7 days from Ouarzazate to Sahara discovery desert tours

Day 1: Ouarzazate – Skoura – Rose valley – Dades Valley – Todra Gorges

Morning departure from Ouarzazate to the Dades gorges and Todra gorges, passing the oasis of Skoura where we stop to visit the kasbah of Amridil. From here, our route takes us through Kela’a M’gouna, the valley of the roses, where we stop for a tea. Later, we drive off-road along the road of a thousand kasbahs to reach the Dades gorges for lunch. In the afternoon, there is time for a walk alongside the Boumalne Dades River before continuing to the Todra gorges for the night in a hotel.

Day 2: Todra gorges – ziz valley – oasis of Tafilalet – Erfoud – Erg Chebbi dunes

After breakfast, there is time for a leisurely walk in the Todra gorges and in the Tinghir palm grove, before driving to the dunes of Merzouga via the Ziz valley and the Tafilalet valley, stopping in Erfoud on the way for lunch. Having arrived in Merzouga, in the course of the afternoon there is time to take a camel trek for an hour and ascend Erg Chebbi dunes to watch the sunset from the summit (250m). After sunset, the night will be spent in a desert camp, which is also the venue for dinner.

Day 3: Merzouga – Rissani – Alnif – Tazzarin – N’Qob – Draa Valley – Zagora

If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise, when the colour of the dunes and the play of shadows are an awesome sight. After breakfast, the return to the car is on camel back and, after that, the drive continues from Merzouga to Zagora via the villages of Rissani, Alnif, Tazzarine (now featured in the film ‘Babel’) and N’Qob where we stop for lunch. In the afternoon, the route continues to Zagora along the Dra’a valley with all its kasbahs (from time to time off-road driving allows a closer impression of life in the villages). The night is spent in a charming riad in Zagora.

Day 4: Zagora – Tamegroute – Draa River – Anti Atlas – M’Hamid – Erg Chegaga Dunes

After breakfast, you drive south to M’hamid (the end of the paved road) passing by Tamagroute where you can visit the Qoranic Library, the underground kasbah and the pottery factory. Lunch will be in M’hamid. In the afternoon departure for the dunes of Chagaga (300m) with 65km of off-road driving, this route passes different features of the desert; ‘erg’, ‘reg’, ‘hammada’, oases. The sunset from the top of Erg Chagaga dunes is spectacular and afterwards there is dinner and the night in a nomad tent at the foot of the dunes.

Day 5: Erg Chagaga – Iriqui lake – fossils – Foum Zguid – Taznakht – Taroudant

If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise. After breakfast, the road takes us from Erg Chegaga westward through another 100km of off-road driving across the stony desert, “reg” and “hammada”, and across the now dried-up bed of Lake Iriqui. In the middle of it you are likely to see a mirage; the “water” really is not there. (Only after rare heavy rain does the bed turn to mud, in which case we cannot cross.) Here you can search for fossils; some lying loosely around but most fixed firmly into the rock. At the edge of the desert at Foum Zguid, we drive north to Taznakht, famous for its Berber kilims and carpets, where we stop for lunch. After crossing the Tizi-n-Ikhsane and Tizi-n-Tighatine passes, we reach Taliouine, the heart of the saffron-growing region. The road takes us on to Taroudant, where we stop for the night in a riad.

Day 6: Taroudant – Essaouira

In the morning, there is a visit to the town known as “the little Marrakech”, spectacular for its massive ramparts and its medina. From here, you travel along the Souss river valley with all its argane groves, banana and orange plantations as far as Agadir. The road then travels north up the coast through Taghazout, a surfer’s paradise, with varying views of the sea and the coves below. On arriving in Essaouira we take you to your riad — and, unlike the shorter version of this trip, the tour does not end here: the whole of tomorrow is set aside for the town, so the evening is yours to spend on the ramparts or by the port.

Day 7: Essaouira – Marrakech

The morning is given to the medina of Essaouira, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001 and one of the most relaxed old towns in Morocco. You walk the Skala de la Ville, the sea-facing ramparts lined with their old bronze cannon, look in on the Moroccan-Portuguese Grand Mosque, and go down to the fishing port, where the blue boats land the day’s catch and the gulls make a racket over it. Then the souks inside the walls, the municipal market, and the jewellers’ and craftsmen’s quarter, where the workshops turn thuya wood — the fragrant local hardwood Essaouira is known for — into boxes and inlay, alongside stalls of clothes, argan oil and spices.

After lunch we drive inland to Marrakech, arriving in the afternoon, where your tour ends.