Marrakech, Morocco

Marrakech was founded in 1070 and has been disorienting travelers ever since. The medina is a maze of 3,000 alleyways where dyers hang saffron wool, metalworkers ring copper, and the call to prayer rolls over terracotta rooftops from the Koutoubia minaret. It is chaotic, aromatic, and completely addictive.

Our journeys pair the city with its two great flanks: a slow crossing of the High Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, guesthouse nights in Berber villages, and finally Erg Chebbi — dunes 150 metres high, deep orange and silent, where you ride camels at dusk and sleep in tented camps under a Saharan sky dense with stars.

Back in the city: rooftop dinners above Jemaa el-Fnaa, the cobalt blue of Jardin Majorelle, hammams and mint tea. Morocco is closer than you think and stranger than you remember.