In Fez, you will enjoy the best of Moroccan culture, as it is considered the religious and artisanal capital. But if you want to add a natural, scenic, and ethnographic component, there’s nothing better than crossing the Middle Atlas and reaching Merzouga. That is precisely what you can do with this 3-day tour from Fez to the desert, where landscapes beyond sight and people of overflowing humanity await you.
They say that a trip to the Sahara is, in reality, a journey into oneself. Its immensity, its silence, and its light will make you understand the true meaning of life. Spaces that have barely been modified by man and that are reborn at every moment with a different shape, like the fine sand dunes of Erg Chebbi. Or the cycle of the sun itself, whose setting and rising are different and renewing every day. The stars seem to shine brighter in the sky, and the vegetation is admired for its audacity and resistance to grow in such an arid environment.
A similar feeling of admiration is awakened by the people who inhabit these inhospitable corners of the Earth. For example, the Gnawa communities of sub-Saharan origin, who distill joy and passion in their rhythms and dances, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco. Or the families of nomadic tradition with whom we will live and who have decided to preserve their ancestral ways of life, exploiting the (scarce) resources offered by the desert. Undoubtedly, the most edifying experiences for those who join this unforgettable trip.
3 days in Morocco is plenty of time. Especially on a tour like this, whose itinerary will take you from Fez and back to the same city, but touring the most moving corners of the Merzouga desert, spending two nights en route. Here is the itinerary:
The starting point of this tour can be the Fez airport, but also any other place in the city, such as your accommodation or the train station. At that previously agreed place, our driver will pick you up to start the route in a comfortable private vehicle.
The charming places begin shortly after starting the route: Ifrane will be a beautiful surprise for its architecture of gabled roofs and green surroundings, so different from what you usually see in Morocco. In addition, it gives its name to the Ifrane National Park, located on the northern slope of the Middle Atlas. This park, however, is popularly called Monkey Forest due to the large population of Barbary macaques that inhabit it.
Kilometers later we will cross to the south side of the Middle Atlas and see how the environment becomes more arid, a sign that we are heading towards the desert. In this case, through the Ziz Valley, via Erfoud, a city known worldwide for the value and antiquity of its fossils.
And soon after we will arrive at the goal of the day: Merzouga. Here is our cozy hotel-kasbah that will be our home for the night, for dinner and for sleeping. Its architecture and decoration is typically Berber: humble, exotic and sustainable, all at the same time.
After breakfast at the hotel-kasbah, we will head to a nearby town: Khamlia, where a lively Gnawa community lives. Their ancestors were slaves from sub-Saharan Africa and they have managed to maintain a folklore of percussion and dance, recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A performance will make us understand the uniqueness and value of this distinctive musical manifestation of Morocco.
We will spend the rest of the day in the desert, traveling in 4×4 on tracks that once formed part of the Paris-Dakar Rally and that take us through remote corners where there were khol mines. On this route through stony hammadas we will also meet a nomadic family in the process of settling down, but adapted in an enviable way to this environment so hostile to human life. They will offer us a Berber tea and tell us about their day-to-day life, from which we have so much to learn.
And at the end of the day, the highlight: a camel ride through the dunes of Erg Chebbi, the jewel of the Merzouga desert. These are fine sand dunes whose hills are constantly changing. Inside them is our camp of jaimas, where you will have dinner and sleep, with all luxury of amenities despite its apparent inaccessibility.
The third and last day will begin very early, for a good reason: to enjoy the sunrise from the top of the Erg Chebbi dunes. From there, the view of the horizon and the celestial vault is total, without buildings or artificial lighting that tarnish this captivating phenomenon.
With the light of dawn and the vibrant colors of the sky still in our retinas, you will have breakfast at the jaimas camp, and then return by dromedary to Merzouga. There, the vehicle awaits us that will take us by road back to Fez to finish our services.
The final point will also be in a place to be agreed: airport, hotel or any other place, depending on whether you finish your trip to Morocco here or continue through this or other Moroccan cities.
This tour leaves nothing to chance and includes the basic services that make such an intense route possible. They are as follows:
You should bear in mind that this package does not include the following services, which are at the choice of each traveler:
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