Marrakech to Fes desert tour 5 days

Morning departure at 8.30 from your hotel or riad in Marrakech to cross the High Atlas Mountains. After the Tichka pass, you leave the main road and take a side road to the Telouet Kasbah, which belonged to the Lords of the Atlas, the Glaoui family, and which now stands in ruins after the last Pasha’s property was confiscated for his having plotted the King’s exile. Sadly, the entire Kasbah is presently closed due to the destruction caused by the earthquake that hit Morocco in September 2023. Nonetheless, you can still enjoy the exterior with a local guide to uncover its fascinating history. From there you continue for lunch at Ait Ben Haddou along the newly asphalted connecting road. This is the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which we visit after lunch. After visiting the Kasbah, you continue to Ouarzazate, where you visit us in the office for tea and to pay your balance.  From here you travel another short distance to Skoura to the oasis and a night’s quiet rest. From here, our route takes us through Kela’a M’gouna, the Valley of Roses, famous for its Rose Festival in May. Here we stop to see the cosmetic articles which are made locally from the valley’s abundant flowers. These products are well-known throughout Morocco and are highly valued. From here, you take an off-road route to have a better impression of the landscape. Along the way, you will stop at caves, used by whichever Berber nomads happen to pass and claim residence there. We will have a glass of tea with them before continuing to the Dades Gorge for lunch. This leaves you half a day to walk in the valley or to spend it relaxing or simply strolling by the fields and gardens, or having tea with a Berber family. You spend the night in a guest house.

Skoura Oasis has numerous ancient kasbahs, with many sadly in ruins, standing amongst the palm trees. In the morning you can visit the restored and fascinating Kasbah Amredhil and walk in the oasis with its innumerable olive and fruit trees.

After breakfast, the trip continues a short distance to Tinghir and the very different Toudgha gorges where you can take a short walk to appreciate the steep sides to the gorge and the narrow expanse of the sky above. From there, you continue to the Chebbi dunes via Tinjdad, and the Oasis of Tafilalet near Erfoud, famous for its Date Festival, and Rissani, which is the seat of the Alaouite family of the present king of Morocco. Between Tinjdad and Erfoud, you can stop to go down into the fascinating underground water channels deep below the earth, always cool and preventing the evaporation of this source of irrigation.  Lunch will be in a Berber village along the way. Im Merzouga you will take camels to reach the desert camp, where you will be welcomed with tea and biscuits.  As the sun goes down, you can walk to the summit of the nearest and highest dunes to watch the full splendour of the sunset. You have dinner and spend the night at a luxury camp with private bathroom, king-sized beds, beautiful Moroccan furnishings and lamps tastefully arranged to enhance your enjoyment of the silence and beauty of the dunes.

After breakfast, you take the camels, either riding or walking behind, as they carry everything needed to cook your lunch, which will be prepared out in the dunes by your camel man. You’ll walk about three hours in the morning, followed by another three in the afternoon returning to the bivouac for dinner and the night. Alternatively, after breakfast, you will explore the desert area more fully. First of all, you will be visit the Gnawa people in the village of Khamlia. They specialize in Gnawa music brought from sub-Saharan Africa with the slave trade. They will play some for you. Afterward, you will visit the old city of Rissani. This small town was the foundation of the Alaouite dynasty – the current ruling royal family in Morocco. It is surrounded by 360 ksars (a ksar is a fortified village with many towers) and has a large souk (an open market) held three times a week. Here you’ll walk through the souk, which sells spices, vegetables, household goods, and handicrafts. Rissani has been built on the site of Sijilmassa, which was the meeting place for the salt caravans, coming from Timbuktu in Mali. And then in the afternoon, you will mount your camel, and be led by an experienced camel man through the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi at Merzouga for an hour to an hour and a half to watch the sunset and spend the night back in your chosen luxury camp. Weather conditions and temperatures in South Morocco are rarely stable.  Should it become too hot from May through to the end of September, we may have to advise you not to attempt the trekking in the dunes but to take this alternative instead.

After breakfast, you make a departure for Rissani and possibly a visit to the local souk. In Erfoud, there will be a stop to see how the abundant locally found fossils are worked into furniture and artefacts.  They bear witness to the fascinating geological history of the area, which used to lie beneath the ocean. From here, the road leads north to Er Rachidia, a main mining town, and the Ziz Valley, remarkable for the extent of its palm trees. Lunch is in Midelt, known as “the apple capital”, in the Middle Atlas and at the foot of the Ayachi Mountain.  This town is also one of the main mining areas of Morocco. Lunch is in Midelt, 1508M, which is called “the apple capital”, in the Middle Atlas and at the foot of the Ayachi Mountain.  The town serves as the commercial agricultural center for the surrounding area and is also one of Morocco’s principal cities for the mining of several minerals, such as fluorite, vanadinite, quartz, and cerussite. You cross the Tizi-n-Talremt pass to reach Azrou on the edge of the mountains. Here you can see Barbary apes looking out for tidbits in the cedar forests. This fragrant cedar wood is used for wonderful chests of drawers and wardrobes. We reach Fes, a truly historic Imperial city in the early evening. Your driver will escort you to your riad, bringing your Marrakech to Fes desert tour 5 days to a close.