7 days tour from Marrakech to Merzouga
7 days tour from Marrakech 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
7 Days/6 Nights |
Marrakech |
Fes |
Private |
overview
This 7 days tour from Marrakech offers culture, history, and adventure by visiting Marrakech’s old medina, historical monuments, and colorful souk (market), crossing the high Atlas highlands for spectacular views, and exploring the centuries-old mud-brick kasbahs used for the old caravan routes. You will have plenty of opportunities to admire the lush valleys full of palm trees and vegetation throughout your one week in Morocco. On this 7 days tour from Marrakech, you’ll ride a camel through the beautiful Sahara desert, stop at the desert camp in Merzouga for a memorable night, and visit the interesting places around the golden Erg Chebbi dunes, including Berber nomad families.
highlights
- Crossing through the High Atlas Mountains and the Tizi N’Tichka pass.
- Spend time in Ait Ben Haddou’s Casbah and discover the Berber village.
- Promenade along the Todra oasis’s stream to the beautiful gorges.
- Taking a camel ride across the dunes.
- Enjoy the sights of Erg Chebbi and its magnificent sunset from the back of your camel.
- Spend the night in the Merzouga desert camp after enjoying a Berber meal under the stars.
- Have a walk around the traditional souk (large market) of Rissani.
- observe barbary apes in the middle of Atlas’s cedar forest.
- Discover Ifran (Moroccan Switzerland).
- Visit Fes(“Fes El Bali-Old Fes”, Al Qaraouine University, the Tanneries, and the Attarine museum).
- Visit Meknes and Volubilis.
- Visit Rabat (Moroccan capital) and Casablanca.
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 HOTEL OR A RIAD.
- OVERNIGHT IN A DESERT CAMP (PRIVATE TENTS).
- MERZOUGA CAMEL TREKKING.
- BREAKFASTS AND DINNERS.
Excludes
- LUNCHES
- DRINKS
- MONUMENT FEES
- TIPS AND GRATUITIES
7 days tour from Marrakech itinerary
the first day: Marrakech - High Atlas - Ait Ben Haddou - Ouarzazate - Dades Valley.
After picking you up from your hotel in Marrakesh at 8 am, you will drive to the High Atlas or Sof Moroccan Atlas Mountains. You will pass through the Tizi N’Tichka port, where you can take pictures of the small Berber villages that blend into the landscape. You will also see panoramic views and take pictures of these villages. When we get to the ksar (fortified village) of Ait Ben Haddou, we’ll see the famous Kasbah. Then we’ll go south and visit the famous Kasbah (declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986).
It has been used in many favorite movies, like Gladiator, Obelix, The Mummy, The Jewel of the Nile, Sahara with Penélope Cruz, and a lot more. Free lunchtime in town. Then we move on to Ouarzazate, which means “noiseless or without confusion” in the Berber language.
Here, we’ll see the Taourirt kasbah, one of Morocco’s most beautiful ksars. The next place to go 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, we arrive in the Dades valley, where we will rest for the night.
the second day: Dades Valley - Todra Gorges - Merzouga
After breakfast, 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 road 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 with 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 thirt day: Expedition of the Desert
After breakfast, we will begin our excursion around the Erg-Chebbi dunes. We will visit several interesting places in Merzouga. We’ll stop in Khamliya village to listen to African music (Gnawa) performed by people who are originally from the south of Africa. Then we’ll continue our desert road trip to the desert behind the Erg-Chebbi dunes. We’ll visit an abandoned village to witness the functioning fossil minerals, then drive to a nomadic Berber family to learn about their lifestyle.
We’ll return to Khamliya for a delicious lunch at a nearby restaurant. We’ll take a ride to Merzouga Lake in the afternoon. If we’re lucky, we’ll find it full of water and see some birds, such as ducks and flamingos. If not, we’ll have to find it even if it’s dry because we can see camel pasture. While we’re there, we can observe and learn about local palm farms, then we will drive back ahead riad.
the fourth day: MERZOUGA DESERT - ZIZ VALLEY - CEDAR FORESTS OF AZROU - FES
After breakfast, we start our fourth day to the north, through the Tafilalet palm grove. You’ll see thousands of palm trees along the 20km of road. This leads us to the Ziz valley, where the river comes down from the high Atlas and feeds the palm grove. Here we make a stop and, from this high viewpoint, enjoy a magnificent view of the valley and the town of Aoufous. We make another stop in Midelt, just in the heart of the Atlas, where you’ll have free time for lunch and rest for a while. In the afternoon, we continue our way through the Cedar Woods.
If we are lucky, we’ll see some monkeys. The next place we’ll visit is the city of Ifrane, situated on the northwestern slope of the Middle Atlas at 1630 meters above sea level. Its broad avenues, urban development with perfect cleanliness, gardens, green areas, and architecture make this city look like a Swiss town. Ifrane feels misplaced in Morocco. That’s why it’s named Moroccan Switzerland, and if that’s not enough, it has a critical ski resort, Michlifen. At about 6 pm, we arrive at Fez, transfer to the hotel, and spend the night.
the fifth day: SIGTHSEEING OF FES
On the fifth day of a seven-day journey departing from Marrakech, following breakfast in your riad, you will be able to visit the country’s spiritual capital and oldest city. Walking through its bustling souks, epic alleyways, and historical structures, the magnificent Royal Palace gate that connects the modern and old Fes.
Following that, we’ll begin touring all of the cultural and historical landmarks, including Al Qaraouine University(one of the oldest universities in the world), the Tanneries, and the Attarine Museum.
Following lunch, you will visit the greatest place to stay in Fes (Fes El Bali), a UNESCO World Heritage site. With its lanes and legendary Moroccan monuments like Babb Boujloud (the medina’s main entrance), this is the city’s most exotic and historic region. Fes el Bali is a fantastic souk for local hand-made items in vibrant Moroccan styles, leatherwork, metalwork, etc. We’ll go out for a drink in the afternoon in the new city. Spend the night in a hotel or riad.
the sixth day: FES - VOLUBILIS - MEKNES SIGTHS - RABAT
Following breakfast at the hotel/riad, a full-day tour is scheduled. We will depart in the morning for Volubilis, a Roman relic dating from AD 24–285. Then we’ll travel to Meknes, an imperial metropolis that has existed since the earliest monarchs of Morocco’s Alawite dynasty. There we will find Babb el-majestic Mansur’s doorway, the Sahrij Souani Basin, and the lavishly decorated Moulay Ismail Mausoleum. Then we’ll eat lunch. Following that, our journey continues to Rabat, where we will spend the night in a hotel/riad.
the seventh day: RABAT SIGTHS AND CASABLANCA
After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll travel to Rabat, Morocco’s capital, to see the Hassan Tower, which was erected in the 12th century. Then we will go to the Ordain Kasbah, an 11th-century castle built in the Andalusian style with spectacular views of Salé and the Atlantic Ocean.
We’ll eat lunch before heading to Casablanca, Morocco’s economic hub. Then we’ll go to Hassan 2, the world’s second-largest mosque, notably because of its setting, right on the tip of a rocky harbor above the ocean. This is one of Moroccan architecture’s crowning achievements. Then we’ll go to Place Mohamed V, which is full of historic government buildings. Our tour will end with a drop-off at your hotel or airport.
Tour Map
Tour Gallery
- 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.