Berber families under the shade of the fan palms of the Tiout Oasis. You’ll taste salty olives and cumin-infused dips as you catch glimpses of the Anti-Atlas Mountains through the canopy.

After that, you have a private garden tour – invitation only – just for our Carexplorers! We’ve secured access to the exclusive grounds of the Claudio Bravo Palace, a sprawling manor house built by its namesake Chilean artist. Prepare for a combo of the surreal and the sublime, as spiny cacti poke like moles above the earth here and shady arcades lead to cool courtyards there.

Back at the hotel, you’ll press pause on the stream of gardens for the whole group to enjoy some hard-earned R&R. The pool beckons, folks, and dinner is in-house nibbles and drinks

Accommodation: Dar al Hossoun (or similar), Taroudant
Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 8 – Taroudant to Marrakech

Leave Taroudant in the dust this morning as you head on up the Wild West roadways that carve through the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech. Winding and wiggling over the passes here takes some time – it will be 3.5 hours until you see souks and civilization again. But it’s a journey so scenic you’ll be talking about it over your next tagine, we promise!

Your group will also take the opportunity to drop by the otherworldly Anima Gardens as you near the big city. Here are your stage directions: step down from your ride and gasp! This three-hectare piece of paradise is artfully laid out to make the snowy tops of the Atlas the backdrop. As clouds swirl on the 4,000-meter peaks out there, you’ll wander paths fringed with birds of paradise and fragrant African herbs. Talk about decompressing after a drive!

There’s a short one-hour stop at the hotel in Marrakech but you whizz right out again – literally! It’ll be a whirl-wind, it’ll be non-stop fun, but how many of your friends back at home can say they’ve navigated an ancient Moroccan medina in the sidecar of a vintage motorbike?  Didn’t think so!

Accommodation: 2ciels Luxury Boutique Hotel & Spa (or similar), Marrakech
Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Day 9 – History, Culture and Gardens

The allure of Marrakech is hard to quantify. Something is happening everywhere. Everywhere. The clatter of handcarts, the groan of donkeys, the stirring whistle of the snake charmers – all that collides with stacks of multi-colored spices and sizzling sardines on barbecue coals. There’s hardly any space to move in there, but you find it. Or, more to the point, your expert local guide will find it – they know the secret passageways, the best places to buy tea and argan oil and more.

There’s time for just one garden in a restored riad before lunch, but then it’s onto one of the great ‘jewels’ of Moroccan horticulture and landscape design: the legendary Jardin Majorelle. Four decades in the making, it’s a fusion of Art Deco and arabesque styles, laid out on an intricate grid that bursts with agave, cactus species, jasmine, and all sorts.  

What could possibly follow that? Only a UNESCO World Heritage Site will do, and that very thing is resting on the flatlands of the Maghreb just outside of the city. Dating back to the 1100s, the Agdal Garden still echoes with the ghosts of long-gone caliphates. It’s monumental, with a hint of faded glory, set under the ever-watchful eyes of the snow-shouldered Atlas Mountains.

Accommodation: 2ciels Luxury Boutique Hotel & Spa (or similar), Marrakech
Included: Breakfast

Day 10 – More Marrakech gardens (and Moroccan food)

Rise and shine. It’s your final full day of garden touring in Morocco, and there’s still plenty to get through. And if you’re not ready to let go just yet, we’ve got something to help you keep that suitcase off your mind for another 24 hours: food. And lots of it.

You’ll hop out of town to the cooking school of Lalla Zehra. This is no stale industrial kitchen; it’s a breeze-kissed, al fresco space surrounded by herbariums, wildflower meadows, and vegetable patches – the sort of cooking school garden buffs dream of. You’ll spend the morning cooking up a smorgasbord of authentic Moroccan dishes and spend lunchtime devouring them. Mmmm.

Bellies happily sated with more couscous than they can handle, head on over to your final garden. Welcome to the Paradis du Safran, where local farmers will teach you all about the unique harvesting methods used to get the so-called Red Gold of the kitchen (that’s saffron). Spot the donkeys and peacocks, take a last look at the Atlas Mountains, and then return to Marrakech.

Farewells are never easy but they’re much harder when you’ve just spent nine days crossing soaring mountain ranges and wandering exotic gardens together. Our way to soften the goodbye? Sending you off to a really special place to dine and drink the evening away as a crew one last time.  

Accommodation: 2ciels Luxury Boutique Hotel & Spa (or similar), Marrakech
Included: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 11 – Depart

One by one, the group will head off to the airport this morning. Big hugs, big smiles, and a touch of melancholy are part and parcel to the end of a trip. But try to think of this amazing experience like a cactus bloom – it can happen multiple times each year if you like! These friends you’ve made are travel pals forever now, and plenty more adventures await.

Included: Breakfast