5 Days Desert Tour from Marrakech
5 Days desert tour from Marrakech to the Sahara desert. Join us on an unforgettable Morocco Desert Tours with Berber natives and experience the desert in a way you’ve never seen before.
5 days desert tour from Marrakech Details
| Period | Departure | Return | Tour Type |
|---|---|---|---|
5 Days/4 Nights |
Marrakech |
Fes |
Private |
5 days tour from Marrakech Overview
A 5 days desert tour from Marrakech to Fes via the Sahara desert is an excellent and relaxing way to travel between the two imperial capitals (Marrakech and Fes).
In these 5 day desert tour from Marrakech, you will explore and visit a variety of stunning locations and viewpoints: the high Atlas Mountains, the Valley of Ounila in Telouet, the Ait Benhaddou Kasbah, Ouarzazate, the Valley of Roses, the Todra valley, the Todra gorges, and the Ziz valley; and, of course, we will not miss the magical Sahara desert of Erg-Chebbi dunes, the Middle Atlas Mountains, The Cedar Forest, and Ifrane City come to an end in Fes.
5 days Morocco desert tour Highlights
- Crossing through the High Atlas Mountains and the Tizi N’Tichka pass.
- Spend time in Ait Ben Haddou’s Casbah and discover the Berber village.
- Promenade along the Todra oasis’s stream to the beautiful gorges.
- Taking a camel ride across the dunes.
- Enjoy the sights of Erg Chebbi and its magnificent sunset from the back of your camel.
- Spend the night in the Merzouga desert camp after enjoying a Berber meal under the stars.
- Have a walk around the traditional souk (large market) of Rissani.
- observe barbary apes in the Midel Atlas’s cedar forest
- Discover Ifran (Moroccan Switzerland).
- Visit Fes.
Includes
- Pick up and drop off at your accommodation.
- AC private fueled transportation (4WD vehicle, van, minibus).
- Driver Guide
- 3 Overnight in a Riad.
- Overnight in a desert camp
- Camel trekking activity
- 4 Breakfasts, 4 Dinners
Excludes
- Lunches and Drinks
- Momument Fees if needed
- Tips
5 days tour from Marrakech to Merzouga Itinerary
Day 1: Marrakech - High Atlas - Ait Ben Haddou - Ouarzazate - Dades Valley
After picking you up from your hotel in Marrakesh at 8 am, you will drive to the High Atlas or Sof Moroccan Atlas Mountains. You will pass through the Tizi N’Tichka port, where you can take pictures of the small Berber villages that blend into the landscape. You will also see panoramic views and take pictures of these villages.
When we get to the ksar (fortified village) of Ait Ben Haddou, we’ll see the famous Kasbah. Then we’ll go south and visit the famous Kasbah (declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986). It has been used in many favorite movies, like Gladiator, Obelix, The Mummy, The Jewel of the Nile, Sahara with Penélope Cruz, and a lot more. Free lunchtime in town. Then we move on to Ouarzazate, which means “noiseless or without confusion” in the Berber language.
Here, we’ll see the Taourirt kasbah, one of Morocco’s most beautiful ksars. The next place to go is the Rose Valley, a beautiful place to see more than 700,000 palm trees and a lot of kasbahs in the area. In this Valley, damascene roses are grown for rosewater, which is very valuable. The Rose Festival is held here every year in May, and it is a significant museum for Moroccan history. Finally, we arrive in the Dades valley, where we will rest for the night.
Day 2: Dades Valley - Todra Gorges - Merzouga
After breakfast, we’ll have one of the most spectacular views of the Dades Valley from a strategic lookout in the mountains, where we’ll be able to admire a large number of kasbahs and the picturesque features of each one. From Tinerhir, an excellent asphalt road travels up the valley to the gorge and then to the desert.
We’ll make a few stops along the road and eventually arrive at the Todra Gorges. The scenery is breathtaking. The area is populated by locals, who can be seen in their adobe villages. These gorges are popular with rock climbers because they have rock walls with a lot of different shapes.
After a short walk through the Todra Gorges, you’ll have some time to have lunch in Tinejdad or Touroug. Then, we’ll keep going through the desert until we reach the spectacular dunes of Merzouga. Camel rides will take us one hour to our nomad camp in the middle of a sea of dunes. We’ll stay there until the sun comes up again tomorrow morning (Erg Chebbi). Before dinner, we’ll watch the sunset from the top of a dune and then sleep beneath a starry sky in a tent.
Day 3 :Expedition of the Desert
After breakfast, we will begin our excursion around the Erg-Chebbi dunes. We will visit several interesting places in Merzouga. We’ll stop in Khamliya village to listen to African music (Gnawa) performed by people who are originally from the south of Africa. Then we’ll continue our desert road trip to the desert behind the Erg-Chebbi dunes. We’ll visit an abandoned village to witness the functioning fossil minerals, then drive to a nomadic Berber family to learn about their lifestyle.
We’ll return to Khamliya for a delicious lunch at a nearby restaurant. We’ll take a ride to Merzouga Lake in the afternoon. If we’re lucky, we’ll find it full of water and see some birds, such as ducks and flamingos. If not, we’ll have to find it even if it’s dry because we can see camel pasture. While we’re there, we can observe and learn about local palm farms, then we will drive back ahead Riad
Day 4 : Merzouga - Ziz Valley - Middle Atlas - Midelt
After breakfast, we’ll continue to Rissani, where we’ll explore the famous, traditional, and largest market in the area, looking for locally created goods and arts and crafts. Visit Rissani on one of the following days: Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday. Souks are open on these three days, which are ideal for desert residents who wish to go shopping.
Then we’ll keep going, passing through Erfoud city and Aoufous hamlet on our route to the Ziz valley, which is located in Errachidia city.
We’ll first take a break to admire the lush green oasis filled with thousands of palm trees. After that, we’ll continue to Midelt via Errachidia and the Middle Atlas Mountains plateau, including the Tizi N’talghoumte pass (1907m). Dinner and overnight accommodations will be in a hotel in Midelt.
Day 5 : Midelt - Cedar Forest - Ifrane City - Fes
After breakfast in the hotel, we will depart Midelt and travel to Fes via the Middle Atlas, where you will be able to enjoy breathtaking mountain views. Following that, we’ll make a stop in the cedar forest, which is famous for its enormous apes. Then we go on to Ifrane, known as “the Switzerland of Morocco,” where we can rest for a while.
Following that, we will travel to Fes, Morocco’s oldest city. We will drop you off in Fes at your Riad, hotel, or airport at the end of our 5 days desert tour from Marrakech.
5 days from Marrakech to Merzouga desert Map
Tour Gallery
Marrakech desert tours 5 days Destinations
Ait-Ben-Haddou, also known as Ait Benhaddou, is a well-known fortified mud town on the outskirts of the Ouarzazate desert, about 30 kilometers away. The town sits proudly on a hill overlooking the barren landscape, and the river Asif Mellah creates a picturesque backdrop at the old town’s gates.
The town’s historic center, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1987, is especially impressive. The 17th-century fortress at the top of the hill above the fortified old town offers a spectacular view of the region!
The construction of the brown-red townhouses is regarded as unique. As a result, the old mud houses were built close together, sometimes nesting inside each other. Some historic townhouses are still in good condition and can be toured on the inside.
Ait-Ben-Haddou was also the setting for many films. Among the most well-known are Gladiator, Game of Thrones, Asterix and Obelix, Aladdin, Prince of Persia, the Mummie, The Hills Have Eyes II, Babel, Alexander, and Laurence of Arabia.
3 days desert tour from Marrakech is one of the best tour options to visit it.
The beautiful Dades Valley, close to Boumalne du Dades, with its picturesque Dades Gorge and spectacular serpentine road, is one of Morocco’s absolute highlights. A drive through this canyon, whether by car or motorcycle, is a truly unique and adventurous experience.
The color contrasts and breathtaking landscape attract visitors. The most spectacular section of the route is certainly the breathtaking Zik-Zak road, which runs almost to the canyon’s end. However, visitors from all over the world come to hike and trek.
The Dades Valley in Morocco is part of the imposing Atlas Mountains and is located in the province of Tinghir. The Dades Gorge, also known as the “Gorges du Dadès,” stretches from the oasis town of Boumalne Dadès to the north to the village of M’semrir. A green river course runs alongside it, irrigating the valley and making it lush, providing a livelihood for the many small villages.
The numerous well-preserved clay castles, known as kasbahs, that were once built by the Berbers to defend themselves against enemies are also worth seeing and an attraction.
3 days desert tour from Marrakech is one of the best tour options to visit it.
Merzouga, a small desert town in Morocco, is a real travel highlight that is included in almost every round of the Morocco trip itinerary such as 3 days desert tour from Marrakech. This is the place to go if you want to do a desert tour with camel trekking in Morocco, possibly with an overnight stay in the desert! Because the Sahara has the most stunning sand dunes in this part of the country.
Merzouga’s dunes, known as the Erg Chebbi dunes, can reach heights of 180 meters. This breathtakingly beautiful scenery is best experienced on the back of a camel. A fantastic experience that you will not easily forget.
Merzouga is a small town in southeast Morocco with a population of 500 people that relies almost entirely on tourism. The village is located directly on the edge of the desert, is quite spacious, and is entirely made up of the country’s typical clay buildings. The majority of the houses were constructed from 1980 onwards to meet the tourist demand for hotels, restaurants, and stores.
A vacation to the Merzouga desert is one of the greatest things to do in Morocco. The huge Erg Chebbi dunes, which reach up to 200 meters in height, are a fascinating landscape formed entirely by the wind. Merzouga’s ideal location on the sand dunes makes it the ideal starting point for camel rides, jeep tours, and other exciting desert excursions.
Thousands of years ago, the Draa River crossed the desert and traveled hundreds of kilometers west until it met the Atlantic. A large percentage of this river has dried up, but its course still holds one of Morocco’s most beautiful landscapes.
The Draa Valley is not only beautiful; it also has thousands of years of history, as evidenced by the ancient cave paintings and carvings discovered in the area.
Archaeologists discovered the statuette of Venus of Tan-Tan, one of the oldest prehistoric sculptures ever discovered, in the Draa Valley. Furthermore, the Draa Valley was once an important transit point on trans-Saharan caravan trading routes, as well as a center for Jewish, Arab, Berber, and Christian civilizations.
All the destinations are included in Marrakech desert tours, Fes desert tours.
Know before you go
- The cost of the 5 days desert tour from Marrakech is based on the number of people in your group and the kind of accommodation you stay in during the trip.
- A 4×4 vehicle can easily seat up to four adult guests. However, if your tour has more than five individuals, a van will be used.
- Local guides and (if applicable) entrance fees are not included. You make direct payments to suppliers for those.
- The pick-up time for your desert tour is negotiable. Between 07:30 and 08:00 AM is the best time.
- The 5 days desert tour from Marrakech can be customized to be a 5 days tour from marrakech with an additional night in Ouarzazate, a halfway between Merzouga and Marrakech.