6-Day Private Tour: Marrakech to Chefchaouen via the Sahara

About this tour

1. 01
   Day 1 of 6

   Marrakech - Tizi n'Tichka - Aït Ben Haddou - Ouarzazate - Dades (6h drive) / High Atlas, UNESCO Aït Ben Haddou, Film Studios & Dades Valley

   Collection at around 07:30, from your Marrakech hotel, from your riad, or from the airport. The road climbs southeast into the High Atlas, past almond groves and Berber villages, up to Tizi n'Tichka at 2,260 m, with pauses at the viewpoints along the way. Coming down the far side you reach Aït Ben Haddou, where a guide leads you over the river, into the earthen alleyways, and up at last to the granary on the hilltop. Lunch is nearby afterwards. Eastward there is a brief look at the Atlas Film Studios, Ouarzazate, before the Skoura oasis and the edge of the Valley of the Roses. The Dades Valley comes in the late afternoon. You dine and sleep at a hotel there, with ensuite rooms, air conditioning and views out over the valley. Half board.

2. 02
   Day 2 of 6

   Dades - Tinghir - Todra Gorge - Rissani - Merzouga - sunset camel trek - luxury camp (5h drive) / Todra Gorge, Rissani & Your Sunset Ride into Erg Chebbi

   Breakfast, then the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, running east, brings you to Tinghir, where you walk the palm oasis with the river alongside you. The Todra Gorge follows, a narrow canyon with 300 m of limestone closing in above you on either side. Lunch is at a restaurant by the gorge entrance. Further east lies Rissani, where the Alaouite dynasty was born and where a traditional dates market still runs. Erfoud and its fossil workshops come on the way there, the landscape hardening into stone desert as you go. At Merzouga the camel caravan is waiting. It carries you up into the dunes of Erg Chebbi for sunset and sets you down at the luxury camp. Your tent is private and ensuite, with real beds, a hot shower and electricity. Dinner is Moroccan and eaten under the stars, and the drumming goes on around the campfire. Half board.

3. 03
   Day 3 of 6

   Merzouga - Ziz Valley - Midelt - Azrou - Ifrane - Fes (7h drive) / Sahara Sunrise, Ziz Valley, Cedar Forests & Arrival in Fes

   The camels go back over the Erg Chebbi dunes before dawn so that you are out on the sand for sunrise, and Moroccan breakfast follows at camp. Then north into the Ziz Valley, where date palms, fortified kasbahs and cliff walls follow the road, with halts at the panoramic points. Lunch is in Midelt, the farming town that sits between the High and Middle Atlas. The road climbs into the Middle Atlas to the cedar forests around Azrou, where Barbary macaques gather at the roadside, and passes through Ifrane, the town known as Morocco's "Little Switzerland". Fes arrives in the late afternoon, and your riad is right inside the medina. Dinner there. Half board.

4. 04
   Day 4 of 6

   Full day guided Fes medina tour / Royal Palace, Al-Qarawiyyin, Tanneries & the Artisan Souks of Fes

   Breakfast, and then a local guide from Fes takes over for the day. You begin at the Royal Palace, where the brass doors and the zellij tilework are the draw, then climb to the Borj Sud hilltop fortress for the panorama across the walled medina. Inside the medina, the largest car-free urban area anywhere, comes Al-Qarawiyyin University, founded in 859 AD and still the oldest working university on earth, then the Bou Inania Medersa, then the Chouara tanneries seen from a rooftop above the dyeing pits. Lunch is at a traditional restaurant in the medina. The afternoon goes to the artisan souks, with their metalwork, leather, ceramics, textiles and woodwork, and to Nejjarine Square, and you are back at the riad late in the day. This evening you eat where you please.

5. 05
   Day 5 of 6

   Fes - Volubilis Roman ruins - Rif Mountains - Chefchaouen (4h drive) / Volubilis UNESCO Ruins, the Rif Mountains & Arrival in the Blue City

   West out of Fes to Volubilis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved Roman ruins in Morocco, dating to the 3rd century BC. The mosaics survive whole, and on a hilltop above olive groves stand Caracalla's triumphal arch, the Capitol and the columns of the basilica. From there the road climbs northwest into the Rif Mountains, past Berber villages and terraced slopes, and lunch is taken somewhere along it. Chefchaouen, the Blue City set between two Rif peaks, is where the day ends, and you check in to a riad in the medina. The evening is yours for the blue-washed alleyways, the artisan shops, the cafes up on the rooftops. You dine at the riad. Half board.

6. 06
   Day 6 of 6

   Chefchaouen morning - tour ends (optional free Casablanca transfer) / Blue City Morning, Spanish Mosque & Optional Free Casablanca Transfer

   No driving today, just a slow morning in Chefchaouen. The walk up to the Spanish Mosque takes about 20 minutes and gives you the whole blue medina with the Rif behind it, best done in morning light. Back down in the medina there are the artisan shops with their handwoven blankets, leather goods and goat cheese, the blue doorways and stairways, and a coffee or an orange juice on Plaza Uta el-Hammam under the 15th-century kasbah. The tour finishes here in Chefchaouen, and you are free to stay on as long as you like. If you need to be in Casablanca, a complimentary transfer runs the following day, dropping you at Mohamed V Airport or at any hotel in the city.

What's included

Group rates

Frequently asked questions