DUNES AND SOUTHERN KASBAHS
highlights:
Discover an 8-day journey from Marrakech through the High Atlas and iconic sites like Aït Ben Haddou to the Sahara.
Travel across valleys, kasbahs, and Berber villages before reaching the stunning dunes of Erg Chegaga.
Enjoy camel rides, desert camps, and breathtaking sunsets for a complete and unforgettable Moroccan adventure.
Program details
Day1
Marrakech
- Landing at Marrakech airport. Welcome and transfer to your accommodation.
- Free dinner and overnight stay in riad or hotel.
Day2
Marrakech - Col du Tizin' Tichka - Ait Ben Haddou - Skoura - Boumalne Dades.
This morning, travel along mountain roads and through the highest pass in Morocco, the Tizi n'Tichka (2260 m), to Ouarzazate on the edge of the Sahara. Visit of the Kasbah of Taourirt and cinema museum. Then, continuation to Boumalne by the road of the 1000 kasbahs.
- Dinner and overnight in Boumalne Dadès.
Day3
Boumalne Dades - Todra - Alnif - Nkob - Zagora
- Today, you will enjoy an excursion to the Dades and Todra Gorge with bizarre rock formations and well-preserved kasbahs along the way. Afterwards, continue towards Zagora passing by Alnif and Nkob and crossing wonderful pre-Saharian landscapes with Berber villages called ksars.
- Dinner and overnight in Zagora.
Day4
Zagora - Tamegroute - Mhamid - Erg Chegaga
- After breakfast, take the time to visit Zagora and its surroundings, especially the Jewish quarter of Amzerou and the palm groves. From Zagora, departure towards the desert via Tamegroute to visit its old Koranic library and its underground kasbah. Continuation then towards Mhamid, to have lunch in a kasbah.
- In the early afternoon, transfer by 4x4 from Mhamid to the camp, Once there, you have time to try sand boarding or to climb a sand dune and enjoy the most beautiful sunset in the world.
- Dinner and overnight in tents in Chegaga.
Day5
Erg Chegaga
- After breakfast, departure for a camel ride.
- Stop at the nomads for a tea break, then picnic lunch in the desert.
- Return to the camp in the afternoon. Dinner and overnight at the camp.
Day6
Chegaga - Foum Zguid - Taznakht - Ait Benhaddou
- Wake up early in the morning to admire the sunrise over the dunes.
- After breakfast, departure in a 4×4 vehicle on the old Paris-Dakar road that crosses the dry Lake of Iriqui. After Foum Zguid, lunch in the Berber village of Taznakht then continuation to Ait Benhaddou.
- Dinner and overnight stay.
Day7
Ait Benhaddou - Marrakech
- After breakfast, visit the kasbah of Ait Benhaddou, a World Heritage Site, its fortified village is a beautiful example of terracotta architecture.
- Return to Marrakech, arrival expected around lunchtime.
- After settling in your accommodation, possibility to make a self-exploration of the city and the medina or visit the famous Jamaa el Fna square. Dinner free and overnight stay in hotel or riad.
Day8
Departure
Transfer to Marrakech airport or extension of your stay
Essential Tips to Plan Your Holiday in Morocco - Magic Morocco Agency
-If your holiday with Magic Morocco involves trips out to the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert, where you may be staying for several days, up to a week, or longer, you will need to be prepared. Here are some useful items that we recommend you pack before you leave on your trip of a lifetime to Morocco.
- A sleeping bag: While we provide plenty of blankets and sheets for your tented desert accommodation, it does get very cold in the Sahara on a winter’s night. Bring along your own sleeping bag, so that you’ll be snug as a bug under the spectacular, if chilly, Moroccan night skies, studded with a galaxy of shimmering stars. This is only really required on trekking over several nights or on the Sufi Retreat.
- A turban or scarf: This is an essential item when heading out on Morocco desert tours, as the simple garment will protect your face and hair from the harsh sun, as well as any sand that gets whipped up by the wind. If you’ve arrived for your holiday in Morocco and find you don’t have a turban — known locally as a “shesh” — or scarf, don’t worry. You can easily buy a “shesh” at a local shop or bazaar.
- Warm clothing: You’ll need to bring some warm clothes when you embark on a Morocco desert tour. Although temperatures are high in the Sahara during the day, they plummet at night, due to a lack of cloud to keep the heat in. While you might think you don’t need to pack heavy clothing for a trip to hot Morocco, you will need it when you’re out in the desert in the evenings in early spring, late autumn, and the winter.
- High-factor sunscreen to combat the strong sun.
- Good quality sunglasses that can filter out the sun’s harmful rays and protect your eyes.
- Solid footwear, such as good trainers, for all the walking you will be doing. Trainers are ideal footwear, whilst walking barefoot in the dunes can also be practical.
- Plenty of bottles of water for the car, but we provide enough bottled water for each person in the desert.
- You might also like to pack a torch and a Swiss army knife, and above all you should make sure that you bring lots of water with you on every car journey in the Sahara. We will of course provide water at the camps you’ll be staying at.
- Being well prepared for your Morocco desert tour will ensure that you have the time of your life on your desert magic tour.
In Morocco, as travellers, we are paying guests, exploring and learning about age-old traditions and fascinated by a world so different from our own. Customs and traditions based either on religion or habits passed down from generation to generation can seem strange, unusual, or odd. Listening, learning and observing, without necessarily understanding and without passing judgment, can enhance our pleasure of participating in this other existence.
As we move around and through this environment, we leave behind impressions of ourselves and our own world – we are the most important ambassadors. Let us ensure that the memories we leave are ones of warmth, generosity, openness, curiosity, modesty and respect for this different society and for the environment which others experience on a daily basis. Moroccans are very welcoming and hospitable people and it behoves us to keep faith with this.
Environmental aspects
The desert is very much alive – witness the myriads of animal tracks on your morning climb to watch the sunrise. It is also other people’s living space. With this in mind, and considering also that the dryness of the desert means that even a paper tissue rots only exceedingly slowly, please be careful to remove all litter.
Throughout Morocco it is important that we are conscious and careful of our water consumption. This is a country under constant threat of drought. We are all individually responsible for maintaining a sustainable environment wherever we are.
Of course, there are scorpions and snakes in the desert, but these rarely pose a danger and they avoid the proximity of humans. Only in summer is it advisable to keep an eye out. The reason for the guide along with you is for your own safety. Please do not venture beyond sight of the camp alone, as it is easy to lose a sense of orientation in the dunes.
