Why not combine your laid-back beach holiday with an exciting desert adventure? If that sounds good, then set out on this 5-day desert tour from Agadir to Merzouga.
Start your desert trip from Agadir to Taroudant, called the little Marrakesh, which you will visit. Explore Taliouine, a saffron-growing area with a government-run saffron museum. Stop at Taznakht, full of co-operatives selling Berber rugs and gelims.
Visit, Hollywood’s favourite film location in Morocco, Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah, and then Ouarzazate. Travel through Skoura Oasis and tour Kasbah Amredhil. Visit the Damascene rose distillery in the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs. Explore the Dades Valley garden fields and hike the Toudgha gorges with a local guide.
Experience camel trekking in the dunes of Erg Chebbi in Merzouga. Then, admire the sunset from the summit of the dunes and enjoy the tranquillity of the Sahara. Taste dinner under the Sahara starlit sky and dance to Berber music around a fire camp.
Spend a night in a private nomad tent in a Merzouga desert camp among the big dunes. Explore Berber villages and interact with the locals to learn about life in southern Morocco. Discover the Dra’a Valley palm trees, fortified kasbahs, and green oases.
| Number of persons | 2 Persons | 3 Persons | 4 Persons | 5 Persons | 6 Persons |
| Price per person | 645 € | 615 € | 585 € | 545 € | 545 € |
| Total price | 1290 € | 1845 € | 2340 € | 2725 € | 3270 € |
Departure in the morning from your hotel at 08:30, and you venture east on your 5-day desert tour from Agadir to Merzouga. Your first destination will be Taroudant, known as “the little Marrakech”. Here you have the opportunity to visit the beautiful medina and photograph its massive ramparts.
From here, you continue to Taliouine, the heart of the saffron-growing area of Morocco, where there is a small government-operated museum dedicated to saffron agriculture, which you can visit. Following our journey over the Tizi-n-Tighatine and Tizi-n-Ikhsane mountain passes, we reach Taznakht, a small town famous for its Berber gelims and carpets. If desired, you can visit a local cooperative where you can watch women working at their looms.
After lunch, your day journey continues further east over the Anti-Atlas Mountains as far as Agdz, a oasis town well-known for the variety of its palm dates. As you start to descend the Tizi-n-Tinfifite pass (1660m), you will be amazed by the splendid views of the extensive green oases and the innumerable palm trees, all indicating the beginning of the Dra’a Valley.
You will spend the night in a beautiful guest house overlooking the Dra’a Valley.
After breakfast, you will visit Kasbah Tamnougalt, the oldest Kasbah in the Dra’a Valley which is still partially inhabited by few families. The Jewish Quarter has been crumbling since the departure of its inhabitants to Israel in 1963.
You travel further east via the Dra’a Valley’s unlimited palm trees and green oases along the ancient Caravans Road. We rejoin the paved road in Tansikht, having crossed the Dra’a River. You will stop for lunch in N’Qob, overlooking the mountains. From here, we pass through the villages of Alnif and Tazzarine, featured in the film Babel, to reach the Erg Chebbi dunes in Merzouga.
You check in to your tent at the campsite and enjoy a relaxing glass of tea and Moroccan biscuits. Then, you take a camel ride up to the summit of the Erg Chebbi dunes which stand at a remarkable 25 meters in height, offering stunning sunsets.
Back at the camp, dinner is served, followed by an evening of nomad music and drumming around a campfire. You spend the night in your tent, equipped with a private toilet & shower, king-sized beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets & carpets, lamps and beautiful Moroccan furnishings, all tastefully arranged to enhance your stay.
If you wake up early enough, you will be rewarded by a serene spectacle of the sunrise, as it gracefully bathes the dunes in an enchanting array of colours. After breakfast, experience a scenic drive through the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi.
Back on the paved road, you travel Between Tinjdad and Erfoud, where you can stop to visit the “khettarat”. This is an ingenious underground water channel system designed to minimise evaporation of the water in the desert heat. It is fascinating to climb down to experience the coolness below ground and to marvel at the ancient engineering involved.
In the Toudgha Gorges, enjoy lunch in one of the local restaurants overlooking the valley. Then, you have the opportunity to walk alongside the massive gorges, through the gardens and beyond the gorge itself, by the village and into the mountains.
From here, you travel further east as far as the Dades Valley, where you spend the night with dinner and breakfast in a beautiful guest house at the edge of the valley.
After breakfast, the itinerary continues through the beautiful Valley of the Roses as far as Kel’aa M’gouna, where tons of roses are harvested every spring from this desert oasis! Here, you can visit a local cooperative producing cosmetic articles from the valley’s abundant roses. These organic products are highly valued throughout Morocco.
From here, you travel through the road of a thousand Kasbahs as far as the Skoura Oasis, where you stop to visit the Kasbah Amredhil, which used to be featured in the old 50 dirham banknote. The kasbah has been beautifully restored and is well worth visiting; constructed entirely of adobe, an excellent building material that keeps room temperature cool in the summer and warm in the winter due to the thickness of the walls.
You will have lunch in one of the local restaurants with time to wander the Skoura Oasis and learn about the Berber way of life in this harsh but equally beautiful environment. From here, an hour’s drive takes you to Ouarzazate.
By the end of the day, you check in to your guest house, where you spend the night with dinner and breakfast.
After breakfast, you will visit the Film Studios, a movie wonderland just outside Ouarzazate, known for keeping its sets and reorganising them to offer a wide range of choices to production studios, but also for letting tourists experience the unique thrill of discovering the sets where many successful films and series have been shot, including “Gladiator”, “Prince of Persia” and “Game of Thrones.”
Driving north, you take a side road to the Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou. It is the most famous Kasbah in all of Morocco and one of the Kingdom’s nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is also better known as the backdrop for many Hollywood blockbusters, including “Gladiator,” “Alexander,” and some scenes of the famous TV series “Game of Thrones.”
From here, you travel back to Agadir on a different road for a short portion. Along the way, you will stop at panoramic viewpoints to take photos, for breaks and to stretch your legs. You will arrive in Agadir by the end of the afternoon. Your driver will transfer you to your hotel bringing your desert adventure to an end.
