Desert Tour From Ouarzazate to Merzouga

Discover the famous dunes of the Sahara’s Erg Chebbi on a unique 4-day desert tour from Ouarzazate to Merzouga. This adventure showcases diverse landscapes, including fortified Kasbahs, lush oases, breathtaking valleys, vast gorges, and majestic dunes.

Explore notable sites like the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, the beautifully restored Kasbah Amredhil, ancient Kasbah Tamnougalte, the Valley of the Roses, the Dades Valleys, and the historic Caravan Road.

Enjoy camel rides, capture images of friends with blue turbans in the dunes, and witness mesmerising sunrises and sunsets from the summit of Erg Chebbi dunes. To top it off, you get to dine under starry skies, experience Berber music, and spend nights in private, exotic tents among Merzouga’s vast dunes.

Day 1: Ouarzazate – Dades Gorges

After breakfast, you set out for your 4-day desert tour from Ouarzazate to Merzouga as your driver picks you up at 08:30 from your riad. You follow the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs to Skoura Oasis.

Here, you will stop to visit Kasbah Amridhil, which used to be featured in the old 50 dirham banknote. The kasbah has been beautifully restored and is well worth visiting; constructed entirely of adobe, an excellent building material that keeps room temperature cool in the summer and warm in the winter due to the thickness of the walls.

Having arrived in the Dades Valley, you will have time to walk in the valley, stroll by the fields and gardens, and explore life in the oases. You will spend the night with dinner and breakfast in a beautiful guest house overlooking the valley.

Day 2: Dades Gorges – Merzouga

After breakfast, you continue your adventure southeast. In Toudgha Gorges, there are plenty of opportunities to walk alongside the river through the gardens or alongside the riverbank on the other side of the gorges.

Next, you continue your desert trip alongside the Ziz Valley, which is very remarkable for its huge palm groves and fortified kasbahs standing tall among the palm trees. Between Tinjdad and Erfoud, you can stop to go down into “Khettara,” a fascinating underground water channel system deep below the earth, always cool and preventing the evaporation of water.

In Erfoud itself, you can stop at a local workshop to see the workings of thousands of fossils made into all sorts of artefacts. From here, we continue driving east as far as Merzouga, where sand alongside the road indicates the start of the mighty Sahara Desert.

At the campsite, you check into your tent and enjoy a relaxing glass of tea and Moroccan biscuits. Then, you take a camel ride up to the summit of the Erg Chebbi dunes (250 m) where you can admire the sunset from the top of the dunes!

Back at the camp, dinner is served, followed by an evening of nomadic music and drumming around a campfire. You spend the night in your private tent, equipped with a private toilet & shower, king-sized beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets & carpets, lamps, and beautiful Moroccan furnishings, all tastefully arranged to enhance your stay.

Day 3: Merzouga – Zagora

If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacular sunrise, when the colour of the dunes and the play of shadows are an incredible sight. You will also have free time to wander the dunes and experience the tranquility of this magical place.

After breakfast, you travel south as far as Zagora, the largest oasis in the Dra’a Valley and the gate to the mighty Sahara Desert. The journey takes you along the length of the Saghro Mountains and via the villages of Rissani, Alnif, Tazarine (featured in the film ‘Babel’), and then N’Qob just in time for lunch.

From here, you travel along the ancient caravan route and through stunning Berber villages. You arrive in Zagora by the end of the afternoon. You spend the night with dinner and breakfast in a beautiful guest house.

Day 4: Zagora – Ouarzazate

After breakfast, you will visit the local pottery co-operatives in Tamgroute village, which produce all the green glaze pottery products you may have seen all over the south.

It is interesting to visit these workshops to learn how local clay is worked into products in a manner unique to this region. Then, you can also see an ancient Quranic Library with a fascinating display of exquisite hand-written Arabic texts.

From here, you travel back up north to Ouarzazate. As you descend the Tizi-n-Tinfifite pass (1660m), you will be amazed by the splendid views of the extensive green oases and the innumerable palm trees, all indicating the beginning of the Dra’a Valley.

We drive off-road through the Dra’a Valley, which offers better views of the green oases and unlimited palm trees, with ancient Kasbahs idyllically standing among the palm trees and on both sides of the river. Then, there is time to visit Kasbah Tamnougalt, the oldest and largest kasbah in the Dra’a Valley.

Back on the paved road, we cross Agdz, an oasis town well-known for the variety of its palm dates, and arrive in Ouarzazate by the end of the afternoon. Your driver will transfer you to your riad, which marks the end of your 4-day Merzouga desert tour from Ouarzazate.