In the morning, we start our 5-day desert tour from Marrakech to Merzouga and drive east to Ouarzazate via the Tizi N’tichka pass through the high Atlas Mountains, stopping along the way to take photos and visit the village of Ait Ben Haddou to see an ancient Kasbah, declared by UNESCO as one of the most important tourist attractions in the world. You will continue to Ouarzazate, where the largest film studios are located, or to the so-called “whooly-wood of Africa” where you can have lunch (optional). Continue through the Skoura, a vast oasis with palm groves where there is a beautiful Kasbah, Kasbah Amrhydil.
Then you continue through the Rose Valley, where the Rose Festival is held every year in May. In this town you will change direction as you take a path off the road through which you will appreciate the tranquility of the mountains inhabited by the nomads of the Atlas. On the way, keep your eyes open to see a variety of Berber villages built of mud and bricks. You will check into your accommodation at the foot of the gorges and stay overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, you will drive to a different kind of gorge, the Todra Gorges (300m high, narrowest point), an ideal place for hiking and exploring on your own. Then you will continue to the desert of Merzouga, where the unique dunes of Morocco are located. Dinner and overnight at a Riad / Hotel near the dunes.
After breakfast at the hotel, you will depart for an adventurous dune tour where you will visit a village where the descendants of sub-Saharan Berber slaves will entertain you with their authentic music. You will then have the opportunity to have tea with a nomadic family before driving to Rissani. Here you will taste a Berber pizza, a specialty of this town. You will then return to Merzouga to saddle the camels and cross the sea of dunes. After sunset, you will have the opportunity to climb the dunes and admire the bright starry sky while you fall asleep in your nomad camp among the famous dunes.
You wake up early to witness the sunrise over the dunes, then ride your camel back to the hotel for breakfast and shower. Then continue towards the giant palm of Tafilalet through the town of Rissani (the root of the Alaouite dynasty and the ancient capital of the Alaouite sultans) on to Alnif lunch at the right place. Continue through Tazarine, N’kob and Tansihkt, from here we take a secondary road that crosses the Draa valley, it would be your chance to see again the Ksours and Kasbahs, you cross again another Atlas chain which is the Anti-Atlas. Dinner and overnight at a hotel in Ouarzazate.
After breakfast and before returning to Marrakech, you will know the aspects of Ouarzazat, visit the Kasbah Taourirt. Continue to Marrakech through the Atlas Mountains as on the first day. Arrival in Marrakech and the end of the trip.
