At 7:30 a.m. on the first day, we’ll pick you up from your hotel or riad in Marrakech and begin our journey across the High Atlas Mountains and to the Tichka pass. This road offers some of the best views in Morocco and we’ll stop along the way if you’d like to take some photos. We then leave the main road and take a side road to the Telouet Kasbah, which was once home to the Glaoui family, also known as the Lords of the Atlas. There’s a rich history that can be found here, as the fortress (kasbah) has been abandoned since the last Pasha fled the country following the departure of the French. It’s now open to the public and is a beautiful building to explore. Lunch is eaten at Ait Benhaddou. This is the most famous kasbah in Morocco and a UNESCO World Heritage site. We’ll explore its numerous orange buildings and architecture. Later on, we continue south to Agdz to where the Draa Valley starts before settling down at a final kasbah with stunning views of the Draa Valley landscape.

Dunes After breakfast, we’ll head towards the Erg Chigaga dunes via an ancient caravan road between the rivers and mountains. Along the way, we’ll pass many villages and gardens that give you a real taste of life amongst the oases. We drive first to M’hamid, the gate to the desert, then to Erg Lihoudi, where we pause for lunch and a camel ride. Later we continue to the Erg Chigaga dunes with 60 kilometres of off-road driving. This route passes different features of the desert including the erg, reg, and hammada landscapes, as well as a few oases. The desert dunes are far away from civilisation and the atmosphere and the immensity of the golden sands are truly breathtaking. We’ll relax, eat a traditional Moroccan dinner, and a get a good night’s sleep inside a nomad tent.

After breakfast, the road takes us through another 90 kilometres of desert landscape where we’ll stop at a variety of panoramic views including Lake Iriqui, where we’ll hunt for fossils. We then head toward Foum Zguid, the first village after the desert, and then to Taznakht, famous for its Berber carpets and rugs, where we will have lunch. From there we cross the High Atlas again to reach Marrakech before it gets dark.