3 Days Marrakech Desert Tour to Merzouga

Salam Alaykum! and welcome to Morocco. Your 3 Days Marrakech Desert Tour begins at 8:00 AM with pickup from your riad or hotel in Marrakech. Your English-speaking Berber guide will brief you as you leave the city and climb into the High Atlas Mountains, crossing the Tizi-N-Tichka Pass at 2,260 meters (7,415 feet), one of the highest passes in Morocco, with photo stops along the way. On the descent, visit Berber villages where you can meet local families and buy handicrafts such as argan oil, textiles and pottery.

Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, an ancient fortified village of terracotta towers and narrow clay streets, where your guide will point out scenes from well-known films. After lunch of tagine and fresh salads, continue along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs past Taourirt Kasbah in Ouarzazate and the Valley of Roses. In the evening you reach Dades Valley, where you can see the Monkey Fingers rock formations if time allows. Check into your hotel for dinner and an early night before Day 2.

After breakfast at your Dades Valley hotel, visit the Todra Gorges, where canyon walls rise up to 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the Todra River. Walk through the narrow canyon and swim if the weather and season allow. Lunch is at a local Berber restaurant in Tinghir around midday, with tagine, fresh salads and Moroccan tea. In the afternoon, drive south through the Ziz Valley Oasis, where the palm groves thin and the landscape turns from green to golden as you near the Sahara.

Arrive in Merzouga in late afternoon, where camels wait at the edge of the Erg Chebbi dunes. Ride to the top of the dunes for sunset, when the sky turns from blue to orange, red and purple, then continue to your desert camp, arriving between 7:00 and 8:00 PM to mint tea. Your Berber tent has comfortable beds, heating and hot showers. Dinner of tagine and couscous is served around the campfire, and afterward you can sleep beneath the Saharan stars.

Wake early for the sunrise from the high dunes of Erg Chebbi, then return to camp for a Moroccan breakfast of bread, jams, honey, eggs and fresh juice. Choose a 4x4 or one last camel ride back to Merzouga by midmorning.

From Merzouga, take the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest river at about 1,100 kilometers, toward Ouarzazate. Stop in Rissani to see its palace architecture and traditional doors, and pass the villages of Nqob and Tamnougalt. Lunch is at a neighborhood eatery in Ouarzazate, then head north through the High Atlas Mountains, with photo stops whenever you like, to arrive in Marrakech around 8:00 PM.