Day by day itinerary
1. Marrakech - Tizi n'Tichka - Ouarzazate - Draa Valley - Zagora (7h drive)
We collect you from your Marrakech hotel or riad at 07:30. The road climbs southeast past Berber villages to Tizi n'Tichka at 2,260m, with photo stops where the viewpoints open up. Lunch is in Ouarzazate. Afterwards comes the Draa River, and beyond it the Draa Valley, the longest oasis in the country, a ribbon of date palms and fortified kasbahs with corn, barley and henna growing between them. Zagora is reached in the late afternoon. Dinner and overnight at a Zagora hotel on a half-board basis, with an ensuite room, air conditioning, a pool and a garden. A comparable Zagora riad may be used instead.
2. Zagora - Tamagroute - M'Hamid - off-road - Erg Chigaga - sunset camel trek - desert camp (4h drive)
After breakfast the route runs to Tamagroute, home to one of the oldest Quranic libraries in Morocco, where manuscripts go back to the 13th century, and to a nearby kasbah with a workshop turning out the green-glazed pottery the village is known for. On to M'Hamid, where the paved road simply stops; lunch there is at leisure. Early in the afternoon the Land Cruiser leaves the road and starts working across sand, gravel, stone plateau and the occasional oasis, until the Erg Chigaga dunes come into view. A camel takes you over the dunes at sunset. Dinner is Moroccan, eaten at the desert camp, and local nomads play around the fire afterwards. Overnight at an Erg Chigaga desert camp, dinner and breakfast included.
3. Erg Chigaga - Iriqui dry lake - Foum Zguid - Taznakht - Ouarzazate (6h drive)
Before dawn there is a camel ride out over the Erg Chigaga dunes for sunrise, then breakfast at camp. What follows is roughly 90km of changing desert: the flat pan of the Iriqui dry salt lake, then the foothills of the Anti-Atlas, tracing the old Paris-Dakar rally route, ending at Foum Zguid, the first village out of the desert and the point where tarmac resumes. Lunch is in Foum Zguid. The afternoon carries on through Taznakht, a town known for its Berber carpets and rugs, and Ouarzazate is reached late in the day. Dinner and overnight at a riad in Ouarzazate, or an alternative Ouarzazate hotel, with dinner and breakfast included.
4. Ouarzazate - Atlas Film Studios - Aït Ben Haddou - Tizi n'Tichka - Marrakech (4h drive)
After breakfast you may choose to visit Ouarzazate's Atlas Film Studios, the shooting location for Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and Game of Thrones. Then Aït Ben Haddou: you cross the river with a guide and walk up through the fortified village to see how the traditional Berber architecture was built. Lunch is nearby. The last stretch recrosses the High Atlas at the Tizi n'Tichka Pass, and Marrakech arrives at about 17:00, where you are set down at your hotel or riad.