2 days sahara tour from ouarzazate to merzouga
2 days Sahara tour from Ouarzazate to Merzouga. Join us on an unforgettable excursion with Berber natives and experience the desert in a way you’ve never seen it before.
TOUR DETAILS
| Period | Departure | Return | Tour Type |
|---|---|---|---|
2 Days/1 Nights |
Ouarzazate |
Ouarzazate |
Private |
Overview
This 2 days Sahara tour from Ouarzazate to Merzouga Desert is one of our desert tours from Ouarzazate that allow you to experience Morocco’s southeast region. We will spend the next two days exploring the Kasbah Ameridil, which boasts panoramic views of the Todra valley and gorges. Discover the enchanted Sahara desert, which includes a camel trek and overnight camping in a desert camp. Take in the spectacular views of the Draa Valley and Anti-Atlas Mountains. The Tour concludes in Ouarzazate.
Highlights
- Promenade along the Todra oasis’s stream to the beautiful gorges.
- Spend time in Ait Ben Haddou’s Casbah and discover the Berber village.
- Taking a camel ride across the dunes.
- Spend the night in the Merzouga desert camp after enjoying a Berber meal under the stars.
- Enjoy the sights of Erg Chebbi and its magnificent sunset from the back of your camel.
includes
- PICK UP AND DROP OFF AT YOUR ACCOMMODATION.
- AC PRIVATE FUELED TRANSPORTATION (4WD VEHICLE, VAN, MINIBUS).
- A DRIVER WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH OR A DRIVER ACCOMPANIED BY AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING GUIDE.
- OVERNIGHT IN A DESERT CAMP (PRIVATE TENTS).
- MERZOUGA CAMEL TREKKING.
- BREAKFAST AND DINNER.
excludes
- LUNCHES
- DRINKS
- MONUMENT FEES
- TIPS AND GRATUITIES
Itinerary
The first day: Ouarzazate - Dades Valley - Todra Gorges - Merzouga Desert
After picking you up from your hotel in Ouarzazate, which means “noiseless or without confusion” in the Berber language, we’ll see the Taourirt kasbah, one of Morocco’s most beautiful ksars. The next place to visit is the Rose Valley, a beautiful place to see more than 700,000 palm trees and a lot of kasbahs in the area. In this valley, damascene roses are grown for rosewater, which is very valuable. The Rose Festival is held here every year in May, and it is a significant museum for Moroccan history.
Finally, when we arrive in the Dades valley, we’ll have one of the most spectacular views of the Dades Valley from a strategic lookout in the mountains, where we’ll be able to admire a large number of kasbahs and the picturesque features of each one. From Tinerhir, an excellent asphalt road travels up the valley to the gorge and then to the desert. We’ll make a few stops along the way and eventually arrive in the Todra Gorges. The scenery is breathtaking. The area is populated by locals, who can be seen in their adobe villages.
These gorges are popular with rock climbers because they have rock walls in a lot of different shapes. After a short walk through the Todra gorges, you’ll have some time to have lunch in Tinejdad or Touroug. Then, we’ll keep going through the desert until we reach the spectacular dunes of Merzouga. Camel rides will take us one hour to our nomad camp in the middle of a sea of dunes. We’ll stay there until the sun comes up again tomorrow morning (Erg Chebbi). Before dinner, we’ll watch the sunset from the top of a dune and then sleep beneath a starry sky in a tent.
the second day: Merzouga - rissani - nkob - agdez - ouarzazate
We have to get up very early in the morning to see the sunrise. If you want to see the best sunrise you’ve ever seen from the top of a nearby dune in the middle of the desert, you have to get up early. After breakfast, we rode back to Merzouga on camels or in a vehicle to go back through Ouarzazate.
Leaving towards the town of Rissani, we’ll walk around the area’s most famous traditional and largest market, looking for locally manufactured goods and arts and crafts. Later, on the way to the Draa valley, we’ll make some stops to enjoy the beautiful views of the river that gives the valley its name. It’s the longest river in Morocco, going through the whole country before reaching Mauritania. Our trip continues through the Anti Atlas, and going towards Ouarzazate, and conclude our services.
Tour Gallery
Tour Map
Destinations
Ait-Ben-Haddou, also known as Ait Benhaddou, is a well-known fortified mud town on the outskirts of Ouarzazate desert, about 30 kilometers away. The town sits proudly on a hill overlooking the barren landscape, and the river Asif Mellah creates a picturesque backdrop at the old town’s gates.
The town’s historic center, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1987, is especially impressive. The 17th-century fortress at the top of the hill above the fortified old town offers a spectacular view of the region!
The construction of the brown-red town houses is regarded as unique. As a result, the old mud houses were built close together, sometimes nesting inside each other. Some historic townhouses are still in good condition and can be toured on the inside.
Ait-Ben-Haddou was also the setting for a number of films. Among the most well-known are Gladiator, Game of Thrones, Asterix and Obelix, Aladdin, Prince of Persia, the Mummie, The Hills Have Eyes II, Babel, Alexander, and Laurence of Arabia.
The beautiful Dades Valley, close to Boumalne du Dades, with its picturesque Dades Gorge and spectacular serpentine road, is one of Morocco’s absolute highlights. A drive through this canyon, whether by car or motorcycle, is a truly unique and adventurous experience.
The color contrasts and breathtaking landscape attract visitors. The most spectacular section of the route is certainly the breathtaking Zik-Zak road, which runs almost to the canyon’s end. However, visitors from all over the world come to hike and trek.
The Dades Valley in Morocco is part of the imposing Atlas Mountains and is located in the province of Thinghir. The Dades Gorge, also known as the “Gorges du Dadès,” stretches from the oasis town of Boumalne Dadès to the north to the village of M’semrir. A green river course runs alongside it, irrigating the valley and making it lush, providing a livelihood for the many small villages.
The numerous well-preserved clay castles, known as kasbahs, that were once built by the Berbers to defend themselves against enemies are also worth seeing and an attraction.
Merzouga, a small desert town in Morocco, is a real travel highlight that is included in almost every round trip itinerary. This is the place to go if you want to do a desert tour with camel trekking in Morocco, possibly with an overnight stay in the desert! Because the Sahara has the most stunning sand dunes in this part of the country.
Merzouga’s dunes, known as the Erg Chebbi dunes, can reach heights of 180 meters. This breathtakingly beautiful scenery is best experienced on the back of a camel. A fantastic experience that you will not easily forget.
Merzouga is a small town in southeast Morocco with a population of 500 people that relies almost entirely on tourism. The village is located directly on the edge of the desert, is quite spacious, and is entirely made up of the country’s typical clay buildings. The majority of the houses were constructed from 1980 onwards to meet the tourist demand for hotels, restaurants, and stores.
A vacation to the Merzouga desert is one of the greatest things to do in Morocco. The huge Erg Chebbi dunes, which reach up to 200 meters in height, are a fascinating landscape formed entirely by the wind. Merzouga’s ideal location on the sand dunes makes it the ideal starting point for camel rides, jeep tours, and other exciting desert excursions.
Thousands of years ago, the Draa River crossed the desert and traveled hundreds of kilometers west until it met the Atlantic. A large percentage of this river has dried up, but its course still holds one of Morocco’s most beautiful landscapes.
The Draa Valley is not only beautiful; it also has thousands of years of history, as evidenced by the ancient cave paintings and carvings discovered in the area.
Archaeologists discovered the statuette of Venus of Tan-Tan, one of the oldest prehistoric sculptures ever discovered, in the Draa Valley. Furthermore, the Draa Valley was once an important transit point on trans-Saharan caravan trading routes, as well as a center for Jewish, Arab, Berber, and Christian civilizations.
Know before you go
- The cost of the tour is based on the number of people in your group and the kind of accommodation you stay in during the trip.
- The drive back from Erg Chebbi to Marrakech on the last day is somewhat lengthy. Please prepare yourselves for it.
- A 4×4 vehicle can easily seat up to four adult guests. However, if your tour has more than five individuals, a van will be used.
- Local guides and (if applicable) entrance fees are not included. You make direct payments to suppliers for those.
- The pick-up time for your desert tour is negotiable. Between 07:30 and 08:00 AM is the best time.
- The 3-day itinerary can be customized to be a 4-day Marrakech to Merzouga excursion with an additional night at Erg Chebbi, or halfway between Merzouga and Marrakech.