4-Day Fes to Marrakech Desert Tour

After breakfast, the first stop is Khamlia, a small village settled generations ago by families who arrived along the old trans-Saharan trade routes. A few households here still play Gnawa music in the evenings, built around iron castanets and a deep, three-stringed lute called a guembri.

Next is Dayet Srji, a seasonal salt lake west of Merzouga. It's often dry in summer, but after enough rain it fills up and draws flamingos and other migratory birds, so whether you see any water at all really depends on the season. From there the tour continues to Rissani, once the capital of the Tafilalt region and the birthplace of the ruling Alaouite dynasty. Its souk sells less to tourists than the ones in Fes or Marrakech, which makes it a decent spot for dates, silver, or spices at closer to local prices.

Late afternoon is when the Erg Chebbi camel ride starts. Camels are led out toward the tallest dunes in the erg, some of which rise past 150 meters, on a ride that takes about ninety minutes and is timed to reach camp as the sun goes down. Camps range in comfort. Some have private tents with proper beds and an attached bathroom, others are more basic with shared facilities, so it's worth checking which setup comes with your booking. Dinner is usually served around a fire, with camp staff playing drums afterward.

Most groups get up before dawn to watch the sunrise from the dunes, then head back to Merzouga for breakfast and to collect the rest of the group's luggage. From there the road runs north toward Tinghir and Todra Gorge, where limestone walls climb up to 300 meters on either side of a narrow river channel. It's a popular stop for rock climbers, and even a short walk into the gorge gives a sense of the scale.

Past Tinghir the road follows the Dades valley, sometimes called the road of a thousand kasbahs for the sheer number of old fortified villages built into the hillsides. The rock formations here are known locally as monkey fingers, an eroded pattern in the cliff face that's hard to miss once it's pointed out. The night is spent at a kasbah or riad in the Dades area, with most places offering a terrace looking over the valley.

The last day starts with a stop in Kelaat M'Gouna, the center of Morocco's rose oil industry and host to a rose festival each May when the harvest comes in. From there the road continues to Ouarzazate, known locally as Ouallywood because of the film studios on its outskirts that have hosted productions from Gladiator to Game of Thrones. Kasbah Taourirt, once the seat of the Glaoui family who controlled the region for much of the 20th century, is usually the stop here.

About half an hour further is Ait Ben Haddou, a fortified ksar on the old caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987. Its clay towers are the reason it keeps showing up in films shot in Morocco. After that, the road climbs the Tizi n'Tichka pass, the highest paved mountain pass in the Atlas at just over 2,260 meters, before dropping down into Marrakech. Most tours end at your riad or hotel, leaving enough daylight to walk over to Jemaa el-Fna before dinner.