10-Day Egypt & Morocco: Cairo, Marrakech & Casablanca

Your trip starts in the arrivals hall of Cairo International Airport. After immigration and baggage collection, your representative meets you and walks you to the car for the transfer into the city. Cairo is a metropolis of more than 20 million people, and the first drive in, past flyovers, minarets, and apartment blocks lit late into the night, is a good introduction to its scale without any pressure to see it yet.

The rest of the day is deliberately unhurried. Check in, rest after the flight, and review tomorrow's meeting time with your representative, who will confirm when your guide collects you for Giza. If you land early, a gentle walk near the hotel or a riverside dinner is a better beginning than squeezing a major museum into a travel day. If you land late, simply unpack and sleep; the pyramids have waited about 45 centuries and will wait until morning.

This trip is built around cities, markets, and architecture in two countries, so it helps to keep a small daypack ready from the start: a refillable water bottle, sunscreen, a light scarf or layer, and comfortable shoes for sand and cobblestones alike. No meals are scheduled today, so eat whenever suits your body clock.

Today you meet Egypt at its most monumental. Your guide collects you for the short drive to the Giza Plateau, where the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure stand within an ancient funerary landscape of causeways, temples, and courtiers' tombs rather than as isolated monuments. You walk between viewpoints with time for questions: how the blocks were quarried and moved, why the kings chose this desert edge, and what the plateau looked like when it was a busy royal building site.

Next is the Great Sphinx, carved from the bedrock with a lion's body and a royal head, keeping watch over the valley temple below it. Photographers should ask the guide about the best angles; the view of the Sphinx with a pyramid behind it rewards a little patience.

The afternoon belongs to the Grand Egyptian Museum, a short drive away. Its scale is hard to take in at once, so your guide helps you choose a route through the collections rather than trying to see everything. Specific galleries, admission categories, and any pyramid-interior visit depend on the confirmed ticketing plan, so ask before the day if a particular gallery matters to you. You are back at your hotel by evening, with the night free.

Today's theme is a city that has never stopped working. In the morning you explore the older quarters of Cairo, moving between selected Coptic or Islamic landmarks according to opening times and your own interests. Your guide explains how Christian and Muslim communities shaped these neighborhoods over many centuries, and helps you tell apart the stories of the places you enter, so the day feels like a narrative rather than a list.

Later you follow the lanes around Al-Muizz Street, one of the great historic thoroughfares of medieval Cairo, lined with mosques, schools, fountains, and merchants' houses. From there it is a short walk into Khan el-Khalili, where brass, lanterns, spices, and textiles are still sold from narrow shopfronts much as they were in the days of the caravan trade. Worship, commerce, and everyday life continue side by side here, and it is worth slowing down to watch them.

Time for tea and browsing is part of the day, not an afterthought. It is also good practice for Marrakech: bargaining is expected in both markets, and it is best done with a smile and a clear idea of what you want to spend. Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, for any religious sites you enter.

Today you cross North Africa from east to west. After checking out, you transfer to Cairo International Airport for your flight to Casablanca, direct if one operates on your date or via the available connection. A direct flight takes roughly five to six hours; a connection adds more. Morocco's clocks run behind Egypt's, so you gain a little time on the way.

On arrival at Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport, you pass through immigration and meet your Moroccan representative, who takes you to your hotel. Because international check-in, flight time and arrival formalities can take up much of the day, the evening is kept free. The Moroccan chapter begins tomorrow rather than with a long city tour straight after landing.

Use the evening to settle into a Moroccan rhythm. Withdraw or exchange some dirhams, the local currency, which is generally obtained once you are in the country, and keep small notes for tips and cafés. Have dinner near the hotel and note your departure time for Marrakech. You will come back to Casablanca at the end of the trip for two nights, so there is no need to see anything tonight.

This morning you travel south to Marrakech, either by private vehicle or by a confirmed rail-and-transfer arrangement; your quote states which. The journey takes around three hours, crossing the farmland and open plains of the Atlantic hinterland before the red-ochre walls of Marrakech come into view, with the High Atlas often visible on the horizon on clear days.

After checking in, you meet your guide for an introductory walk in the medina, the old walled city, and around Jemaa el-Fnaa, its great public square. UNESCO recognizes the square for its living traditions of storytelling, music, and performance, and it changes character through the day: juice stalls and musicians in the afternoon, then food stalls, smoke, and crowds as evening falls. Your guide shows you how the square connects to the souks, so you can find your way back on your own over the next two days.

Keep shopping and dining choices flexible tonight. This is a transfer day with a short introduction, not an exhaustive Marrakech sightseeing program; the full guided visit comes tomorrow. Keep valuables close in the crowds, and agree on any photo fee before photographing performers.

Today is your guided day in Marrakech, shaped around the city's distinct spaces. You begin at Bahia Palace, built in the late 19th century for a grand vizier and arranged around courtyards, gardens, and reception rooms finished in carved cedar, painted ceilings, and zellige tilework. It is a fine place to understand how Moroccan houses turn inward, keeping their beauty for those inside the walls.

From the palace you move into the older lanes of the medina, where your guide connects architecture with everyday commerce: the old merchants' inns, the neighborhood bakeries and fountains, and the souks where each street tends to specialize in a single craft, from leather and metalwork to dyed wool and wood.

If Majorelle Garden is on your confirmed itinerary, its timed entry is reserved in advance rather than treated as automatic. Created by the painter Jacques Majorelle and later restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, the garden's cobalt-blue villa and cactus beds are a calm contrast to the medina. The day leaves breathing room for a relaxed lunch at a place of your choosing and an evening at leisure, perhaps on a rooftop terrace as the call to prayer drifts over the city.

Today is yours. After a full guided day, the slower pace is the point: choose how much of Marrakech you want to see, and when. You might return to a favorite medina street to buy the lantern or rug you thought about yesterday, visit a prebooked garden in the cool of the morning, or simply enjoy a late breakfast on a terrace with nothing on the clock.

It is a good chance to see something new rather than repeat yesterday's palace-and-souk circuit. Some travelers spend part of the day in a hammam, Morocco's traditional steam bath; others take a cooking class, explore a quieter residential quarter, or just sit with mint tea and watch the city pass by. Optional craft visits, private access, and activities like these are included only when your quote lists them, so tell us in advance if you want anything arranged.

If you head out alone, carry the hotel's card with its address, since medina lanes can be confusing and taxi drivers know hotels better than street names. Agree on taxi fares before setting off. An evening in Jemaa el-Fnaa is worth a second look now that you know the square, and tomorrow's transfer is an easy one.

Today you leave Marrakech and return north to Casablanca, retracing the roughly three-hour route across the plains, or traveling by the confirmed rail-and-transfer arrangement. Arriving with plenty of time for a comfortable check-in means the day stays easy, and that is deliberate: this transfer is kept separate from the international departure day, giving you a practical buffer before your flight home and a calmer end to the Moroccan chapter.

If the confirmed route and traffic permit, you can enjoy a short outing on the waterfront before dinner. Casablanca is Morocco's largest city and its economic engine, and its Atlantic edge feels very different from the medina you have just left: wide boulevards, ocean light, and a promenade where families stroll and joggers pass in the early evening.

Use the rest of the day to repack for the flights ahead and to rest after the medina days. If you bought fragile crafts such as ceramics or glass lanterns in Marrakech, ask the hotel for extra wrapping or plan to carry them in your carry-on bag. Tomorrow is your last full day, dedicated to Casablanca itself and its most famous landmark, the Hassan II Mosque, so a quiet evening sets it up well.

Your final full day looks out to the Atlantic. Casablanca is a young city by Moroccan standards, largely shaped in the 20th century, and it shows a side of the country that the old medinas do not. The centerpiece is the Hassan II Mosque, built on a platform at the edge of the ocean and finished in the early 1990s, with a minaret that ranks among the tallest in the world. It is one of the few mosques in Morocco that non-Muslim visitors can enter, on guided tours.

Your visit follows the mosque's current guided-entry arrangements, and interior access depends on the posted visitor schedule and dress rules: cover shoulders and knees, and bring socks or a bag for your shoes. Inside, look for the carved cedar ceilings, the marble, and the sheer scale of the prayer hall, all the work of Moroccan craftspeople.

Afterward you spend time along the waterfront, then see a neighborhood or market area that shows contemporary city life, from café terraces to the everyday shopping streets locals use. You return to your hotel for an open evening. For a farewell dinner, seafood is the natural choice in a city that faces the ocean, and your guide can suggest places that suit your taste.

Your last morning is planned around a comfortable departure rather than new sightseeing. Check out at the agreed time and meet your driver for the transfer to the departure airport. Allow plenty of time: international departures from Casablanca usually call for arriving well ahead of the flight, and traffic in and around the city can be heavy at peak hours.

Before you travel, please verify your flight times, luggage allowance, and any visa or exit requirements for your onward journey, particularly if you are connecting through another country. Keep your passport easy to reach. Spend or change your remaining dirhams before you leave, since the currency is not easily exchanged abroad, and keep a few coins for a last coffee at the airport.

Extra hotel time, late check-out, or an additional excursion is not included unless it appears in the confirmed booking. If your flight leaves late in the day, tell us when you request your quote and we can suggest how to use the hours. Over 10 days you have moved from the pyramids and the bazaars of Cairo to the palaces and souks of Marrakech and the Atlantic face of Casablanca, a journey across the whole width of North Africa. We hope it stays with you for a long time.