Marrakech → High Atlas → Aït Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate → Dades Valley
Your driver picks you up in Marrakech in the morning, and soon the city is behind you. The road climbs into the High Atlas through walnut trees, red earth villages and long mountain bends. At the Tizi n'Tichka pass you are 2,260 metres high, and the view goes far across the mountains. On the other side, the land becomes dry and wide, and you reach Aït Ben Haddou, the clay ksar listed by UNESCO. Walk across the river and climb up to the old granary at the top.
After lunch, you pass Ouarzazate, the door to the desert and the home of big film studios. Then the road follows the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs through the palm grove of Skoura and the Valley of Roses at Kelaat M'Gouna, where the small pink Damask roses are turned into rose water. In the late afternoon you arrive in the Dades Valley, with its red cliffs and green fields. Dinner is a warm tagine at your hotel.
Key stops
Tizi n'Tichka · Aït Ben Haddou · Ouarzazate · Skoura · Valley of Roses · Dades
Stay
Boutique hotel or riad in the Dades Valley
Dades Valley → Tinghir → Todra Gorge → Erfoud → Merzouga
After breakfast you drive to Tinghir, a long green oasis full of date palms and old mud villages. A few minutes later the valley closes and you walk into Todra Gorge. The rock walls rise about 300 metres on both sides, and a clear stream runs over the stones at your feet. Climbers hang on the cliffs, and local women wash wool in the water. It is a cool, quiet place before the heat of the desert.
In the afternoon the land opens into the black stony hamada. You pass Erfoud, the town of dates and fossils, and then you see them on the horizon: the orange dunes of Erg Chebbi. In Merzouga your camels are waiting. You ride for about an hour and a half into the sand, while the dunes change from gold to orange to pink. At the camp, the team welcomes you with mint tea, a big dinner and Berber drums under the stars.
Key stops
Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Erfoud · camel trek · Erg Chebbi
Stay
Desert camp in Erg Chebbi
Merzouga → Rissani → N'Kob → Draa Valley → Ouarzazate
Watch the sunrise from the top of a dune, then ride back to Merzouga for breakfast. Today you take the quiet southern road. You pass Rissani with its busy market, then Alnif, a village famous for trilobite fossils, and N'Kob, a village of more than forty kasbahs on the edge of the Saghro mountains. The road is calm and wide, with black mountains on one side and sand on the other.
In the afternoon you reach the Draa Valley near Agdz, a long green river of date palms, and then climb the Tizi n'Tinififft pass to Ouarzazate. If there is time, visit Kasbah Taourirt, the old house of the Glaoui family, with painted ceilings and small windows over the town. You sleep in Ouarzazate tonight, with a slower and easier day before Marrakech.
Key stops
Rissani · Alnif · N'Kob kasbahs · Draa Valley · Kasbah Taourirt
Stay
Riad or hotel in Ouarzazate
Ouarzazate → Aït Ben Haddou → Telouet → High Atlas → Marrakech
Today you take the old caravan road. First you visit Aït Ben Haddou in the soft morning light, before the big buses arrive. Then the road follows the Ounila Valley north, through green terraces, red hills and small Berber villages. This was the main route between the Sahara and Marrakech long before the modern road was built.
In Telouet you visit the kasbah of the Glaoui, the family that ruled the south of Morocco in the early 20th century. From outside it looks like a ruin, but inside there are rooms covered with carved cedar, painted ceilings and bright zellige tiles. Then you join the Tizi n'Tichka road, cross the High Atlas and arrive in Marrakech in the afternoon.
Key stops
Aït Ben Haddou · Ounila Valley · Telouet Kasbah · Tizi n'Tichka
Stay
Tour ends in Marrakech
