Fes, Morocco — Wikipedia is well suited to family travel, and the range of activities available — camel trekking, sandboarding, waterfall hikes, cooking classes, hot air balloon flights, and medina exploration — provides something genuinely interesting for all ages without requiring different itineraries for adults and children. The key planning difference from a couple’s or group trip is pace: children need more rest stops, more flexibility on meal timing, and often more time at a single destination rather than a compressed sequence of sites.
What Children Enjoy Most
The camel trek at the Sahara desert, overwhelmingly, is what children name as the trip highlight most consistently. The scale of the dunes, the novelty of the animal, and the camp overnight with its stars and fire make the desert experience immediately engaging for children from about age five upward. Sandboarding on the dune faces is a universally popular follow-on activity. The Ouzoud Waterfalls, with their Barbary macaques, are a second consistent winner — wildlife and waterfalls in the same outing is a reliable family itinerary element. Our Camel Trekking in Morocco and day trip options are both popular family formats.
Age-Appropriate Considerations
Children under four manage the desert overnight in terms of conditions but may find the camel trek uncomfortable without a parent riding with them in a double-saddle setup — worth confirming with the operator at booking. Children aged five to twelve handle the standard camel trek, sandboarding, and day-trip hiking well. Teenagers generally engage with all available activities and often show specific interest in the cooking class or the quad biking. The hot air balloon is open to all ages but requires that children can stand independently in the basket.
Practical Logistics
Child car seats must be requested in advance from private tour operators — they are not standard equipment in Moroccan touring vehicles. Dietary preferences are manageable with advance notice; Moroccan cuisine is naturally varied enough to accommodate most children’s palates alongside adult meals. The driving days between cities are the main challenge for restless younger children; building in specific rest stops and reserving a family activity for the vehicle time helps.
Recommended Family Formats
A four to five-day family itinerary that combines Marrakech city activities with a desert round-trip is the most common family format we build. Longer itineraries work equally well but require a comfortable pace that avoids too many driving hours per day. Our Essaouira Day Trip from Marrakech is a popular family format, and our All Tours gives options for combining city and desert in different proportions. See our 10-Day Morocco Imperial Cities Tour from Casablanca for full details.
