Holiday Itinerary

• Day 1 : Marrakech    -   Tizi n Tichka (2260m)    -    Dades Valley

Pick up from your accommodation in Marrakech, and head out over the Atlas Mountains to cross the stunning Tizi n Tichka pass (2260m) through lots of Berber villages. Visit the UNESCO World Heritage of Ait Ben Hadou, and an optional visit to Atlas Film studios of Cinema in Ouarzazat. Then drive to reach our hotel in the Dades Gorges via the Skoura Oasis Palm grove, the beautiful Rose Valley and the spectacular Dades Valley.

6 hrs drive      /    1 hr walk (Ait Ben Hadou and Dades Gorges)     /   hotel    /    Meals: D

• Day 2 : Dades Valley    -   Todgha Gorges    -   Merzouga 

Breakfast at the hotel, then transfer to the town of Tinghir where we will have the chance to explore the Todgha Oasis and the famous Todgha Gorges - a massive fault dividing the High Atlas Mountains, rising up 300 meters in a narrow canyon valley with palmeries and Berber villages. Here, you can have an optional hike to discover the palmery, a green Oasis full of large date palms. Then we continue driving through many Berber villages and towns, Erfoud (a famous area for fossils, optional visit to have the chance to observe the process of cleaning and polishing the fossils and be able to see the finished products). Later on we arrive to our Auberge in Merzouga.

5 hrs drive         /      1 hr walk (Gores and Dunes)        /   Meals: B, D     /     Hotel

• Day 3 : In Merzouga Dunes

After breakfast, will go all the way round the dunes via the oasis of Merzouga, the nomadic depository, Khamlia village (Blacks’ village we’ll visit the Gnawa people, originally slaves brought from Sudan, to experience their music and lifestyle. Not far away there’s the lake of Merzouga, with its bird populations, with an optional visit to  Rissani. Once called Sijilmassa, this was the meeting place for the salt caravans, coming from Timbuktu in Mali. Here we’ll walk through the souks, selling spices, vegetables and cloths. Then to a local restaurant to have the possibility to tray a local dish called Berber Pizza. Then after that, back to our hotel to start a camel trek through the golden sand dunes to reach our camp (Berber nomad tents) with drums music in the middle of the Sahara and traditional Moroccan dinner.

2 hrs drive         /      1 hrs walk (Dunes and Souks)       /        1 hrs 30 min Camel Trek        / Meals: B, D     /     Camp

• Day 4 : Merzouga        -      Middle Atlas         -       Fes  

Early weak up, just prior to sunrise, then camel trek back to the Auberge in Merzouga, exploring the spectacular sunrise between the Dunes. After breakfast we Turn North today crossing the Middle Atlas Mountains which is the land of the fiercely independent Berbers, the Lords of the Atlas, whose traditions and ways still hold sway up here in their mountain strongholds far away from the cities below. The Berbers present us with a unique view of a way of life lost to the rest of North Africa, where music and dance, even language and religion, are far removed from their Arab neighbors. Then finally we reach the country’s cultural capital, Fes.

Camel ride (1hr 30min)    /       Meals:  B,          /      6 hrs drive         /       Hotel or Riad