It is getting closer to my trip to Morocco and I am starting to realize that I need to get working on a rough itinerary and start researching in more depth about the areas I will be visiting. Again, this is only a short 2 week trip and I don't want to try to pack too much in so lets see how this works out.

I fly from Tampa to Madrid via Atlanta on May 19th. I just got an email from Expedia telling me that Delta moved my flight from Atlanta to Madrid 45 minutes later so that means more time at Hatsfield International (Great!). Atleast I know I won't miss that flight. I arrive in Madrid 9:00am on Friday morning (instead of previously 8am).

This is where my planning starts to get tricky. I can do 1 of 2 things and haven't decided on which one is better at this point.

#1) I can get out of the airport and take a taxi to the train station and find a locker and put my belongings in it so I can spend the day in Madrid, eat lunch and dinner pick a few spots to check out, take some pictures and then board the overnight train to Algeciras which would allow me to sleep and then wake up in the morning to take a ferry across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangier early which will give me the afternoon to check out the knowingly seedy port town that all recommendations tell me to GET OUT AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

#2) When I get off the airplane in Madrid go directly to the train station and book the earliest train to Algeciras and then take a night ferry across the Straits to Tangier and then immediately hop on an overnight to Marrakech. I am told if I get into Tangier late just get a taxi from the port (since customs and paper work are taken care of on the ferry) and then go straight to the train station and book the sleeper to Marrakech to avoid ALL faux guides, rip off taxis, drug dealers, nightwalkers and etc. etc. I will wake up in the desert outside of Marrakech in the early morning and get my first glimpse of Morocco.

Once I arrive in Marrakech I am just going to take it all in. Eat the foods, smell the smells, enjoy the sights, meet new people hopefully... experience a new culture. I haven't figured out exactly how long I want to stay in Marrakech since I'm told the Medieval city of Fez has a much more authentic Morrocan feeling.

From Marrakech I am going to go overland through the High Atlas Mountains through some of Morocco's most extreme landscape. Getting a closer look at snow capped Jebel Toubkal, the Atlas' highest peak I will pass through Ouarzazate and the Dades Valley and on my way to the desert fringes.

The last major city I will pass through will be Er Rachidia on my wao to Rissani where I plan to have a guide pick me up from my hotel and take me to Erg Chebbi for a 2 night camping trip into the Sahara on Camel. I will be only a few miles from the Algerian border and probably out of communication for that time which is an extremely liberating feeling. Erg Chebbi are the largest dunes in Morocco and I am told sunrise/sunset over the Sahara is a must see.

After this experience I may be left with a lot of time or very little so depending on how much time I spent in Marrakech is going to effect how the rest of my trip goes. I woud like to go north back to Tangier by way of Fez because I don't like back-tracking through areas I have already been when their is plenty more to see in front of me. If time is a problem and money ends up not being an issue I may book a Royal Air Maroc flight back to Madrid to save me a day or 2 of train rides back to catch my flight home.

This is my rough itinerary and will probably change before I leave; however, it feels good to actually write it down that way I can refer back to it and rest easy knowing that i'm atleast planning SOMETHING. I'd much rather just play it by ear by 2 weeks doesn't allow that freedom.