Amazing Desert Tour from Marrakech to Fes 5-day

Marrakech → High Atlas → Ait Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate

Your 5-day Marrakech to Fes desert tour begins with a pickup from your Marrakech hotel. Crossing the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka pass (2,260 m), you’ll stop to see the Kasbah of the Glaoui pasha and have lunch in a local restaurant.In the afternoon you’ll reach Ait Ben Haddou along the Ounila valley and its Berber villages. After exploring the famous fortified kasbah, you’ll continue to Ouarzazate for dinner and a comfortable night in a hotel.

Accommodation: Riad Chamaa or similar

Ouarzazate → Skoura → Valley of Roses → Dades Valley

After breakfast you’ll drive to Skoura to see the beautiful Kasbah of Amredil on the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, then continue through the magnificent Valley of Roses, with an off-road stretch where you might meet a cave-dwelling nomad family. Lunch is in Kelaat M’Gouna, the rose town, before you reach Boumalne du Dades in the afternoon and drive up into the Dades gorges to see their striking rock formations. Dinner and overnight in a kasbah hotel in the valley.

Accommodation: Riad Paradise Dades or similar

Dades → Tinghir & Todra Gorge → Erfoud → Sahara Desert

You’ll leave the Dades valley after breakfast and drive to Tinghir, set above a long palm oasis, then walk into the Todra Gorge where the canyon walls rise some 300 metres on either side of a shallow river. After lunch you’ll travel through Berber villages such as Touroug and El-Jorf to Erfoud, where you’ll visit a workshop that turns local fossils into crafts. From there you’ll reach Erg Chebbi, the great Merzouga dunes, and set out on a 90-minute camel trek to your camp for dinner and a night in a traditional nomad tent.

Accommodation: Tawada Desert Camp or similar

Full day Sahara desert experience

Wake early to watch the sunrise from the top of a dune, then ride your camel back to the hotel for a relaxing shower. A 4x4 desert tour takes you to the black volcanic rocks where fossils are found, the Gnawa spiritual music of Khamlia village, and the seasonal Lake Dayet Srji, which draws pink flamingos in spring.After lunch in Merzouga or Hassi Labied, you’ll explore the canal irrigation system and stroll around the oasis. Dinner and an overnight stay in a desert auberge.

Accommodation: Riad Chebbi or similar

Merzouga → Ziz Valley → Midelt → Ifrane → Fes

After breakfast you’ll leave Merzouga and drive north through Erfoud and Aoufous, following the Ziz Valley — a green ribbon of date palms running between red cliffs, with a viewpoint over the Tafilalet oasis that is worth the stop. The road then climbs over the Tizi n’Talghemt to Midelt for lunch. In the afternoon you’ll cross the Middle Atlas through the cedar forest near Azrou, where Barbary macaques gather at the roadside, and pass Ifrane — the “Switzerland of Morocco” — before arriving in Fes, where your 5-day desert tour from Marrakech comes to an end.