Hi All,

My betrothed completely surprised me the other day by seriously suggesting we finally take my Defender 110 to Morocco, like I have always wanted to do, for our Honeymoon. Until this point I had been budgeting for a tropical island somewhere so this has come as a really welcome idea.

I was pretty active in the whole overlanding scene in the early 2010's with trips to the Pyrenees, Alps & N Italy but since then Nessie has just been relegated to my daily driver and summer holiday car camping trips in the UK, so I'm guessing a few things may have changed around here, let alone the rest of the world!

Now as this is our Honeymoon, and we've got a healthy budget, the emerging plan is to bounce between a few posh hotels for a couple of nights at each with maybe a night camping somewhere in between. Proper luxury and not a real dirty overland trip at all!

So, I'm tentatively starting to think about a route for October this year, or depending on restrictions, possibly March-April 21. We would have 3ish weeks, ferry to Spain, take a few days getting south and then have about 10 days in country before starting to head home.

I'm a bit confused as to when the winter ferry timetable kicks in for the return from Santander/Bilbao at the start of November, if this is the case we would consider planning to drive back through France but otherwise I'd hope to come back the way we went out.

Any suggestions for scenic bits of Spain and nice rural campsites on the way down? We don't have to rush it in 48 hours and I'd also like to pop into Gibraltar as its somewhere I've been many times with work but the Mrs hasn't, so would consider the pros/cons of getting the ferry over from there vs Algeciras.

Then once in Morocco, I was thinking heading to the mountains first, potentially near Ifran. Is that doable on day 1 or are there any suggestions to take a slower scenic road and stop elsewhere for the first night?

Then the plan is a bit more vague. South to the Desert, then loop back via Marrakesh, and if we have time possibly Oualidia, splitting the time between nice camping spots and swanky hotels/Riads. A proper desert wild camp would be really good to fit in there too. The overall plan is not to try and hit every piste and thrash the vehicle but to see some exciting parts of the country, balance the stress/excitement of a vehicle based trip on the easy side and have a lovely luxe holiday with a bit of a soft overlanding as well. I have an older copy of Morocco Overland currently packed in a box somewhere and once we've finally moved house in the next few weeks I will start route planning properly. Any pointers on other books or maps to consider as well?

So I appreciate this is not the usual trip itinerary, and a lot hinges on the state of the pandemic, but if anyone has any suggestions for the unmissable bits of Morocco that fit our vibe please let me know!

Cheers,

Dan & Amy