Solo Through Morocco: Casablanca, a Midnight Flight, and a Riad in Fez

I didn’t ease into this trip. I landed in Casablanca, did a detour with a local guide, and by midnight I was boarding one of those tiny planes to Tangier. Small enough that I walked out across the tarmac to get to it. I watched them load the luggage right behind the pilot. No visible undercarriage, or maybe it was just full. Either way, it was the first sign that this trip wasn’t going to be a polished, predictable one. I was doing it solo, in a country I’d never set foot in, figuring it out leg by leg. Let the adventure begin, I remember thinking.

Casablanca, briefly

Casablanca’s famous Hassan II Mosque was closed for prayer time, so no interior tour for me. I took photos from outside and let that be enough. From there, my guide and I wandered into a market – fresh olives in every color you can imagine. Then we walked through the old town just looking at doors: massive, ornately locked, many marked with the Hand of Fatima. It’s the kind of detail you don’t notice until someone points it out, and then you can’t stop noticing it.

Before coffee, we stopped at Patisserie Bennis Habous, a small family-owned bakery, where I found the most delightful vegan cookies – not something I expected to track down easily in Morocco. We took them to watch the sunset, sitting street-side outside a coffee shop. Everyone inside faced the same direction, all watching something I couldn’t quite place. I never figured out exactly what everyone was looking at, but there was something oddly compelling about a whole room oriented the same way, together.

Tangier, arriving late

I landed near midnight, and a private cab I’d arranged in advance via Viator was waiting to take me to the Hilton Tangier. No wandering around a foreign city at that hour trying to figure out transportation. Just straight to the hotel, checked in, and asleep before I could second-guess any of it.

Chefchaouen and the towns beyond

The next morning, a guided tour company I found on Viator picked me up, along with three other tourists. We spent the day moving through Chefchaouen, Tetouan and a few surrounding towns. Traveling solo doesn’t mean traveling alone the whole time. Some of the best moments came from being folded into a small group of strangers for a day – comparing notes on what we were all seeing for the first time.

That night, back at the hotel, I ended up having dinner with one of the other guests from the tour, the kind of unplanned dinner companion solo travel tends to produce when you’re open to it.

The train to Fez

The next morning, someone from the front desk walked me over to the train station, with tickets already purchased online back home, one less thing to figure out on the ground. I boarded and ended up in a cabin with seven other people, all men. Just me and seven strangers for the ride to Fez, which is its own particular kind of solo-travel experience.

Fez, arriving to Riad Dar Tahri & Spa

My driver from the riad was running a little late, so I had time to actually look around the train station which was small, but well-equipped, with a few shops and a place to grab coffee. I wasn’t stranded, just briefly, pleasantly on my own in a train station in Fez.

When I finally arrived at the riad, dinner was already being prepared for me. The riad sat deep in Fes el Bali, the oldest part of the Fez Medina – founded in the 9th century and still considered one of the oldest and largest medinas in the world. Even at night, arriving through those narrow streets, that history was hard to miss. I was shown up to my room, genuinely beautiful, showered, settled in, and came back down to eat. There was only one other set of guests that evening, and they were heading out for the night. Someone from the riad asked if I wanted to join them for a walk. I turned in instead.

The next morning, my guide arrived who’d be with me for the next eight days.