3 Day Tour from Marrakech to Fes

Your 3 day tour from Marrakech to Fes begins with a journey south through the High Atlas Mountains. We leave Marrakech in the morning, and within an hour the city gives way to the stone valleys and climbing switchbacks of the Tizi n’Tichka Pass, at 2,260 metres the highest paved road in Morocco. The views from the summit stretch across the plateau in both directions. Take your time here before the road drops south toward the pre-Saharan plains.

Our first major stop is Ait Ben Haddou, the UNESCO-listed ksar whose earthen towers rise from a ridge above the Ounila River. Recognised by UNESCO in 1987, this fortified village of stacked mud-brick kasbahs has appeared in dozens of films including Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia. We give you a full 90 minutes to climb through its levels and take in the valley below from the granary at the top. It is the kind of place that photographs cannot quite prepare you for.

We continue to Ouarzazate where, if you are interested, a short visit to the Atlas Film Studios offers a look at the production infrastructure behind some of Hollywood’s most recognisable desert scenes. From there we follow the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs east, passing through the Skoura palm grove and the Rose Valley before arriving in the Dades Valley in the early evening. Dinner and overnight at your hotel in the gorge.

After breakfast, we set off east through the gorge before the day gets busy. The Dades Valley in the morning light is one of the most dramatic sections of road in Morocco, with the canyon walls rising sharply on either side and the river running below. An hour east we reach the Todra Gorge, where the limestone walls press to within 10 metres of each other and rise 300 metres above the canyon floor. We walk the narrow section at the base, a short but unforgettable stretch where the scale of the rock formations is impossible to ignore.

Beyond Tinghir the landscape changes completely. The road flattens out across open desert, the horizon turns to ochre, and eventually the unmistakable orange mass of Erg Chebbi comes into view. We arrive at the camp in the afternoon with enough time to settle in before the camel trek.

At sunset we head into the dunes on camelback, a 45-minute ride each way at the unhurried pace the Sahara encourages. Dinner is served in the open air at the camp, followed by Gnawa music around the fire. The sky above Erg Chebbi is completely clear of light pollution. It is the kind of night that makes the early start feel entirely worth it.

You can wake early to catch the sunrise from the dunes before the day heats up, then head back to the camp for breakfast. The drive north begins immediately after and it is a long one, so an early start matters.

Our first stop is the Ziz Valley viewpoint, where the road rises above a vast corridor of date palms and old ksour stretching as far as you can see in both directions. We stop in Midelt for lunch, a market town in the Middle Atlas where the food is honest and the pace is slow. After lunch we continue into the cedar forest above Azrou, home to a colony of Barbary macaques that move freely through the trees and around visitors. It is a good stretch to walk and get out of the vehicle after a long morning.

From Azrou we drive to Ifrane, Morocco’s alpine town with its European-style chalets and unusually clean streets, a legacy of the French protectorate era. One last stop before the final descent into Fes. We arrive in the late afternoon and drop you at your riad or at the nearest accessible point to your accommodation. Have your riad address written in Arabic before you arrive. The streets inside Fes el-Bali are not well-served by navigation apps.