7-Day Marrakech Tour to the Sahara Desert & Back

Arrival in Marrakech → transfer to your accommodation

Your driver will meet you at Marrakech airport and transfer you to your riad or hotel. The rest of the day is yours to settle in and get a first taste of the Red City. Overnight in Marrakech.

Accommodation: Riad Aslal or similar

Guided day in Marrakech

A licensed local guide leads a sightseeing tour of the Marrakech medina and its highlights — the Koutoubia Mosque, the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, the souks and the famous Jemaa el-Fna square, alive with musicians and storytellers. Overnight in Marrakech.

Accommodation: Riad Aslal or similar

Marrakech → High Atlas → Ait Ben Haddou → Ouarzazate → Dades

Your desert journey begins as you cross the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka pass, with stops for photos and Berber villages. You’ll explore the fortified kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, then continue to Ouarzazate and its film studios.Following the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs through Skoura and the Rose Valley, you’ll reach the Dades Valley for dinner and an overnight amid its dramatic rock formations.

Accommodation: Riad Paradise Dades or similar

Dades → Todra Gorge → Erfoud → Merzouga desert

After breakfast you’ll head into the Todra Gorge, where sheer cliffs rise above a cool river — perfect for a short walk. Continuing south through Tinjdad and the fossil town of Erfoud, you’ll reach the edge of the Erg Chebbi dunes.In the late afternoon a camel carries you over the sand to your desert camp for a sunset trek, dinner and a night under the stars in a Berber tent.

Accommodation: Tawada Desert Camp or similar

Merzouga desert — Berber families & Gnawa music

Today is devoted to the desert around Erg Chebbi. On a 4x4 tour you’ll visit nomad families, the seasonal lake, and the village of Khamlia for its hypnotic Gnawa music, seeing how life works on the edge of the Sahara.After exploring the dunes and oases, you’ll return for a second night in the desert — a sunset stroll, a tagine dinner and a sky full of stars.

Accommodation: Riad Chebbi or similar

Merzouga → Rissani → Alnif → Agdz → Ouarzazate

Leaving the dunes, you’ll visit the market town of Rissani and its historic Tafilalet palm grove, then cross the Anti-Atlas toward Alnif and the Berber towns of Tazzarine and N’kob.The scenic Draa Valley, with its endless palm groves and old kasbahs, leads you back to Ouarzazate for dinner and the night.

Accommodation: Riad Chamaa or similar

Ouarzazate → High Atlas → Marrakech

After a last look at Ouarzazate and its studios, you’ll recross the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka, with mountain viewpoints and a lunch stop, before arriving back in Marrakech — the end of your 7-day Marrakech desert tour, dropped at your accommodation.