A week you will always remember, among sand dunes, adobe kasbahs, legendary monuments, and warm-hearted people. All of this fits into this tour 7-day tour from Ouarzazate to the desert and a thorough exploration of Marrakech, where you will discover the culture and nature of southern Morocco. Discover here the travel program, carefully designed so that nothing is left to chance and you take advantage of every minute, enjoying it exclusively as a couple, with family, or with friends, as you prefer.
One of the pillars of this tour of 7 days from Ouarzazate is the Sahara Desert. And we will discover it in depth in one of its most characteristic corners: the Merzouga desert, where the Erg Chebbi dunes are located. Its beauty is only comparable to the peace they bring to the traveler’s spirit, when contemplating its soft shapes and surrounding themselves with its solemn silence. But in addition, we will have time to meet the people who inhabit this inhospitable place who, for that reason alone, already deserve our admiration.
In addition to the Erg Chebbi dunes, on this tour we will discover beautiful landscapes that have barely been modified by man, such as the High Atlas Mountains and the Todra Gorges. But the history and art developed by man here for a millennium will also occupy a good part of our time. Specifically, during the Route of the Thousand Kasbahs, in which will come our way mythical Berber fortresses. And also in Marrakech, a UNESCO World Heritage city whose medina you will tour with a guide.
7 days and 6 nights is enough time to travel from Ouarzazate to the depths of the desert, and also reach Marrakech to discover it thoroughly. As means of transport, a comfortable private vehicle for road travel, as well as dromedaries and 4x4s with which to travel the confines of the Sahara. This is the route in detail:
The place chosen to start this 7-day tour is Ouarzazate. Specifically, its airport, which has direct routes with other Moroccan airports. Upon your arrival, we will be waiting for you at the terminal to carry out the transfer in a private vehicle to the hotel, where you will have dinner and rest this first night.
The program of the day will depend on the arrival times of the plane and the check-in at the hotel. After that and after receiving the basic information about the tour, you will have the rest of the day free to explore Ouarzazate. Taking into account that on the fifth day of the tour you will return to this city, you can stroll through the center or visit (if the schedule allows) the Atlas film studios, the most important in North Africa.
After a first day of acclimatization, on this second day of the tour we start our route and head towards the Sahara desert. To do this, we will take the route of the Draa Valley, which is considered the largest oasis in North Africa for its more than 100 km of palm trees along the river of the same name.
In our case, we travel a part of its green tongue, reaching charming towns such as Nkob, Tazarine or Alnif, also bordering the mountains of the Anti Atlas, the least elevated sector of this great Moroccan mountain range. The most film-loving, in addition, will recognize these landscapes for their presence in the movie Babel.
But when arriving at Rissani, the desert will already be evident. In this town, where a picturesque weekly market is held, the historic medina preserves charming corners and very characteristic constructions, made of adobe. After that, we will continue a few more kilometers to Merzouga, where we will park our vehicle to get on the backs of dromedaries.
With these noble animals we will start a walk through the dunes of Erg Chebbi, formed by soft hills of golden sand. The leader of the delegation, like an authentic Tuareg, will lead us to the Haima camp, wrapped in the lights of sunset. And upon arrival at the stores, they will receive us with the corresponding welcome tea. A bonfire, Berber music and a traditional menu will make up the moment of dinner. And a sky full of stars will give us good night.
The third day of this tour will begin soon: with the lights of dawn, or even before, because seeing the dawn break on the dunes of Erg Chebbi is a spectacle for which it is worth getting up early. After seeing how the morning lights up, breakfast will be served and we will begin the return route to Merzouga to, from there, start the route of the day that will take us to unimaginable places in the desert.
One of them is Khamlia, colloquially known as the ‘town of the blacks’, because here lives an important community of people of sub-Saharan origin, whose ancestors centuries ago were brought here as slaves. At present, they are the best guardians of a treasure: the Gnawa music, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. A live performance will serve to better understand their tribal rhythms, their typical clothing and their associated dance.
After Khamlia, we will leave the asphalt to circulate on dirt tracks, which some time ago were traveled by the cars and motorcycles of the Paris-Dakar. Today they are roads used by travelers with a thirst for adventure and by the few local people who continue to inhabit an area as inhospitable as this.
Precisely we will go to meet a local family that maintains its roots to the desert, with customs inherited from its nomadic ancestors. Discovering their way of life and spending time with its members will be an enriching experience, which will be possible thanks to the mediation of trusted people, such as our guide.
And along sandy tracks we will reach other points of interest on the route, such as disused kohl mines, abandoned Berber and French villages, or elevated viewpoints to contemplate the magnitude of the Erg Chebbi dunes. The final destination will be our hotel-kasbah in Merzouga, set as if it were a Berber fortress, but with the best amenities, such as a swimming pool and a dining room to enjoy a typical quality dinner before retiring to the rooms.
On the fourth day we return to the asphalt of the road to leave the purest desert and enter other places of interest. Our itinerary will take us to the Dades Valley which, like the nearby Draa Valley, is part of the so-called Route of the Thousand Kasbahs. Its name is eloquent, because both there and here, the adobe castles built centuries ago continue to give an evocative touch to the route.
In a detour from the Dades Valley, at the height of the picturesque town of Tinghir, we will enter another adjacent valley: that of the Todra. The interesting thing here are the sickles that this humble river has carved, creating some Gorges through which its boxed channel runs. The result is a narrow gorge that just contemplating it is already a revelation. Some even dare to climb its walls, as it is one of the most famous places for lovers of this sport.
Back to the Dades Valley, we will travel the last kilometers of the day until we reach the charming town where the riad will be. In it you will have dinner and rest, wrapped in the tranquility of this valley, away from the crowds of the big city.
Fifth day of tour and last south of the Atlas. But before leaving this immense region of desert and oasis, we will know other places of great beauty and symbolism. For example, the Valley of the Roses, so called because of the ubiquitous rose bushes planted here a century ago to become the great source of wealth for its people, who organize a moussem once a year with their flowers as protagonists.
Later we will arrive, again, at Ouarzazate. And in our brief stay in the city we will discover the kasbah of Taourirt, one of the most spectacular of all the cast of Berber fortresses. Not in vain, it was the castle and residence of the Glaoui, the dynasty that controlled the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the acquiescence of sultans and the Resident Generals of the French Protectorate.
After that, the road will begin its ascent to the port of Tizi n’Tichka, a natural pass in the High Atlas, located at more than 2,200 meters of altitude. That is why getting off and contemplating the environment is almost mandatory for those who circulate here. The descent towards Marrakech will be through somewhat more fertile valleys, dotted with Berber villages and livestock farms.
And in the afternoon we will arrive in Marrakech. We will leave you at your riad in the medina to check in. The rest of the day will be free for a first exploration of the city, which we will do more thoroughly the next day.
Marrakech is one of the most monumental cities in Morocco and its medina is full of life and history. Therefore, in this week-long tour, you could not miss a guided tour of its historic center. That is what you will do on the morning of this sixth day, by the hand of an official guide.
The walking tour will take you through the most characteristic corners, with internal visits depending on the availability of each place and the restrictions established for non-Muslim tourists. Among the milestones to know inside or outside are the Koutoubia Mosque, the Jemaa el-Fna Square, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs or the Bahia Palace. All of them harbor stories and anecdotes worth knowing, and their structure and decoration are well worth a photo.
Some places that are out of hand will be left out of the tour. But the free afternoon can be a good time to go to them: the Majorelle Garden, the Yves-Saint Laurent Museum, the Marrakech Museum and other museums of interest to culture fans. On the other hand, lovers of shopping and the popular atmosphere have a date with the bazaars of the historic center, where to buy souvenirs and traditional crafts.
At the end of the day, after these and other cultural, gastronomic or entertainment plans, you will return to the riad to spend the last night of this tour.
The seventh day is that of farewell, with a program that will depend on your return flight. What is certain is that you will have breakfast at the riad and, at the agreed time, we will pick you up with time for the private transfer to Marrakech – Menara Airport. In the terminal our services will end, which hopefully will be repeated in the future with another tour of our catalog, and thus turn the ‘goodbye’ into a ‘see you soon’.
In this week of route, you will enjoy private and personalized services so that the trip lives up to your expectations. They are as follows:
The following services are excluded from the travel package, which each traveler can book in advance and/or pay in person:
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