At the corner of northwest Africa, Morocco is a former imperial power which once controlled a considerably larger area, including much of modern-day Algeria, Tunisia, Spain and Portugal. The Atlas Mountains run down the spine of the country, with most of the population on its western flanks towards the Atlantic Ocean, while the eastern and southern edges are bound by the Sahara Desert. After being part of the hippy trail of the 1960s and perhaps encouraged by the allure of the 1942 film Casablanca, Morocco has become steadily more popular with tourists in the 21st century, and is now easily reached by many European budget airlines.

We went to Morocco in April 2003 for just four nights, crossing via the straits of Gibraltar, yet managed to fit a lot into that short time. As much as the people were very friendly and welcoming, I also found it to be very “hard sell”: it was difficult to wander around without being constantly harassed by touts and scammers, and we were both hit with food poisoning which made my overland journey back to Valencia less than pleasant. We didn’t have time to cross the High Atlas to the Sahara unfortunately, but did see the imperial cities of Fes and Marrakech, plus Casablanca and Tangier. We travelled throughout by train which was great value and very adequate, even overnight.