Genuine Discoveries
Marrakech 31.63°N 7.99°W · Est. 2018
For travellers from Canada
Morocco is the closest place to Canada where nothing is familiar — and in the months when Toronto is frozen, Marrakech is in the low twenties.
Canadians come to us for two reasons, and they are opposite ones. Some want out of January: warm days, cold desert nights, snow on the Atlas seen from a courtyard with an orange tree in it. Others come in the autumn, when the valleys are being harvested and the light is at its best. Both are right. They are simply different countries wearing the same name.
Genuine Discoveries is run by Jaouad, born in a High Atlas village and licensed by Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism. He designs the journey, answers your emails and guides the trip himself. There is no call centre between you and the person on the ground, and no agency in Toronto or Montreal taking a margin on the way through.
What follows is the practical version: the nonstops from Toronto and Montreal, what you need on paper as a Canadian, which months suit which region, and what a private journey really costs in Canadian dollars.
Two Canadian cities fly to Morocco without a change of plane, and everywhere else is one stop.
Montréal–Trudeau (YUL) is the strongest link: Royal Air Maroc and Air Canada both fly nonstop to Casablanca, close to daily between them, in about seven hours. It is an overnight in the right direction — you land in the morning and the first day is real.
Royal Air Maroc flies Toronto Pearson (YYZ) to Casablanca nonstop on a Boeing 787, about seven and a half hours. The number of flights a week moves with the season, so check the current timetable before you fix your dates — and tell us what you find, we book around it every week.
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg connect through Montreal or Toronto, or through London, Paris, Madrid, Istanbul or Doha. From Vancouver it is a long day either way; we usually suggest a night in Europe on the way out and a straight run home.
Casablanca (CMN) if you are flying nonstop, and we drive or take the train from there — it is where the Grand Moroccan Journey begins anyway. Marrakech (RAK) for the Atlas and the Sahara. Fes (FEZ) or Tangier (TNG) to travel north to south and fly home from Marrakech.
Morocco runs on UTC+1 all year. That is six hours ahead of Toronto and Montreal in winter and five in summer; nine and eight from Vancouver. Eastbound jet lag is the harder direction, so we keep the first morning gentle. Clocks here move back during Ramadan, which we flag if it touches your dates.
We do not sell them, and we do not mark them up. Book the flights you want, then send us the numbers — Jaouad watches the arrival himself and moves the first day if you are delayed.
These are the routes we run most often. Every one is private, and every one gets rebuilt around your dates, your pace and your interests.
Casablanca to Marrakech the long way: Chefchaouen, Roman Volubilis, Fes, two nights in the Erg Chebbi dunes, the Dades valley and three unhurried days in Marrakech.
From $5,750 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreed 8 daysThe classic first trip — blue Chefchaouen, medieval Fes, the Sahara and the red city, at a pace that still leaves room to sit down.
From $3,790 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreed 8 daysRabat, Meknes, Fes and Marrakech — a thousand years of palaces, medinas and craft, with the dunes at the centre of the week.
From $2,650 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreed 9 daysSummit Jebel Mgoun, walk the Happy Valley, sleep in Amazigh villages and finish at the Ouzoud waterfalls.
From $1,420 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreed 5 daysNorth Africa’s highest peak in a long weekend, with mountain refuges, mule support and a guide who grew up on these trails.
From $990 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreed 5 daysStraight to the desert: Aït Benhaddou, the Dades gorges and two nights under the stars at Erg Chebbi.
From $1,310 per person · quoted in USD, payable as agreedNobody can quote a Morocco trip honestly without knowing how you want to sleep. So we publish the floor, and explain exactly what lifts it.
Every journey shows a "from" price: the lowest it runs at, in a quiet month, with two or more of you sharing, staying in characterful riads and guesthouses. It is a real number, not bait — trips do leave at it.
Three things, in order: the standard of the houses you sleep in, the season you travel in, and how many of you there are. A five-star riad in Fes and a luxury desert camp can double the room cost of a week without changing a single stop on the map.
Our standard level. Characterful riads and guesthouses chosen for their owners as much as their rooms, a comfortable private 4×4, and the same guiding as every other trip.
Five-star riads, palace hotels, luxury desert camps with proper beds and private bathrooms, a larger vehicle, and extras like a private cooking lesson or a hot-air balloon at dawn.
We quote in US dollars because that is the currency most of our suppliers use; we will always tell you the Canadian figure at the day’s rate. As a rough guide, our journeys run from about CA$2,600 to CA$6,200 per person depending on length and standard.
Flights and insurance are not included — book those yourself and keep the flexibility. Everything else in the quote is the total: the vehicle, the driver, the guiding, the houses and the meals listed in your itinerary.
Nothing is charged while the itinerary is still being shaped, and the written quote comes before any deposit is discussed.
A private journey means you can take any of these slowly, or leave one out entirely.
The Jemaa el-Fnaa at dusk, the Saadian Tombs, Majorelle, and the quiet courtyards five metres off a street you would never have entered alone.
The oldest living medieval city on earth: 9,000 lanes, no cars, tanneries, and the world’s oldest continuously operating university.
Erg Chebbi’s dunes at Merzouga — camels at sunset, dinner under more stars than you have seen, and complete silence at 3 a.m.
Amazigh villages, walnut terraces, mule tracks and 4,000-metre peaks an hour from Marrakech. Jaouad’s home ground.
The blue city in the Rif: a full day, not the two-hour photo stop most tours allow.
Essaouira’s ramparts and grilled sardines, Oualidia’s oyster lagoon, Taghazout’s surf — where Moroccans go to breathe.
There are hundreds of Morocco operators. Here is the short, checkable version of what separates us.
Jaouad designs your itinerary, answers your emails and guides the journey himself. On a fourteen-day trip you have the same person from arrivals to departure.
Born in a High Atlas village, Amazigh by heritage, certified by Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism. He speaks Tamazight, Arabic, French, English and Spanish, which is what opens doors in villages.
Your own vehicle and driver, your own guide, your own pace. Nothing is shared with strangers and nothing runs to someone else’s clock.
Solo travellers pay the same per-person price as couples, and nothing is padded with compulsory extras.
No forms to fight, no pressure, and nothing to pay while we are still designing.
Your dates, roughly how long you have, what you love and what you would rather skip. Two lines is enough to start.
You get a written day-by-day proposal with a total price — not a brochure, and nothing to pay.
Swap a day, add the coast, slow the pace, upgrade one riad and not the others. Most journeys go through two or three versions.
Deposit and payment terms in writing, then Jaouad handles the rest: houses, drivers, permits, the local guide in each city.
Entry is straightforward on a Canadian passport. A few Moroccan details are worth knowing before you land.
Canadian passport holders enter visa-free for tourism for stays under 90 days. Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond the date you expect to leave. Read the Government of Canada’s travel advice for Morocco before you book — requirements do change, and the official page is the one that counts.
It is a closed currency: you cannot buy it at home and you should not carry it out. Withdraw at the airport, keep small notes for tips and the souks, and spend what is left before you fly. Cards work in riads and in the better restaurants.
We quote in US dollars, because that is what our suppliers use, and we will always give you the Canadian figure at the day’s rate so you are not doing arithmetic. The quote covers your own vehicle and driver, the guiding, the houses and the meals listed in your itinerary. Flights and insurance are yours.
Canadian roaming to Morocco is expensive on most plans — an eSIM bought before you fly costs a few dollars and saves a great deal of irritation. Sockets are European two-pin at 220V, so bring an adapter; North American plugs do not fit.
No vaccinations are required for entry. Check the Government of Canada travel health notices and speak to a travel clinic if you have specific concerns. Tell us about allergies and diets when you enquire — every kitchen on the route will know in advance, not on the night.
Ottawa advises a high degree of caution in Morocco, and avoiding the Algerian border area and parts of Western Sahara entirely — none of which is anywhere near the routes we travel. The genuine, everyday risks are pickpocketing in the busiest medinas and being overcharged shopping alone. Travelling with a guide removes most of the friction people write about online.
The weeks you can get away do not always suit the Sahara. Here is the honest version.
The best-kept secret of Morocco travel, and the strongest reason for a Canadian to come. Marrakech sits in the high teens and low twenties, the Atlas is under snow, the medinas are calm and prices are at their lowest. Desert nights are genuinely cold — bring a layer and let the camp do the rest.
The second half of March is close to perfect: warm without being hot, wildflowers in the mountains, good desert nights. It is also the week every Canadian family can travel, so it fills early — four to six months ahead is not too soon.
The finest all-round window in the country. Long days, green valleys, the High Atlas trekking season opening. By late June the interior is heating up, and we start moving the desert nights earlier in the evening.
Hot inland — 40°C in Marrakech is an ordinary summer day. If these are your only weeks we do not pretend otherwise: we rebuild the route around the Atlantic coast, the Atlas valleys and the north, and start the days early.
Our favourite season and the quietest. Warm days, cool evenings, the harvest in the valleys, and prices below the spring peak. For a two-week journey — which is what most Canadians book, having come this far — it is the one we would choose ourselves.
March break and the Easter weeks close first, then late September and October. Three to six months is comfortable. If your dates are fixed by school or work, tell us early and we will hold the houses while the rest is still being shaped.
What Canadian travellers ask us most often.
Jaouad reads every enquiry himself and replies within 24 hours — with a first outline, honest advice on timing, and no obligation.