Day by day itinerary
1. Marrakech - Tizi n'Tichka - Draa Valley - Zagora (7h drive) / Over the Atlas and Down the Draa to Zagora
Pickup at your Marrakech hotel or riad is at 07:30. The road heads southeast into the High Atlas, past Berber villages and almond groves, climbing to the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 m, and stopping for photographs where the view earns it. The afternoon is the descent into the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest oasis at more than 200 km, where date palms and fortified kasbahs stand over fields of corn, barley and henna the whole way to Zagora. You arrive late in the afternoon and check in at a hotel with ensuite rooms, air conditioning, a pool and a garden. Dinner is at the hotel and the night is spent in Zagora.
2. Zagora - M'Hamid - Off-Road - Erg Chigaga - Sunset Camel - Camp (4h drive) / M'Hamid, the Off-Road Crossing and a Sunset Ride into the Deep Sahara
After breakfast the route runs south from Zagora to M'Hamid, the point where the paved road gives out and the Sahara begins; lunch there is at your leisure and is not included. Early in the afternoon the tarmac runs out for good and the Land Cruiser works across erg, which is sand, reg, which is gravel, hammada, which is stone plateau, and the occasional oasis, until the Erg Chigaga dunes show on the horizon. Come evening you climb onto a camel for a sunset trek over the dunes and finish at the desert camp, where dinner is Moroccan and eaten under the stars, local nomads play round the fire and the sky above is thick with stars. The night is spent at the Erg Chigaga desert camp, in a private tent with shared bathrooms, dinner and breakfast included.
3. Erg Chigaga - Iriqui Lake - Foum Zguid - Taznakht - Tizi n'Tichka - Marrakech (~8h drive) / Sunrise on the Dunes, the Iriqui Salt Flat, the Anti-Atlas and Straight Back to Marrakech
An early call before dawn puts you on a camel for a sunrise ride over the Erg Chigaga dunes, and breakfast follows at camp. About 90 km of shifting desert terrain comes next, taking in the flat salt pan of Iriqui, the foothills of the Anti-Atlas and the old Paris-Dakar rally track, and Foum Zguid, the village that marks the end of the desert, arrives around midday; lunch is taken there. The afternoon runs north through Taznakht, known for its Berber carpets, and back over the High Atlas at the Tizi n'Tichka pass. You are in Marrakech by early evening, dropped at your hotel or riad. Be aware that Day 3 puts roughly eight hours behind the wheel. If you would rather come back at a gentler pace, with a night in Ouarzazate and a stop at Aït Ben Haddou, our four-day Erg Chigaga tour does exactly that.