7 Days Desert Loop from Marrakech: Ait Ben Haddou, Merzouga and the Draa Valley

Designed for travellers flying in and out of Marrakech. The route runs out through the kasbahs, spends two nights at the dunes rather than the usual one, and returns by the Draa Valley, so you see different country in each direction.

Day 1: Marrakech – Tizi n Tichka – Ait Ben Haddou – Ouarzazate

Over the High Atlas by the Tizi n Tichka pass, with stops at the viewpoints, then down to Ait Ben Haddou. You walk up through the fortified village to the granary at the top before continuing to Ouarzazate for the night.

Day 2: Ouarzazate – Skoura – Dades Valley

The Taourirt kasbah in the morning, then the palm grove of Skoura and the rose growing valley around Kelaat M Gouna. We turn up the Dades Valley in the afternoon, past kasbahs of red earth, and spend the night there.

Day 3: Dades – Todgha Gorges – Merzouga

The Monkey Fingers rocks and the switchbacks of the upper Dades, then across to Tinghir and the Todgha Gorges, where the road follows a cold river between three hundred metre walls. Arrival at Merzouga in the late afternoon, camel trek into Erg Chebbi for sunset, dinner and night in the camp.

Day 4: A full day in the Sahara

Sunrise over the dunes, then a day that stays in the desert rather than driving on: a 4×4 circuit of Erg Chebbi, tea with a nomad family still living under tents, the Gnaoua musicians of Khamlia, and the dry lake of Dayet Srji where flamingos stop in spring. Second night in the desert.

Day 5: Merzouga – Rissani – Draa Valley – Zagora

We leave the dunes through Rissani and its souk and cross the stone hammada westwards to Alnif and Tazzarine. In the afternoon we enter the Draa Valley, the longest palm grove in Morocco, and follow it to Zagora.

Day 6: Zagora – Agdz – Ouarzazate

Morning in the Draa: the ksour of Tamegroute with its library of old Koranic manuscripts and its green pottery kilns, then north through Agdz and over the Tizi n Tinififft pass to Ouarzazate.

Day 7: Ouarzazate – Marrakech

We recross the High Atlas by the Tizi n Tichka, stopping for walnuts and argan oil on the way down, and reach Marrakech in the afternoon, where you are dropped at your hotel or the airport.