Our private Meknes Volubilis Day Trip offers an immersive Moroccan experience. Some of our favourite days out from the capital are spent among Roman mosaics. Our Meknes and Volubilis day trip from Rabat is a private, full-day excursion to two of Morocco’s imperial-era treasures: the Roman city of Volubilis and the monumental gates of Meknes. From Rabat the road runs up through olive country to the hills below Moulay Idriss.
At Volubilis you walk among standing columns and floor mosaics of Orpheus and the seasons, still bright after eighteen centuries, with the stork-topped triumphal arch framing the plain. In Meknes you stand before the great Bab Mansour gate and the vast granaries Sultan Moulay Ismail built for his horses. We break for lunch in the white hill-town of Moulay Idriss on the way back.
Want the medina instead? Take our Fes day trip from Rabat.
Our private Meknes Volubilis Day Trip offers an immersive Moroccan experience. This volubilis day trip + Meknes combo covers two UNESCO sites in one efficient day.
Want to extend to imperial Fes instead? See our Fes Day Trip from Rabat.
Pickup at 8:00 AM from your Rabat hotel, airport, or train station. We drive east about two hours to Meknes, the 17th-century capital of Sultan Moulay Ismail. We start at the great Bab Mansour gate — zellige, calligraphy, and marble columns lifted from Roman Volubilis — and the broad Place el-Hedim, the square that predates Marrakech’s Jemaa el-Fna.
We visit the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail (one of the few open to non-Muslim visitors), quiet under its cedar muqarnas and zellige, and the cavernous Heri es-Souani granaries the sultan built to feed the city and stable his 12,000 horses, cooled by an underground water system.
Lunch is your own choice, and we will recommend, in Meknes or the holy white town of Moulay Idriss.
A stop at the viewpoint over Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, Morocco’s holiest town, founded in 789 AD by Idriss I, then 5 km on to Volubilis, the best-preserved Roman city in Morocco, with a licensed guide: the Triumphal Arch of Caracalla, the main street, the Capitoline temple, and the floor mosaics of Orpheus, Venus and the acrobat, still bright after eighteen centuries — best of all at golden hour among the columns. Back in Rabat by about 7:30 PM.
When you want a day among Roman mosaics, send us a message.
Our private Meknes Volubilis Day Trip offers an immersive Moroccan experience.
Our private Meknes Volubilis Day Trip offers an immersive Moroccan experience.
Route: Rabat → Meknes → Moulay Idriss Zerhoun → Volubilis → Rabat
Distance: ~165 km each way (~330 km round-trip).
