The Road of 1,000 Kasbahs – 4 day private tour Package

We’ll pick you up at 7:30 a.m. from your hotel or riad in Marrakech and begin our journey across the High Atlas Mountains. From these mountains, the views over the valleys are absolutely spectacular. You’ll see vast expanses of land, dotted here and there with traditional Berber villages going about their lives as they have done for hundreds of years.

Having crossed the pass, we’ll continue to descend until we reach Ouarzazate, where we stop for lunch at a restaurant near the old part of the city.

Later on, the road continues to the Skoura oasis, where numerous ancient kasbahs stand amongst the palm grove and olive trees. We’ll continue onwards on this route through the Valley of Roses, where we’ll stop to see and purchase items made locally from the valley’s abundant roses. We then spend the night in the Dades Gorges.

After breakfast, we go from the Dades valley to the Todgha Gorge for a short walk, before heading for the desert of Merzouga. Berber villages are scattered along the way and we pass through Tinjdad, Jorf, and Erfoud where we’ll see the beginning of the Saharan oasis of Tafilalet. We’ll then reach Merzouga to find the camels waiting to take us towards the golden dunes of the Sahara where we spend the night in a well-equipped camp with traditional drum (doumbek) music in the middle of the Sahara. This is a great opportunity to take lovely pictures of the sunset, view the clear night sky and the stars, and sleep inside a cosy nomadic tent.

We usually wake up early on this day so you can view the desert sunrise. It’s one of the most beautiful sights, with incredible colours and shadows moving over the dunes. It’s well worth the early start.

Our journey then continues to the Draa Valley via the village of Tazzarine (featured in the film Babel), and on to N’kob for lunch. In the afternoon, we’ll drive along the Draa Valley towards Agdz, passing various sleepy oases and kasbahs beside the river. The oldest, Kasbah Tamnougalt is an incredible place to explore with some amazing architecture, and parts of the castle are still inhabited to this day.

The last part of the day’s journey is across the Tizi-n-Tinififft pass to Ouarzazate, where we spend the night.

After breakfast, we head out to visit Kasbah Taourirt in the town, which belonged to the Pashas of Marrakech. Driving north, we leave the main road and take a side road to Ait Benhaddou, which also belonged to the Glaoui family who were the Lords of the Atlas. This is the most famous kasbah in Morocco, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has been the backdrop to many Hollywood blockbusters.

The journey then continues along the Ounila valley with it’s beautiful and prosperous villages, stunning mountains, and views, before we arrive at Telouet, where we stop to visit the kasbah and have lunch. We then reach Marrakech via Tichka-pass where the tour ends.