Experience an exciting mix of culture and adventure on this 5-day desert tour from Marrakech to Fes. This desert exploration offers a great opportunity to cover the diversity of landscapes and the contrast of Morocco from the high Atlas Mountains to the golden dunes of the Erg Chebbi. You get to discover stunning Berber villages and ancient Kasbahs and learn about life in the oases.
Get your camera ready for scenic hikes through the rocky landscapes of Dades Valley and Toudgha Gorges. Journey back camelback like a true Saharan adventurer through the windswept dunes to your campsite. Join Saharan villagers for dinner and dance around a campfire in the desert. It is a magnificent adventure from Marrakech to Fes.
| Number of persons | 2 Persons | 3 Persons | 4 Persons | 5 Persons | 6 Persons |
| Price per person | 605 € | 585 € | 565 € | 525 € | 505 € |
| Total price | 1210 € | 2925 € | 2260 € | 2620 € | 3030 € |
Morning departure at 08:30 from your riad or hotel in Marrakech as you travel south on your 5-day desert tour from Marrakech to Fes. You drive through the high Atlas Mountains, enjoying panoramic views of stunning landscapes, beautiful Berber villages and snow-topped mountain peaks.
After the Tizi-n-Tichka pass, a side road leads to Kasbah Telouet, which used to be the palatial residence of the Lords of the Atlas, the Glaoui Family. The Kasbah now stands in ruins after the last Pasha fled Morocco following the departure of the French in 1956. But, wait to be pleasantly surprised by the architectural marvel of this historic home.
After lunch, your 5-day Marrakech to Fes desert tour continues through the lunar landscapes of the Ounila Valley, full of bends in the roads, Berber villages, and smaller Kasbahs. Almost at the end of the road, you reach the Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, which you visit after lunch. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a backdrop for many Hollywood blockbusters, including “Gladiator,” “Alexander,” and some scenes of the famous TV series “Game of Thrones.”
From here, a 45-minute drive takes you to Ouarzazate, where you spend the night with dinner and breakfast in a beautiful riad.
After breakfast, you leave Ouarzazate and follow the route of a thousand Kasbahs to Skoura Oasis. Here, you will stop to visit Kasbah Amridhil, which used to be depicted 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.
Then, you travel through the road of a thousand Kasbahs and then 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.
When arriving in the Dades Valley, you will have lunch in one of the nearby restaurants. This leaves you roughly half a day to walk in the valley, stroll by the fields and gardens, or have tea with a Berber family.
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 continue your adventure southeast. In Toudgha Gorges, there will be plenty of opportunities to walk alongside the river through the gardens or up the road on the other side of the gorges. You could have lunch here in the gorges or later in Erfoud.
Between Tinjdad and Erfoud, you will notice strange piles of sand following the road. These are the heads of the “khettarat”, the ingenious underground water channels 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 wonder at the ancient engineering involved.
In Erfoud itself, you can stop at the local workshop to see the workings of thousands of fossils made into all sorts of artefacts. There is no obligation to buy anything, but the workshops are well worth the visit! From here, we continue driving further east as far as Merzouga, where sand dunes indicate the start of the mighty Sahara Desert.
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 to the summit of the Erg Chebbi dunes (250 m). You will enjoy the sunset from the top of the dunes!
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.
After breakfast in the camp, we offer you two options to choose from for your desert adventure.
First option: Enjoy a full day of desert trekking in the Sahara Desert. Camels will carry everything needed for your trek. Either, you can ride them or walk behind them as they carry what you need for your desert trek.
You will be accompanied by camel men and nomad guides who will navigate the way through the dunes and prepare your lunch on a spot among the dunes. You will walk for about three hours in the morning and another three hours in the afternoon.
Second option: You will explore the region of Merzouga more fully. First, you will visit the Gnawa people in the village of Khamlia. They specialise in Gnawa music brought from sub-Saharan Africa with the slave trade. They will play Gnawa music for you.
Afterwards, you will visit the old town 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 will 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. Dinner is once again in the amp and followed by an evening of nomad music and drumming around a campfire.
=> Weather conditions and temperatures in the south of Morocco are rarely stable. So, should it become too hot from May through to the end of September, we might advise you not to attempt desert trekking in the dunes but to opt for the second option instead.
If you wake up early enough, you will be rewarded by a fantastic spectacle of the sunrise, when the colour dunes and the play of shadows are an incredible sight.
After breakfast, experience a scenic drive through the dunes of Erg Chebbi. Once you are back on the paved road, you travel up north to Errachidia, along the Ziz valley. It is very remarkable for its vast palm groves and the extent of its oases. Lunch will be in Midelt, nicknamed “the apple capital”, and is situated at the foot of the Ayachi Mountain.
In the afternoon, you drive over the Middle Atlas Mountains and via the Tizi-n-Talremt pass, travelling along a beautiful road bordered by green oaks and cedar trees to reach Azrou, where you can see Barbary apes looking out for tidbits.
From here, you travel across Ifrane, famous for its low temperature, yearly snowfall and alpine-style houses; no wonder it is nicknamed the Switzerland of Morocco. We reach Fes at the end of the afternoon. Finish off your 5-day Marrakech to Fes desert tour as your driver takes you to your riad or hotel in Fes.
