Marrakesh-Safi

The practical argument for this region is that it removes the need to move. Almost everything in it is a day trip from a single base in Marrakech: the Atlas foothills and the valleys behind them, the ski plateau in winter, the waterfalls on the region's northern edge, and the coast. That is unusual in Morocco, where most itineraries are strung along long roads, and it makes the region the right answer for a first trip, a short trip, or anyone travelling with people who do not want to repack every night. The corollary is that the three climates are genuinely different on the same day, so a week here needs layers rather than a single kind of clothing.

North of the well-known port town the coast road runs up past cliffs, small fishing settlements and long empty beaches to Safi, which is one of the more interesting places in Morocco that nobody puts on an itinerary. It is a working industrial and fishing city rather than a pretty one, and it is the country's pottery capital: the hill above the medina is a quarter of kilns and workshops turning out the green-glazed and polychrome ceramics sold all over Morocco, and you can watch the whole process from clay to kiln without anyone selling you a tour. It also has a serious reputation among surfers for a long, powerful right-hand point that works on big winter swell and is emphatically not a beginner's wave. Safi rewards a half day and an open mind; it does not reward arriving expecting charm.

The southern boundary of the region is the High Atlas, and the practical fact worth knowing at regional level is how close it is: the foothill valleys begin roughly an hour from Marrakech and the main trailhead village is not much further. That proximity is why the mountains function as a day trip here when in most countries they would be a separate journey, and why a great many visitors see snow and the desert plain in the same week. The valleys hold Amazigh villages, terraced fields and walnut groves, and in winter there is skiing on the plateau above them. Which valleys to walk, and what the summit actually asks of a fit person who has never been high, is set out in the High Atlas guide. The point at regional level is simply that all of it is within reach of the same bed.

Between Marrakech and the coast the land flattens into dry agricultural plain, and the towns along the road — market centres, phosphate country further north, argan groves as you approach the sea — are ordinary working Morocco with no tourism apparatus at all. Most visitors cross it in three hours and remember nothing. It is worth one deliberate stop if you have your own vehicle, because a roadside market town on a market day is the most straightforward way to see the country doing something other than receiving visitors. The argan belt begins on the western half of this drive, and the women's cooperatives along it are working businesses rather than exhibits.

Marrakech is the transport hub: the southern end of the national railway, the main airport for the region, and the departure point for the coaches and shared taxis that reach everywhere else in it. There is no railway to the coast or into the mountains, so every journey within the region is by road. Coaches run frequently to the coastal towns and are comfortable; shared long-distance taxis cover the shorter hops and the mountain valleys; and a hire car makes sense only if you intend to explore the plains, the smaller coastal settlements or the mountain roads on your own schedule. In the city itself a car is a liability rather than an asset.

The region's three climates peak at different times, which is the single most useful seasonal fact about it. Spring and autumn are ideal everywhere at once and are consequently the busiest. High summer is severe on the plain — the city becomes genuinely difficult in the middle of the day — while the coast stays mild and fills with Moroccan families escaping exactly that, so a summer trip here should be weighted west. Winter is the region's underrated season: the city is pleasant by day and cold at night, the mountains hold snow, the light is at its best, and the coast is empty. The mountain roads and the plateau are the only things winter takes away.