We’ve been twice, although the last time was 2010 so a lot may have changed.
getting there…depends on the bike and how much time you’ve got. Plymouth- Santander is 24hours. It’s 650 miles or so to the ferry ports in the south of Spain so add another day maybe two if you are on a little bike or simply want to avoid the motorway - which I would recommend. Call it three days there three days back. Near enough a week. So if you’ve only two weeks off work it doesn’t leave much time in morocco. Plus the Plymouth/Santander ferries don’t always sail in a way you can do nice neat weeks. Main alternative seems to be courier bike to Malaga or somewhere then fly yourself in, pick up bike and head straight to the ferry.
when to go? Both times we went in October for 4weeks. Temps in Morocco were mid-20s most of the time. Cooler up high obvs but still nice, we had a few days where it would have topped at 30+. Again tolerable. Evenings drop off quickly and we did have some very chilly nights. Not frost but not far off it. Spain was very cold coming back though (well below zero at night and first thing), as was our 350mile M5/m6 slog home. That time of year it’s dark early in the evening and the daytime doesn’t get going until later too.
camping vs hotels. First time I took camping stuff but didn’t use it. Campsites I saw were grim - small Rocky walled-off patches of ground with very basic facilities, even for Morocco and I never found anywhere where I felt like a wild camp was possible. Hotels back then were dead cheap anyway. I don’t really remember the details but £15-£30 was about as much as I spent. They’ll be more expensive now. I used a rough guide and what info I could garner from Tim Cullis’s forum on Ukgser. Booking.com hadn’t been invented then but is probably useful now. We only stayed in a couple of iffy places - noisy, not v clean, dodgy electric etc. most places we stayed were clean, hospitable, and obliging with a small basic menu. They seem to like parking your bike inside the lobby for some reason.
for us big cities are not really an attraction so although we did have a few nights in Marrakech the best bits imho are the spectacular desert and mountain smaller towns with jaw dropping scenery between them. Criss-cross the atlas on Tizi-n-test, tizi-n-tchjika passes, go to erfoud, ouazzazette, and any number of other desert towns and you won’t go far wrong.
150-200+ miles a day is easy on tarmac. If you go on pistes I would think 50-100 would be plenty. I tried an off road loop on my own in 2007 on my Transalp. Allegedly an east loop of 100 miles or so near Midelt. Cirque de Jaffna iirc. I turned back after about 20miles for three reasons: the piste was a lot harder than I’d anticipated with the bike’s sump regularly dragging; after 20miles it was past noon and there was no way I’d get back to a town in daylight, and I’d just ridden down a steep valley side to a dry river to be faced with a near vertical 10’ drop to the river bed, massive rocks in the bed and a similar climb out. It looked some 4x4s had been playing and completely screwed the track. I’m sure I’d have found a way round but suspected there lots more of the same to come so backed out. A lighter more dirt focused bike and some company would be needed really.
I would say take three weeks off work, go March/April or October. If you want off road go with a group or hire a suitable bike when you get there. Have a great trip.
