Day by day itinerary
1. Marrakech - Tizi n'Tichka (2,260 m) - Aït Ben Haddou - Ouarzazate - Rose Valley - Dades Valley (7h drive) / The Atlas Crossing and the Road South to Dades
Collection from Marrakech hotels and riads runs between 07:15 and 07:45. The road then bears southeast and starts to climb, terraced Berber villages and almond groves on either side, with viewpoint stops before the bus tops out on the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 m, the highest paved crossing in Morocco. By midday you are down at Aït Ben Haddou, the UNESCO ksar, and the group walks it together: earthen alleyways, the hilltop granary with the Ounila Valley spread out below, and the classic shot taken from the far bank of the river. Lunch is at a nearby restaurant facing the ksar, paid by you. The afternoon runs on through Ouarzazate, crosses the Rose Valley and drops into the Dades Valley, all gorge roads, red rock towers, and those Monkey Fingers formations. You reach the hotel in the late afternoon, with a traditional Moroccan dinner to follow. Overnight in a boutique hotel in the Dades Valley, half-board.
2. Dades Valley - Todra Gorge - Tinghir - Erfoud - Merzouga (5h drive) / Gorge Country, Then Camels into the Sahara at Sunset
Breakfast first, then deeper into the Dades Gorges before the road bends towards Todra Gorge, where limestone walls climb 300 m from a flat riverbed you can walk along. Around 45 minutes is spent here. From there the route heads southeast across stony plateau, passing Erfoud and its fossil workshops for a brief stop if there is time, until Erg Chebbi itself shows on the horizon by mid-afternoon, golden dunes standing up to 150 m high. Come evening, everyone mounts up at the edge of the sand and rides out into the Sahara at Erg Chebbi as the light goes. Dinner at the camp is traditional Moroccan, eaten with the stars out, and there is Berber drumming at the fire. Overnight at a comfortable Merzouga desert camp, a private tent with a shared bathroom block, half-board. Optional upgrade to a deluxe desert camp at a supplement of 40 EUR per person, plus an optional AC supplement of 25 EUR.
3. Merzouga - Draa Valley - Ouarzazate - Tizi n'Tichka - Marrakech (10h drive) / Dawn on the Dunes, the Draa Valley and the Long Road Back
Up before first light, a wash at the camp, then back onto the camels for the ride across the dunes as the sun comes up over Erg Chebbi. Breakfast is at the camp operator's Merzouga lodge, with time at the pool if season and schedule allow, before the minibus sets off. The way home is not the way you came. It heads west along the Draa Valley, the longest river valley in Morocco, date palms and kasbahs the whole way, and there is a lunch stop en route which you pay for. Later it works back up into the High Atlas by way of the Tizi n'Tichka pass, with the afternoon light on it. This is a long day at the wheel, roughly 10 hours, broken up by regular stops. You reach Marrakech again in the early evening, dropped at your hotel or at the nearest point a car can reach if you are staying in a medina riad.