3-day private desert trip from Marrakech to Merzouga

Pick up from your accommodation in Marrakech at 8 o'clock in the morning, and depart to the High Atlas, Sof Moroccan Atlas mountains, going through Tizi N'Tichka port with stops for panoramic views and taking pictures of the Berber small villages that camouflage in the landscape. Then we continue south to the ksar (fortified village) of Ait Ben Haddou where we will visit the famous Kasbah (declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986). Famous films have been shot in this spectacular stage, including Gladiator, Obelix, The Mummy, The Jewel of the Nile, Sahara with Penélope Cruz...etc. Free time for lunch in town. Then we continue to Ouarzazate also known as “The gate of the desert” that in Berber language means “noiseless or without confusion”. Here we'll see the Taourirt kasbah, one of the most spectacular ksars in Morocco. The next site to visit is the Rose Valley going through the big Skoura palm grove; a beautiful place to contemplate more than 700.000 palms and numerous kasbahs that are built in the surrounding area. In this Valley damascenes roses are raised for cosmetic use such as the valued rosewater. The Rose Festival is held here annually in May, it is an important museum for Moroccan culture. Finally we reach the Dades valley where we'll spend the night.

After breakfast, we will drive from Dades gorges to Erg chebbi Sahara desert at Merzouga. Berber villages are scattered along the way, we’ll pass through Todra Gorges, Tenhir, Tinjdad, Jorf and Erfoud in which we’ll feel the beginning of the Saharan oasis of Tafilalet, and then we continue to a Hotel in Merzouga, after relaxing a few minutes you will take some of you luggage in a small bag (just the necessary for the night in desert) and leave the other luggage in the hotel, then we will ride the camels on an adventure crossing the Erg Chebbi sand dunes, this is a great opportunity to take lovely pictures of the sunset and sunrise. When we reach the camp we will leave the camels and we will walk to the highest sand dunes for sandboarding and to watch the sunset, we will spend the night in a camp (Berber nomad tents) with drumming music in the middle of the Sahara.

We will wake you up early in the morning to watch the sunrise on the dunes, then we will ride the camels back to Merzouga, after breakfast and having a shower in the Hotel, we will start our journey backing to Marrakech trough different areas and different Berber villages (Alnif, Tazarine, N’kob) until Ouarzazate where we will take the same road back to Marrakech and arrive in the evening.