Shared 3 Day Marrakech to Fes Desert Tour via Dades Valley & Merzouga

Pickup from your Marrakech hotel or riad in the early morning. You cross the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi n'Tichka Pass (2,260 m), passing panoramic viewpoints and traditional Berber villages along the way.

At midday you reach the iconic UNESCO ksar of Ait Ben Haddou — the filming location for Gladiator, Game of Thrones and Lawrence of Arabia. An optional local guide (€3) can walk you through the ksar in more depth; lunch afterward is at your own leisure.

In the afternoon you cross the fragrant Valley of the Roses and continue into the Dades Valley, passing the "Road of a Thousand Kasbahs." You overnight at Hotel le Château:

• Private ensuite room with AC
• Dinner and breakfast included

After breakfast, explore the Dades Gorge, then continue to Tinghir for a guided hour-long walk through its oasis — palm groves, mud-brick villages and irrigation channels. From there you reach Todra Gorge, its limestone cliffs rising sheer above a narrow, walkable canyon. Lunch at leisure in Tinghir.

By afternoon you arrive in Merzouga, gateway to the Sahara, with time to prepare before the day's highlight:

• Sunset camel trek across the Erg Chebbi dunes
• Deluxe camp with private ensuite tent and hot shower
• Traditional Moroccan dinner and Berber drumming around the campfire
• Sandboards available on request

• Sunrise camel ride back over the dunes
• Shower and breakfast at the Merzouga lodge

Here the group splits — the rest continue back to Marrakech while you meet a new driver for the leg north. You travel through the Ziz Valley, a fertile corridor of palm groves and cliffs, with a lunch stop in Midelt between the Middle and High Atlas.

The route continues through the cedar forests of Azrou, home to one of North Africa's last wild populations of Barbary macaques, before arriving in Fes in the early evening with drop-off at your chosen accommodation.