The Best Casablanca Desert Tour

An eight-day private tour that starts and ends in Casablanca, showing you Morocco’s historic cities, mountain landscapes and the Merzouga dunes. You travel with your own driver-guide in comfortable transport, with local guides in Fez and Marrakech.

Day 1: Casablanca – Rabat – Meknes – Fez

We pick you up at the airport or your accommodation in Casablanca – just send us your arrival details and your driver-guide will wait for you with a name sign. After visiting the Hassan II Mosque, we drive via Rabat, with the Hassan Tower and the Kasbah of the Udayas, and Meknes, with its grand Bab Mansour gate, to Fez. Overnight at Riad Dilar or similar.

Day 2: Fez

A full day exploring the old medina of Fez with a local guide. Overnight at Riad Dilar or similar.

Day 3: Fez – Ifrane – Midelt – Merzouga

We cross the Middle Atlas Mountains through the cedar forests of Ifrane – the “Switzerland of Morocco” – and Azrou, continue via Midelt and follow the Ziz Valley and its gorges towards the Sahara. Depending on travel time, we reach your hotel at the foot of the Erg Chebbi dunes before sunset.

Day 4: Merzouga – Nomads, Gnawa Music and a Night in the Dunes

At 10:00 am we set off by private 4×4 to visit nomads living behind the dunes of Erg Chebbi, drink tea in their tents and see how they live. After a short drive over the dunes we continue to the Mifis hills, where minerals are still mined, and to the village of Khamlia to hear Gnawa music, a spiritual tradition with West African roots. Lunch is a Berber pizza at a local restaurant.

After some time to relax, you ride a camel for about an hour into the dunes to the camp, with sandboarding and sunset on the way. Dinner and Berber music, then overnight in the luxury camp.

Day 5: Merzouga – Rissani – Todra Gorge – Dades Gorge

Get up for sunrise over the dunes, have breakfast at camp and ride back to Merzouga. We visit the market in Rissani (market days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and a fossil workshop in Erfoud, then drive through the palm groves of Touroug and Tinjdad to the Todra Gorge. Its high cliffs are popular with climbers, and a short walk through the gorge is the best way to enjoy it. Free time for lunch, then on to Boumalne Dades. Dinner and overnight in a Berber hotel.

Day 6: Dades Valley – Ouarzazate – Aït Ben Haddou – Marrakech

After breakfast we stop at a viewpoint over the Dades Valley and its many kasbahs, then follow the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs through the Valley of Roses and the Skoura palm grove to Ouarzazate. Here you visit the Taourirt Kasbah – once a residence of the powerful Glaoui family – and the film studios.

We continue to Aït Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, where Gladiator, The Mummy and The Jewel of the Nile were filmed. After free time for lunch we cross the Tizi n’Tichka pass and reach your riad in Marrakech around 6:00 pm. Overnight with breakfast.

Day 7: Marrakech

Explore the old medina of Marrakech with a local guide. Overnight in a traditional riad with breakfast.

Day 8: Marrakech – Casablanca

We pick you up at your accommodation and drive you to Casablanca airport or your hotel.