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I'm going (well, planning) to be in Morocco from May 30th to June 7th. Here's my plan.

May 30th: Take Tarifa - Tangier ferry (31 euros). Probably 9:00 or 11:00 a.m. departure one. Then take bus from Tangier to Fes. * (see question)

May 31st: Explore Fes.

June 1st: Take a bus to Meknes and see Moulay Idriss / Volubilis. Get back to Fes; if I can't sleep in Meknes and take bus to Fes next morning.

June 2nd: Fes. Take night bus to Rissani.

June 3rd: Rissani, get in Merouzga. (see question)

June 4th: Desert trek.

June 5th: Get from Rissani to Marrakesh (see question)

June 6th: Marrakesh

June 7th: Depart Marrakesh at 11 AM for Barcelona.

A few questions:

1. Where is the ferry station located in relation to the bus or train station? How much is a train or bus from Tangier to Fes, and how long does it take?

2. I understand the night bus arrives early morning in Rissani. Where would I put my luggage (probably just a suitcase)?

3. How do I get from Rissani to Marrakesh?

4. Is this plan "safe", in the sense I don't have to worry about making it to catch my plane back from Marrakesh? I don't have much experience with buses or trains, but I should gain some while I am in Spain (from May 13 - May 30).

5. How much would a camel trek of a day, or a day and overnight cost? Is it difficult to pair up with another traveler or group of travelers, since the idea of going on a trek alone makes me nervous and would probably cost more.

At the Tangier port you can take a small, light blue taxi to the bus station. It might be better to walk out of the port area and hail a cab on the road, they are less likely to overcharge you. The cab ride should cost between 10-15 dirhams. Make sure the cab driver has his meter turned on, usually located above the stick shift. If you get one from the port they will probably not turn the meter on and quote you 20-40 dirhams. The bus to Fez might cost around 100 dirhams. The train will be a bit more. Here's the link to see the timetable and prices of the trains, http://oncf.ma.

Getting to Volubilis is tricky. You can get a big taxi from the meknes train station to take you to Moulay Idriss, Volubilis and back for 300 dirhams. There are no buses that go out there.

On the bus from Fez to Rissani, you can put your luggage with everyone elses on the bottom of the bus. There is a separate area for big bags.

Your itinerary looks good. Be prepared for long bus rides from Fez to Rissani (minimum 7 hours) and Rissani to Marrakesh (11+ hours)

The cheapest desert trek in Merzouga costs about 300 dirhams. Be prepared to be approached by "faux guides" false guides at the Rissani bus station. To get to Merzouga you'll need to take a big taxi. They are not far from the bus station. A good place in Hasselbiad, before Merzouga, to spend the night then do the desert trek is Kasbah Mohayut. They have the best prices around, speak English, and get great reviews. Here's their link http://www.mohayut.com. You most likely would not be alone and would be with other travelers.

Hi durring my travel last april i noticed that erg chabbi is the most beautiful dunes i have ever seen . riding camels can be very uncomfortable ; it's the way how they make the stuff on camels ! after staying in essaouira coupl days went to the desert meet some guides on my way as i wanted to meet real morocans they took me to the medina and todra even i knew about this areas well my day ended in spending the night in TINRIR .next morning i asked the owner of the hotel about the road and how to ruch the sand dunes home .he provoided me with some information .in fact it was not so bad to risk to do it a lone unless you don't have your map , that day ended in merzouga area ( hassi labied town) where i asked about ASSOU ; was surprised that some guides come over my car and asked if i need a hotel...or...guide ...ect .in that time i have no chance just to contact assou as somebody gave me his number fon . and went to spend the rest of the day at his guesthous .payed 5€ per night .
even all that hassling the desert is something else and a beautiful place for such a relaxing holiday .i thowght i may be can find a family and spend a night at a local hous . about spending a night in the dunes assou told me that he do organize camel trek too so hotels ; i couldn't let this aportunity to know about real morocans ' they are berbers '. the next night i spent it at assou's camp evrything was clean and in order .and far away saw a 3camels went to spend 2night in the desert .
riding camels could be uncomfortable just in case the camelman do not use good stuff to sit on the camel . i knew that they must change that stuff one time evry 3 mounth.

sorry guys i was looking to post that in my blog .
by the way i did my travel alone and went to the desert alone (with a camel man) .i wouldn't worry about anything actualy the desert is safer the marakech ' cos you wont have anybody near you ( you will see peopl 1/2 km far from you).
i thowght about traveling by bus ::: but changed my mind and rent a car for 35$ at assou's guesthous i payed 5$ per night .
and 40$ for a camel trek ' safe and clean' camp. the reason that makes me change my plan is i was afraid to miss my flight as i booked my to tikets befor i went to morocco .

sorry about my first comment .

Thank you people (stupid azerty keyboard makes typing this hard)

So far...

Day 1 (31 May): Take Tarifa (cool town, totally worth a visit...where else can you swim in both the Atlantic and Med seas?) to Tangier ferry at 1730 IIRC. Arrive in Tangier and get hassled. Buy CTM bus ticket (train leaves later) to Meknes.

Day 2 (1 Jun): Arrive in Meknes shortly after midnight. 10 Dh cab ride to get room at Hotel Majestic (decent place...mostly clean, en suite bath, but no TV). Wake up, go to the Catholic Church for mass (happened to be a 2+ hr confirmation ceremony), wander old town. Meet a very interesting guy who wants me to ride his horse carriage and claims to be a "sporting man" who drinks wine, does not smoke. He shows me his national ID card to prove that he is really 46 (he thinks he looks much younger). Eat at Omnia Restaurant which is inside somebodys house. Set menu is 65 Dh. I choose Soupe Marocaine, beef couscous, and the obligatory tea and cookies dessert. With service and a bottle of Coke it comes to 80 Dh. Leave and wander up a flight of stairs to meet a local family, whom I converse with in broken French. They serve me tea and cookies again.

Day 3 (2 Jun): Head to Volubilis at about 1400 (very late sleeper I am). Take non CTM bus from Ave FAR station to Moulay Idriss (10 Dh). Immediately take petit taxi to Volubilis (30 or 35 Dh). (Note that taxis are lined up at the Moulay bus station) Some guides hassle me at the gate...I succumb to one for a fairly rushed 120 Dh 1 Hr tour of the site. Afterwards I do a little bit of exploring on my own, which was more enjoyable though I appreciated the insights gained from the (expensive for one person) guide. Return to Moulay, walk around, grab a small mutton brochette on bread (5 Dh). Some guide follows me around. I give him 2 euros hoping he would go or be satisfied but he wants more. Thankfully lose him and get back to bus station. Intended to take a bus but end up in shared grand taxi (10 Dh). Guide finds me right before I squish myself in the car, but we were outta there before he could extract his desired 20 Dh from me. Wander medina at night, not much fun...have a mutton tagine and coke (35 Dh) from a snak next to Cyber Bab Mansour.

Total cost for transportation to and from Volubilis: about 88 Dh. Minimum cost: 16 Dh (it is about a 30 according to a local or 45 according to my LP Morocco guide walk for Moulay - Volubilis). I strongly recommend Volubilis for any visitor to Fes or Meknes.

TOTAL

Day 4: Get up and out late again (11 am). Wander the labryinithine markets and residential streets of the medina area. Have an excellent sandwich at a local snak.

OK, looks like I never finished here....

There appears to be two Meknes - Rissani buses, one run by CTM and the other by an independent company. Both leave at rather inconvenient times; one departs from the "old" station at around 7:00 a.m., daily it seems, and the other from the new CTM station outside the Ville Nouvelle around 10 pm. Because I was too lazy to get going that early in the morning, I took the late, overnight bus, which unhappily deprived me of seeing the Moroccan countryside. According to my ticket, which I happily took a photo of, it left at 22h15 and costed 135 Dh roughly ($18.50). We arrived in Rissani at roughly 6:30 a.m., maybe a bit later, so you can count on about a 8-9 hour ride. I did not sleep a single minute of it.

I was expecting something of a busy tourist center, but Rissani was dead when we arrived, except for some "guides" who managed to take a very well-travelled friend I had met on the bus, a goofy Japanese man, and I up on their offer. They gave us a tour of the surprisingly interesting area (including a kasbah that is now home to 250 families and some ancient royal residences - I never knew a dusty city like Rissani would have so much history), sold us a rug (at a place called "Maison de Tesor"; the price I paid seemed reasonable, but was less than one-third of the original asking price), gave us tons of tea and served us Moroccan breakfast food and "berber pizza", let us nap in their outpost, shared with other guides, the "Hotel Cafe Panorama", and then brought us, via a local "chicken bus" (actually minivan) crowded with locals, to a desert auberge where we were essentially stranded. I was told there was no phone and I would basically have to stay there. The price was actually somewhat reasonable and did not seem out of range considering other places in the guidebook - the auberge (Auberge Erg Chebbi) was located at the "foothill" of the dunes and had a pool, 1/2 board (breakfast, which I was too full to eat, and dinner, which was an overly-substantial kaliyah), a decent room, and most importantly, a private WESTERN STYLE BATHROOM. The cost of this was on the order of Dh 400 ($55) for one night. I wanted to do a overnight desert excursion (starting at Dh 300; after taking us to the auberge the guide notified us that there were "different" plans, a 400, 500, 600 Dh trip), but I had no energy after the long sleepless bus ride and the hot, confusing day with the "guides".

I really wish I could have stayed at this place, or somewhere cheaper, another night, but I had to leave. To actually get to explore the dunes rather than just walk around them a tiny bit would have been great. Getting away was very expensive, considering the auberge, like others, isn't even on a road, but a "piste" (desert track). As far as I know, the only regular "service" getting out is at 6:30 am or so (or at least that's what they told me), and my (non-shared) grand taxi ride to Rissani was either 200 or 300 Dh! Despite the fact that the driver and I shared no language in common, except bad French, it was amazing we managed to have something resembling a conversation of the ride out. He seemed very thankful to reach the road from the piste, thanking God.

The ride out of Rissani was quite eventful. The day before the propietor of Cafe Panorama told me that a bus leaves for Marrakesh at 5 or 6 p.m. So after getting to the town at about 3 p.m., I found a disgusting-smelling bathroom location to switch from my woefully inappropriate athletic shorts to a pair of long pants, left my baggage with the baggage clerk (who was sleeping on the floor of the baggage area - must have been much-needed siesta in this non A/C workplace!), and bought a ticket. There was nobody at the desk, but a kid I met managed to get somebody up there or something to fill it out for me. This was with a non-CTM line, something with the name "Sahara" in it. It costed about the same as my CTM ticket from Meknes.

After (or maybe before?) that ordeal, I used my GPS to bring me back to the center from the bus station, called my mom and went on the internet, got something to drink, and walked back to the bus station. Distance is on the order of a mile, maybe less, but keep in mind the heat, and the fact that not every (non-alcoholic; I don't know if there is alcohol there, judging from the apparent religiosity of the locals) drink in Rissani is served "fresh" or cold. After making a few stupid moves and being mobbed by every kid in town for a dirham or two, I returned to the bus station.

Getting back, an older man in local dress, whose surprisingly English-speaking young son gave me some help earlier, took the confused look on my face around the snack bar as an opportunity to be hospitable and motioned for me to sit down. He gave me one of those potato snacks (don't know what they're called) and let me have some juice. How nice!

The ride out of Rissani left a lot to be desired. First, the bus was not in the best condition; there were only wires where there were once reading lights. Further, it had the worst climate control ever. It was stifling hot, hotter than outside, when we were in Rissani; and that's saying a lot. When we got into the mountains, and even when we were pulling into Marrakesh, it felt very cold. I suppose this added to the adventure of it all, though.

I met a Berber kid with a fair command of English who boarded in Er-Rachidia on his way to visit his elderly French uncle in Marrakesh. This kid was extremely hospitable and kind, bought me food without me asking and refused the water I tried to give him as a woeful form of payment, and then brought me to his (LOADED) French uncle's house in the Marrakesh suburbs where I was able to shower, use a Western toilet, watch TV, ate a five-course meal I could barely eat due to a full stomach, in addition to a huge dessert, and most importantly, take two delicious naps, one on a nice bed and the other on a couch. The ex-Parisian guy's (88 years old, with excellent Arabic and Berber skills) house was like the Alhambra on the inside, complete with the woodwork on the ceilings. Unfortunately, I had to take a cab to central Marrakesh in order to fly out the next day, and could not accompany him on a weekend visit to his family out in a different town.

I landed in some low-class hotel near the Djemaa el-Fna , directed by an insistent guide (who I didn't have the energy to get rid of), where singles went for 60 and doubles for 100. Apparently, I got a one-bed double for 100 Dh, but I didn't care. I just wanted a place to stay. The bathrooms were bad "Turkish toilet" types, so I was overjoyed to find Western toilets at the Marrakesh airport the next day. The hotel surprisingly seemed to be frequented mainly by Moroccans, though a group of Spaniards appeared at night. This contrasted to the very touristy feel of Marrakesh, absent in Meknes. The Djemaa el-Fna was full of tourists at the food stands shortly before midnight, while in Meknes it seemed that most tourists arrived in tour groups and left by nighttime, with that famous plaza (forgot the name) by the souqs being full of tourists during the hot day hours and locals at night. I managed to meet a local kid who was going to Dallas the next day to visit family while doing an obligatory fresh-squeezed orange juice stop. I also sat down with some band who put a hat on my head and let me strum the instrument and then demanded a large price for my few minutes with them. I did some looking through the shops and at least one or two shopkeepers held my hand to try to prevent me from leaving. One needs to be aggressive in Morocco and not let themselves be stomped on (perhaps that's the wrong word to use, given the generally non-malicious intent of local vendors, etc).

Flying out the next day on Clickair to Barcelona was mostly effortless. I can't remember what the taxi fare was, but the driver told me it was a set tourist fare, and it was only slightly above what LP said they should make you pay. The airport was suprisingly nice and modern, definitely making a good first impression for the many tourists who arrive in Marrakesh. Security was the highest I've seen at an airport, with me being padded down for the first time, but oddly enough the airport staff were very friendly.

* (Note that at least Auberge Erg Chebbi (and I would suspect others) has generator power which shuts off at night. I don't know if they keep the exterior lights on overnight, but in case they don't, you should probably bring a GPS if you want to walk the desert in the dark.)