Private Fez Desert Trip

Three days from Fez to the Sahara and back, at a relaxed pace. You cross the Middle Atlas, spend a night in a hotel at the foot of the Erg Chebbi dunes, explore the desert by 4×4 with nomads and Gnawa music, and spend a night in a desert camp before returning to Fez.

Day 1: Fez – Ifrane – Azrou – Midelt – Merzouga

After breakfast we leave Fez and drive through Ifrane to the cedar forests near Azrou, home to wild Barbary macaques – a great place for photos. Lunch is in the small Berber village of Zaida. We continue through the Atlas Mountains via Midelt and Rich to Erfoud, where the Tafilalet oasis and the Sahara begin, and on to Merzouga. Dinner and overnight at Hotel L’Homme du Désert or similar.

Day 2: Gnawa Music – Nomads – Night in the Dunes

After breakfast we drive to Khamlia, a village famous for Gnawa music, a spiritual tradition its families brought from West Africa. After listening (and maybe dancing), we follow part of the old Paris–Dakar rally route across the stony desert towards the old Mifis mines.

At midday we stop with a nomad family for tea and a Berber pizza lunch, and learn how people live in the desert through sandstorms and summer heat. In the afternoon you return to the hotel to relax, then ride a camel for about an hour into the dunes, with sandboarding and sunset on the way. Dinner, Berber music and overnight in the desert camp.

Day 3: Merzouga – Midelt – Ifrane – Fez

Wake early for a magnificent sunrise over the dunes, then have breakfast and a shower and ride back by camel to the hotel. We drive north through the Ziz Valley and the Middle Atlas to the cedar forests of Azrou, where you can see wild Barbary macaques, and continue via Ifrane to arrive in Fez in the early evening.