Depart From: International flight to Morocco

Arrive To: Group arrival in Rabat Sale-Airport. Program Orientation at the Center for Cross-Cultural Learning in Rabat. Departure to Fes.

Dinner: At the hotel.

Lodging: Hotel Merinides

Meals Included: Dinner

Learn from university professors, experts, activists, artists and researchers about themes related to spirituality, religiosity and daily life in Morocco

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Enjoy two introductory lectures, "Islam & Politics in Morocco" and "The Spirit of Fes through Women’s Narratives."

Lunch: At a restaurant.

Afternoon: Founded in the ninth century and home to the oldest university in the world, Fes reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries when it replaced Marrakesh as the capital of the kingdom. Experience an expert-led exploration of the urban fabric and principal monuments in the medina — madrasas, fondouks, palaces, residences, mosques and fountains — that date from this period. Make your way through the narrow streets and alleys, exploring the oldest Islamic Arab architecture in Morocco, the Medersa, the Foundouq museum and the tanneries. Walk past the mausoleum where the founder of the first Islamic dynasty in Morocco is buried, as well as the Qaraouyine Mosque that was built by a woman in the ninth century.

Dinner: Enjoy dinner on your own.

Lodging: Hotel Merinides

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Combine a group departure to Volubilis with a lecture, "Agriculture in Morocco." Volubilis is the site of the largest and best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco. Dating largely from the second and third centuries, excavations have revealed that the site was originally settled by Carthaginian traders even earlier. At its peak, it is estimated that the city housed up to 20,000 people. Gain an understanding of why Islam succeeded in Morocco and why Christianity and the Roman culture left so little impact on Morocco.

Lunch: At a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Visit the town of Moulay Idriss, which is named after the Prophet Mohammed’s great grandson, who is considered the country's most revered saint. He came to Morocco from Mecca in the late eighth century, settled at Volubilis and converted the locals to Islam. He became their leader and also established Morocco's first imperial dynasty. Moulay Idriss is considered the holiest town in Morocco with the shrine of this saint causing it to be the location of the largest pilgrimage in the country as the town fills with Moroccans of all walks of life for the annual moussem in late August.

Dinner: Enjoy dinner on your own.

Lodging: Hotel Merinides

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Stroll through the food market of Fes on a shopping spree before our Moroccan cooking session and gain an up-close perspective on Moroccan cuisine.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Learn how to prepare Moroccan cuisine in Fes, considered the capital of Moroccan fine and delicate cooking. Begin with a grocery trip to the local souk, where participants will buy fresh ingredients and spices. The cooking lesson takes place at a Riad, a traditional Moroccan home, which has been restored to a beautiful guest house. Learn from a renowned chef who has been at the helm of the kitchens of some of Fes' best restaurants.

Lunch: At a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Enjoy a free afternoon, perhaps choosing to continue exploring Fes, the second-largest city of Morocco with a population of approximately 1 million. It has been called the “Mecca of the West” and the “Athens of Africa.” There is much to experience in Fes el Bali, the oldest walled part of Fes that was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. It is believed to be the biggest car-free urban area in the world.

Dinner: Enjoy dinner on your own.

Lodging: Hotel Merinides

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

A lecture on Islamic architecture will be held in the heart of the oldest continuously functioning university in the world, Al Quaraouiyine.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Visit the University of Al-Karaouine, the oldest continually functioning university in the world. Discuss art and spirituality in Morocco during a lesson at the historic Bou Inania Madrasa.

Lunch: On your own.

Afternoon: Enjoy a free afternoon.

Dinner: At the hotel.

Evening: Delight in a Malhoun musical performance led by a female singer that demonstrates the artistic combination of Andalusian music and melodic, medieval Moroccan poetry.

Lodging: Hotel Merinides

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Explore a rural weekly market with its ancestralways of healing, trading and socializing

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Depart for Beni Mellal and stop in Khenifra in the heart of the Atlas Mountains to experience a rural weekly market, called a souk, where villagers come to shop, trade, socialize, and visit a doctor or healer. Traditionally ancestral, souks are evolving to include contemporary consumable products and services.

Lunch: In Khenifra.

Afternoon: Arrive in the inland trading city of Beni Mellal, at the foot of Mount Tassemit and next to the plains of Beni Amir. The walls of the city of 163,000 date to 1688, but most of the city is quite modern and is an important economic center for the region. Textile manufacturing is the backbone, but local agricultural products such as oranges, olives and figs find their way to market via Beni Mellal.

Dinner: At the hotel.

Evening: Enjoy an Ahidous performance, a traditional dance performed by Berber tribes from the Atlas Mountains in which men and women, side by side, dance in soft and undulating rounds, accompanied by singing punctuated by bendir instrument (a small drum). The choreography of Ahidous brings the community together in order to “speak” and sing the issues of daily life, be it social, economical or political.

Lodging: Hotel Chems

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Explore Marrakech, a merging agora for diverse cultures and the heart of Southern Morocco with its African colors, Berber (Amazighi) origin and human warmth.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Depart to Marrakech, Morocco’s fourth-largest city after Casablanca, Fes and Rabat. Like many Moroccan cities, Marrakesh comprises both an old fortified city packed with many people working in stalls — the medina — and modern neighborhoods, the most prominent of which is Gueliz. Near the foothills of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains and a few hours from the foot of the Sahara Desert, its name originates from the Berber words mur (n) akush, which means “Land of God.”

Lunch: At the hotel.

Afternoon: Enjoy a free afternoon to begin your fascinating orientation to Marrakech.

Dinner: Enjoy dinner on your own.

Lodging: Hotel Sofitel Marrakech

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: Begin today’s exploration of Marrakech in the Djemaa el Fna square viewing the Koutoubia mosque — dating to 1200 — whose beautiful minaret rises nearly 70 meters and can be seen from much of the city. Then experience the 16th-century Saadian Tombs, resting place of Saadian Sultan Ahmed el-Mansour ed-Dahbi, whose tastes included imported Italian marble and archways gilded with pure gold. The tombs lay hidden and mostly forgotten until 1917, when they were discovered during an aerial survey.

Lunch: Lunch at a local restaurant

Afternoon: Enjoy a free afternoon, perhaps visiting the Museum of Marrakech, housed in the 19th-century Dar Menebhi Palace. Carefully restored by the Omar Benjelloun Foundation in 1997, the museum holds exhibits of both modern and traditional Moroccan art, as well as fine examples of historical books, coins and pottery of Moroccan Jewish, Berber and Arab cultures.

Dinner: On your own.

Lodging: Hotel Sofitel Marrakech

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Visit the village of Aghmat, an exceptional archeological site in the suburbs of Marrakech, and interact with local residents and site excavators

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Depart for the archaeological site of Aghmat, 30 kilometers southeast of Marakech. As you interact with site excavators and local residents, learn how Aghmat was built around a former Arab Andalusian king (Mouatamid Bnou Abbad) who had been exiled from Sevilla in southern Spain to the south of Morocco until his death. Aghmat was an important city for routes through the Atlas Mountains on the trans Saharan trade. Locals detail how such a site intertwines with the reality of the inhabitants.

Lunch: Experience a lunch with locals.

Afternoon: Return to Marrakech.

Dinner: On your own.

Lodging: Hotel Sofitel Marrakech

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: Lecture: Gardens of Marrakech - Guided visit of Marrakech gardens Note: - Majorelle Gardens The Majorelles Gardens were the home of the French artist Jacques Majorelles in the 1920s. Majorelles built houses on the property and surrounded them with pools, banana trees, coconut palms and bougainvilleas. Later, the French couturier Yves Saint-Laurent bought the property and transformed part of it into a private museum of North African artifacts and opened the garden to the public. - Menara Gardens The Menara Gardens have offered a pleasant escape from Marrakech to its inhabitants for centuries. It is one of the most photographed settings of Morocco, very much enjoyed during the hour before the gates close in late afternoon. It offers a light and sound production every evening.

Lunch: Lunch on your own

Afternoon: Free afternoon

Dinner: Dinner & Musical Performance Soulayman Palace

Lodging: Hotel Sofitel Marrakech

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: ,Breakfast at the hotel -Visit NGO « Ne Touche pas à mon enfant », for children victims of violence -Visit Palaces: Bahia, Mamounia, Note The Bahia palace was built by Abu Ahmed, a former slave, at the end of the 19th century. It is a beautiful monument of its time, and served as the residence of the French resident general, Lyautey. The Mamounia hotel is the most famous hotel in North Africa. It is a 19th century palace that was turned into a hotel which was recently completely renovated

Lunch: Lunch at the hotel

Afternoon: Departure to Casablanca

Dinner: Check in at the Hotel Farewell dinner

Lodging: Hotel Diwan Casablanca

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel

Morning: GROUP DEPARTURE to Mohamed V Airport Casablanca

Meals Included: Breakfast