4-Day Desert Tour from Marrakech to Casablanca

Your driver-guide collects you from your Marrakech hotel or riad at 07:30 AM. Within an hour the road is climbing into the High Atlas, past terraced Berber villages and almond groves. It's your vehicle, so you stop wherever the light is good. The road crests at Tizi n'Tichka (2,260 m), Morocco's highest paved pass. Over the top, the hills turn ochre and red as you drop toward the pre-Sahara.

Around 11:00 you reach Aït Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the backdrop for Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia and Game of Thrones. Cross the river and climb through the earthen kasbahs to the granary on top; a local guide can walk you through the history if you'd like one. From the summit the view runs the length of the palm-lined Ounila Valley. Allow about an hour and a half.
Lunch in Ouarzazate, the "door of the desert" (not included — budget around €8–12). Fancy a quick detour? The Taourirt Kasbah and the gates of the Atlas Film Studios are both a few minutes off the road.

Now you're on the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, heading east. First comes the Skoura oasis, a dense palm grove dotted with mud-brick kasbahs; 17th-century Kasbah Amridil is the best known. Then Kalaat M'Gouna and the Valley of Roses, where damask roses are picked each May and distilled into rose water. The roadside stalls sell it all year.

You reach Boumalne Dades in the late afternoon and turn up into the Dades Valley. The road passes the surreal Monkey Fingers rock formations on the way to your hotel in the gorge. If there's light left, your driver takes you up to the viewpoint above the famous Tissadrine switchbacks for sunset. If not, it's the first stop tomorrow. Dinner and overnight at Hotel Babylon Dades.

After breakfast, a short drive up the Dades Gorge for the switchback viewpoint, if you missed it last night. Then back down to Boumalne and east for about an hour to Tinghir, with the dark ridges of Jbel Saghro on your right. The town sits above one of the biggest palm groves in the south: some 30 km of date palms, figs and olives threaded with ksour.

A 15 km side road climbs through the palmeraie into the Todra Gorge. Here the canyon narrows to about 10 m wide beneath sheer limestone walls up to 300 m high. There's time to walk the flat riverbed, watch the climbers on the walls, and take a mint tea in the shade before heading back down.

Lunch in Tinghir or Tinejdad (not included). From here the road drops onto the stony plain toward Erfoud. Beside the road you'll spot long lines of low mounds — the wells of the ancient khettaras, underground channels that have carried water to these oases for centuries. In Erfoud, an optional stop at a fossil workshop: the desert here is famous for its trilobites and orthoceras marble.

On to Rissani, cradle of the ruling Alaouite dynasty and heir to medieval Sijilmassa, where the caravans from Timbuktu once ended their journey. A quick look at the covered souk if it's a market day, then the last 40 km to the sand.
The dunes of Erg Chebbi rise on the horizon — a sea of sand 22 km long and up to 150 m high. At Merzouga your camels are waiting. Your luggage will be taken to your camp tent. The trek into the dunes takes about an hour and is timed so you reach the crest for sunset over the Sahara.

Your luxury ensuite camp sits in a quiet corner of the erg: a private tent with real beds, quality linens, a hot shower and a proper toilet. A Moroccan dinner is served in the dining tent, followed by Berber drumming around the fire. Then the best part — a walk out onto the dunes under a sky with no light pollution at all.

Wake before first light and climb the dune behind camp to watch the sun rise over Erg Chebbi. The sand turns from grey to pink to gold in minutes. After breakfast at camp, ride your camel back across the dunes to Merzouga while the light is still soft and the sand still cool. Your driver and luggage are waiting at the edge of the erg.

North of Erfoud the road joins the Oued Ziz. For the next 80 km you follow a ribbon of date palms hemmed in by ochre cliffs — one of Morocco's great oasis valleys. The panorama above Aoufous is the classic stop, with the whole palm grove laid out below you and fortified ksour along its edge. A little further on, the Source Bleue de Meski spring makes a pleasant leg-stretch before Errachidia and lunch (not included).

Beyond Errachidia the valley narrows into the Ziz Gorges — red canyon walls above the turquoise water of the Hassan Addakhil reservoir. You pass through the Tunnel du Légionnaire, cut into the rock by the French Foreign Legion. The road then climbs through Rich and over the Tizi n'Talghomt pass (1,907 m). Ahead lies the high, open country between the two Atlas ranges, with the long wall of Jbel Ayachi on the horizon.
You arrive in Midelt in the late afternoon. It's an apple-growing town at around 1,500 m, halfway between the Sahara and the Middle Atlas — and a welcome change of air after the desert. Check in, relax, and enjoy dinner and overnight at Hotel Taddart.

An early breakfast and departure around 08:00 — earlier if your flight needs it. The road crosses the high plateau past Zaida and Timahdite: sheep country, volcanic hills and mountain lakes. Then it climbs into the cedar forests of Azrou. Stop among trees several centuries old, including the giant Cèdre Gouraud, and meet the resident Barbary macaques, Africa's only monkey north of the Sahara. Bring your camera — but please don't feed them.

Twenty minutes on is Ifrane, Morocco's "Little Switzerland". Think steep tiled roofs, flower gardens and spotless streets, laid out by the French in 1929 as a hill station. It's still a summer retreat — and a ski resort in winter. A stroll through the centre and a photo with the famous stone lion, then lunch (not included) before the long descent to the plains.

From Ifrane the road drops through El Hajeb to the imperial city of Meknes. There it joins the motorway west across the fertile Saïss plain to Rabat, then down the coast to Casablanca. If your flight time allows, ask for a short stop at Meknes's monumental Bab Mansour gate on the way through.

Arrival in Casablanca is usually between 17:00 and 18:30. Your driver drops you at Mohamed V Airport departures or at your Casablanca hotel. The end of four extraordinary days from Marrakech to Casablanca through the Sahara.Arrival in Casablanca is usually between 17:00 and 18:30. Your driver drops you at Mohamed V Airport departures or at your Casablanca hotel. The end of four extraordinary days from Marrakech to Casablanca through the Sahara.