3-Day Ouarzazate to Merzouga Desert Tour

Ouarzazate → Ait Ben Haddou → Skoura → Kalaat M’Gouna → Dades Gorges

We start west of town at Ait Ben Haddou, the fortified earthen village that has stood on the old salt road for centuries and appeared in Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and Game of Thrones. There is time to cross the river and climb through the ksar to the granary for the view over the valley. Turning east, we stop at Kasbah Amridil in the Skoura oasis and drive the Rose Valley at Kalaat M’Gouna before reaching the Dades in the late afternoon, in time to walk out to the monkey-finger rocks as the light goes gold.

Accommodation: Hotel or riad in the Dades Gorges or similar

Dades → Todra Gorge → Tinghir → Erfoud → Merzouga (Erg Chebbi)

A morning drive up the Dades hairpins for the viewpoint, then across to Tinghir, where a panorama looks over the palm oasis and the villages stacked along it. We walk beneath the 300-metre walls of the Todra Gorge, lunch nearby, and continue east through Erfoud to Merzouga. Late afternoon you meet the camels and trek an hour into Erg Chebbi, climbing a dune for sunset before reaching camp for dinner and drums under the stars.

Accommodation: Tawada Desert Camp or similar

Merzouga → Rissani → Alnif → Agdz → Ouarzazate

Sunrise over the dunes, breakfast, then a different road home. We head south-west through Rissani — souk, dates, the Sijilmassa ruins — and across the open country of Alnif and Tazzarine, where fossils come out of the hillsides. The route drops into the Draa Valley at Agdz beneath Jbel Kissane, following Morocco’s longest river through the palms before climbing back to Ouarzazate, where the tour ends at your hotel or the airport.