4 Days
From Marrakech
4-Day Marrakech Desert Tour to Merzouga
More time in the dunes on the classic round trip from Marrakech.
from€349 /person
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A circular route taking in both the Erg Chebbi and Draa Valley dunes.
A circular route taking in both the Erg Chebbi and Draa Valley dunes. This 4-day private journey begins in Marrakech and is designed to give you the best of the route without the rush — with hand-picked accommodation, an English-speaking driver-guide and plenty of freedom to stop wherever catches your eye.
Highlights include erg chebbi & zagora dunes, draa valley palm groves, aït ben haddou. Like every Edita itinerary it is fully flexible: we can lengthen or shorten it, upgrade your riads and desert camp, or change the start and finish cities to fit your flights.
Keep exploring: Morocco Tours from Marrakech · all 39 Morocco tours · Marrakech to Merzouga: The Complete Route
We leave Marrakech and head straight for the mountains, climbing the celebrated Tizi n'Tichka pass over the High Atlas — a thrilling road of hairpin bends, Berber villages clinging to the slopes and viewpoints across range after range. Descending the southern side, we reach the crown jewel of the journey: Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage ksar of fortified earthen towers famous from Gladiator, Game of Thrones and many more. We take time to explore its steep lanes and climb for the view. Continuing to Ouarzazate, the desert's film capital, we then turn east along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, past the Skoura oasis and its old fortresses, to the dramatic Dades Valley. We check in near the gorge, with its striking folded rock formations and famous switchback road, for the night.
Today we complete the drive from the valleys to the great dunes, through some of the south's finest scenery. We begin at the Todra Gorge, where we walk beneath sheer limestone cliffs that rise 300 metres and narrow to a few metres apart above a cold, clear river — a favourite of rock climbers and an unforgettable place to stand. Continuing through the palm oasis of Tinghir and the date-trading town of Erfoud, the landscape opens into flat, stony hammada and the first ridges of orange sand appear ahead. Reaching Merzouga in the afternoon, we pause at your kasbah before the day's highlight: as the sun lowers, we ride camels in caravan out over the crest of Erg Chebbi to a desert camp, arriving for dinner, Berber music and a night under the stars.
We connect Morocco's two great deserts today, travelling from the dunes of Erg Chebbi to those of the Draa across a remote and beautiful stretch of the pre-Sahara. First we call in at Rissani, the old caravan capital built on the ruins of Sijilmassa, to walk its covered souk and the surrounding ksour. The route then runs west through Alnif and Tazzarine, following back roads across stony hammada, dry riverbeds and scattered oasis villages beneath the dark serrated ridges of the Anti-Atlas — wonderfully wide, quiet desert country. In the afternoon we drop into the Draa Valley, a hundred kilometres of date palms and mud-brick kasbahs, and reach Zagora. As evening falls, camels carry you into the Tinfou dunes for a night at a Berber camp, with dinner and drumming under the stars.
This morning we begin the return north, following the Draa Valley back up its ribbon of palm groves and kasbahs toward the mountains. We retrace the route through Agdz, beneath the crumbling Kasbah of Tamnougalt, and on to Ouarzazate, with a chance to stop again at Ait Ben Haddou if you wish to see the great ksar in different light. From here the road climbs into the High Atlas for the crossing of the Tizi n'Tichka, the highest major pass in the country, twisting up past Berber villages, market towns and viewpoints that open onto range after range of bare mountains. We pause for lunch and photographs along the way. Descending the northern side to the Haouz plain, we arrive back in Marrakech in the afternoon, with the evening free to relax.
“The best trip we have ever taken. Our guide felt like a friend by the end, the desert camp was magical and everything ran perfectly.”
“Impeccably organised and completely private. We changed the plan twice and Edita made it effortless. The Sahara sunrise was unforgettable.”
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