Dades Gorges, Zagora, Erg Chagaga Sahara - 5 days 4 nights

1st day : Marrakesh – Dades gorges 

We depart at 8 am. Leave Marrakesh and cross the High Atlas Mountains. After crossing the highest pass in Africa, know as the Tichka pass, we continue to descend until reaching the largest town of Ouarzazate, where we stop for lunch. After lunch, we take the road to the Skoura Oasis, there are many ancient kasbahs, some in ruins, standing along the palm trees. Then the route takes us through Kela’a M’gouna, the Valley of Roses, we will stop to see cosmetic products that are locally-made from the valley’s plentiful crop of roses. After that we stop in the Dades gorge for the night. 

 

2nd day : Dades gorges – Zagora 

Once we eat breakfast we head south through the Saghro mountain range. We eat lunch at the village of N’Qob. After that we take a route to the Dra’a Valley, we meet at Tansikht and we turn south to Zagora. The road leads to the ancient caravan route between the Dra’a River and the mountains and has a really nice view of the gardens and kasbahs in the valley. We will stop south of the town in the Zagora dunes, you can take a camel ride and in the evening we will have dinner in a bivouac of nomad tents. 

 

3rd day : Zagora – Chagaga dunes 

In the morning we head to M’hamid and Erg Lihoudi. You can take a camel ride for one and a half hours. We will have lunch in M’hamid and then we make our way across another 60km through various sites of the desert ; ‘erg’, ‘reg’, ‘hammada’, oases, to the Erg Chagaga dunes. The greatest dunes are in Morocco and are about 300m high and 35km long. You can take a camel ride to the bottom of the dunes and have a beautiful view of the setting sun before you return to the bivouac at the foot of the dunes. 

 

4th day : Chagaga dunes – Ouarzazate 

After we eat breakfast the road crosses another 90km of desert, passing Lake Iriqui and the mountains and there are fossils for anyone interested in them. The first village past the desert, Foum Zguid, is where we have lunch and we can take a shower. We travel north past hills and oases of palm trees until we come to the town of Taznakht, a Berber town that is famous for rugs and gelims. We have lunch here and then head to Ouarzazate to spend the night in a riad. 

 

5th day : Ouarzazate – Marrakesh 

After we have breakfast we leave and visit the famous Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. Hollywood has used this location as a background for some of the most memorable scenes in movies and film masterpieces, such as "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Gladiator". Then we can visit the Kasbah and eat lunch before heading to Kasbah Telouet, the palatial residence of a one-time Pasha of Marrakesh, Thami Glaoui. It is in ruins now after he fled the country and when the French departed. We then drive across the Tizi-n-Tichka pass and head back to Marrakesh in the afternoon.