3-Day Fes to Marrakech Desert Tour

Day 1: Fes ⇢ Ifrane ⇢ Cedar Forest ⇢ Ziz Valley ⇢ Merzouga

Departure from Fes at 7:00 am. The road south climbs immediately into the Middle Atlas: Ifrane appears after forty-five minutes, the planned French Protectorate hill station at 1,665 metres where the architecture is European alpine and the river runs through the centre of the town. A brief stop for tea before continuing south through the cedar forest near Azrou, where Morocco's wild Barbary macaque population lives among the Atlas cedars. The macaques are habituated to people and a thirty-minute stop allows walking among them in the trees.

South of Azrou the landscape empties and descends: cedar gives way to juniper, juniper to scrub, scrub to the bare pre-Saharan plain. The Ziz Valley announces itself as a sudden ribbon of green -- the Ziz River cutting a deep oasis canyon through the plateau. The Legionnaire's Pass above Errachidia gives the signature view: kilometres of date palms filling the canyon floor between ochre cliff walls, the oasis stretching south toward the desert. A lunch stop in the valley before the final two-hour push to Merzouga.

Arrival at Erg Chebbi in the late afternoon. The camels depart from the dune edge and the forty-five minute ride to the desert camp puts you there as the sun drops behind the western horizon. Dinner at camp, Gnawa music at the fire, stars above the erg. Overnight at Erg Chebbi desert camp.

Day 2: Merzouga ⇢ Todra Gorge ⇢ Dades Valley

Wake before dawn for the sunrise from the dune crest above camp -- fifteen minutes on foot and the best view of the erg at first light, the silence total before the wind rises. Camel back to camp. Breakfast in the desert before departure heading west.

The road west from Merzouga crosses the pre-Saharan plain to Tinghir and the Todra Gorge, approximately two hours. The Todra River has cut a narrow fissure through the High Atlas limestone, the walls rising 300 metres on both sides of a riverbed twenty metres wide at its narrowest. Walk the gorge floor from the canyon mouth to the upper narrows and back -- thirty to forty minutes. Continue west along the N10 through the Dades Valley: the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs, earthen kasbah ruins on every spur of the Anti-Atlas, the valley floor irrigated green below the canyon walls. Arrive in the Boumalne Dades area by mid to late afternoon. Overnight in the Dades Valley.

Day 3: Dades Valley ⇢ Ouarzazate ⇢ Ait Ben Haddou ⇢ Marrakech

Departure from the Dades Valley continuing west on the N10 to Ouarzazate, approximately ninety minutes. A stop at the Taourirt Kasbah on the eastern edge of the city -- the Glaoui palace complex, one of the most intact earthen fortresses in Morocco -- before continuing west. Ait Ben Haddou is a short detour north of the main road, approximately thirty minutes from Ouarzazate. The ksar -- a UNESCO World Heritage earthen fortified village, the best-preserved example of Moroccan southern architecture -- is reached by crossing the dry Ounila riverbed. Walk the lanes from the base to the granary and watchtower at the summit for the full view of the valley. Allow sixty to seventy-five minutes.

After Ait Ben Haddou the road north climbs immediately into the High Atlas on the N9, the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 metres. The descent from the north side of the Atlas brings the Marrakech plain into view below. Arrival in Marrakech in the late afternoon or early evening. Drop-off at your Marrakech accommodation or the address of your choice. End of tour.