Desert, imperial cities, the blue Rif and the Atlantic: a complete journey at a relaxed pace, ending by the sea in Essaouira.
This is a private tour of 12 days · 11 nights: the vehicle, the driver and the timing are only yours, so you can stop for photos, change hotels or add a night wherever you like. Below you will find the day-by-day itinerary.
Welcome at Marrakech Menara airport and transfer to your riad in the medina. In the evening walk to Jemaa el-Fna square, full of storytellers, musicians and food stalls, and have dinner on a terrace overlooking the Koutoubia minaret.
Discover the red city with a licensed guide: the Koutoubia mosque, the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs and the Ben Youssef madrasa, then the souks of spices, lanterns and leather. The afternoon is free for the Majorelle Garden or a hammam.
Leave Marrakech in the morning and climb over the High Atlas by the Tizi n'Tichka pass. Explore the ksar of Ait Ben Haddou with a local guide, pass Ouarzazate and the Skoura oasis and follow the Valley of Roses to the Dades Gorges, where you sleep in a kasbah hotel.
Drive up the famous zigzag road of the Dades Gorges, then on to Tinghir and a walk in the narrow Todra Gorge. Through Erfoud and Rissani you reach Merzouga in the afternoon, where camels carry you over the dunes of Erg Chebbi to your camp for sunset, dinner and drums.
A whole day around the great dunes by 4x4: visit a nomad family for tea, listen to Gnawa music in the village of Khamlia, see the seasonal lake of Dayet Srji and the palm grove of Merzouga. Optional sandboarding or quad. Climb a dune for sunset and spend another night at the camp.
Sunrise on the dunes, breakfast at the camp and a drive north along the Ziz Valley, with viewpoints over its palm-filled canyon. Lunch in Midelt at the foot of the Ayachi mountains, then the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas and Ifrane before arriving in Fes in the evening.
With an official local guide, enter Fes el Bali, the largest car-free medina in the world: the Bou Inania and Attarine madrasas, the Al Quaraouiyine university, the Chouara tanneries seen from the terraces and the artisans' souks of copper, leather and pottery. Free evening.
Visit Meknes and its Bab Mansour gate, walk among the Roman mosaics of Volubilis and continue north through the Rif to Chefchaouen for the night.
A last walk in the blue medina, then the road back to the Atlantic with a stop in Rabat for lunch and the Udayas kasbah. Arrival in Casablanca in the evening.
Morning visit of the Hassan II Mosque, then the motorway south to Marrakech, about two and a half hours. Afternoon walk in the medina and Jemaa el-Fna square.
Drive west across the plains and the argan forest, with a stop at a women's cooperative, to Essaouira. Check in near the medina and walk along the Skala ramparts while the sun sets over the Atlantic.
A last morning by the ocean and the drive back east to Marrakech, watching out for the goats in the argan trees. Free evening in the red city.
All our tours can start on any day and from any hotel, riad or airport. We can add nights, change the order of the stops or choose a more comfortable category of hotels and camps.
Ask us for your price: it depends on the number of travellers, the season and the accommodation. A small deposit confirms the booking and the rest is paid in Morocco.
10 days · 9 nightsThe great loop of Morocco: Marrakech, Rabat, Chefchaouen, Fes, the Sahara and the kasbahs, starting and ending in the red city.
Discover
15 days · 14 nightsOur longest journey: the whole Atlantic coast, Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, two nights in the Sahara and the kasbah route.
Discover
8 days · 7 nightsArrive and leave from Marrakech: two days in the red city, the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs and two nights in Erg Chebbi.
DiscoverRead the reviews of travellers who have already experienced the desert with us, and if you have travelled with our team, share your experience.