A Whole New World - Aladdin's Morocco Adventure

The call to prayer echoes across Marrakech's rooftops at dawn. You'll wake in a traditional riad, sunlight filtering through carved wooden screens, mint tea already steeping downstairs. The medina's maze of souks smells like leather, saffron, and cedarwood - you'll get lost, and that's half the fun. Your guide knows every shortcut, every hidden courtyard, every merchant who'll offer you genuine smiles along with their wares.

The Atlas Mountains rise suddenly from the plains, switchback roads climbing into another world entirely. Berber villages cling to hillsides, their terraced fields green against red earth. Ait Benhaddou appears like a mirage - honey-colored kasbahs stacked like a sand castle, exactly as old as it looks. You'll understand immediately why Hollywood keeps coming back.

Then comes the desert. The camel's rhythm is steady, hypnotic. The dunes shift from gold to amber to crimson as the sun drops. That night, wrapped in blankets around the campfire, someone will play the oud while stars wheel overhead in impossible numbers. The Milky Way stretches horizon to horizon. Your phone has no signal. You won't miss it.

Sunrise is cold and transcendent - you'll climb a dune in darkness and watch the Sahara ignite with first light. The 4x4 adventure that follows takes you to nomad camps where families still live in black tents, herding goats as their ancestors did. Kids will wave as you pass, delighted and unsurprised.

Todra Gorge on the final day is nature's cathedral - 300-meter walls narrowing to a sliver of sky above a trickle of river below. It's cool and quiet, the rock holding the chill of ancient time. Then the journey continues through the Middle Atlas, cedar forests where Barbary apes play, until Fes reveals itself - a medieval labyrinth unchanged for centuries. The world's oldest university, tanneries that assault and amaze your senses, artisans hammering copper as their great-grandfathers did. Fes doesn't feel like a place you visit; it feels like a portal you step through.

Bring comfortable walking shoes, sunscreen, and an open heart. Bring patience for the pace of desert life and energy for bargaining in the souks. Leave room in your luggage for treasures. The magic carpet may be fictional, but the magic is absolutely real.