One-way desert crossing · From Fes
Two imperial cities, a Roman one and two nights by the dunes, at an easy pace.
About this tour
If you are landing in Fes and leaving from Marrakech, this itinerary uses every one of your eight days well. The first three are spent in and around Fes: a day to arrive, a day in the medina with a local guide, and a day trip to the imperial city of Meknes and the Roman ruins of Volubilis.
Then the road turns south. You cross the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas and the Ziz Valley to Merzouga, ride camels into Erg Chebbi for a night in camp, and spend the next day exploring the desert by 4x4. The route west takes in the Todra Gorge, the Dades Valley, Skoura and Aït Benhaddou before the High Atlas crossing to Marrakech.
A guided visit of Marrakech on the final day completes the picture. Nothing is hurried, and only two days involve more than five hours on the road.
Best for: Travellers arriving in Fes who want a complete trip, with history in the north, the desert in the middle and Marrakech at the end.
Fes airport · Fes · About 30 minutes of driving
Your driver meets you at Fes-Saïss airport, or at the railway station if you are coming from another city, and takes you to your riad in the medina. Because cars cannot enter the old town, a porter carries your bags the last few minutes through the lanes.
The rest of the day is yours. If you arrive early, walk up to the Marinid Tombs for the sunset over the rooftops, or simply settle on the roof terrace and listen to the evening call to prayer travel across the valley.
Fes el-Bali · Fes el-Jdid · Mellah · pottery quarter · Walking tour
Spend the day inside the largest car-free city in the world. Your guide starts at Bab Boujloud, the Blue Gate, and follows the Talaa Kebira downhill past the Bou Inania Madrasa and its water clock. You will see carpenters at Nejjarine, coppersmiths beating cauldrons on Seffarine Square and the honeycomb of vats at the Chouara tannery.
In the afternoon, visit Fes el-Jdid, with the golden gates of the Royal Palace and the wooden balconies of the Mellah, and stop at a pottery cooperative where zellige tiles are chipped by hand. The evening is free for dinner in one of the old family mansions.
Fes · Volubilis · Moulay Idriss Zerhoun · Meknes · Fes · About 3 hours of driving
Drive west through olive groves to Volubilis, capital of a Roman province nearly two thousand years ago. Walk the paved main street to the triumphal arch and look for the mosaic floors still lying in the houses of wealthy oil merchants. On the hillside above, the white town of Moulay Idriss holds the shrine of the founder of Morocco's first dynasty.
Continue to Meknes, the capital of Sultan Moulay Ismail. Stand before the great gate of Bab Mansour, walk through the vaulted granaries where grain for twelve thousand horses was stored, and cross the wide square of El Hedim before returning to Fes.
Fes · Ifrane · Azrou · Midelt · Ziz Gorges · Erfoud · Merzouga · Erg Chebbi · About 7 hours of driving
An early start for the day that changes everything. The road rises to Ifrane, built in the 1930s as a hill station, and enters the cedar forest, where macaques come down to the roadside. Higher still, the Col du Zad, at 2,178 metres, opens onto a bare volcanic plateau, and Midelt appears below the snow line of the eastern High Atlas.
South of the Tizi n'Talghemt pass the Ziz river cuts a canyon lined with palms. By late afternoon you are in Merzouga, where camels wait to carry you into the dunes for sunset and a night under canvas.
Erg Chebbi · Rissani · Khamlia · nomad camps · Dayet Srij · Merzouga · About 2.5 hours of driving, partly off-road
After sunrise and breakfast in camp, ride back to the village and set off by 4x4. If it is a market day, begin in Rissani, where the souk sells dates, spices and livestock much as it did when caravans from Timbuktu ended their journey here. Otherwise head straight for the tracks behind the dunes.
Take tea with a nomad family, listen to the Gnawa musicians of Khamlia and, after the winter rains, look for flamingos on the shallow lake of Dayet Srij. You return to a hotel beside the dunes in time to swim, rest or climb the sand once more for sunset.
Merzouga · Erfoud · Tinejdad · Tinghir · Todra Gorge · Dades Valley · About 5 hours of driving
Head west across the pre-Saharan plain. Near Jorf, lines of earth mounds mark the old khettaras, underground channels that once carried water to the fields, and you can climb down into one. At Tinghir, terraces of palms and almond trees fill the valley floor beneath the old mud-brick town.
The Todra Gorge is a short drive up the river: walk between its sheer walls where the canyon narrows to a few metres. Then continue to the Dades Valley and drive up to the famous switchbacks, with a pause at the eroded cliffs the locals call the Monkey Fingers.
Dades Valley · Kalaat M'Gouna · Skoura · Ouarzazate · Aït Benhaddou · Tizi n'Tichka · Marrakech · About 6.5 hours of driving
The road follows the Dades downstream through Kalaat M'Gouna, where shops sell rosewater distilled from the spring harvest, to the palm grove of Skoura and its restored kasbahs. A stop in Ouarzazate, the garrison town turned film capital, breaks the journey before Aït Benhaddou.
Walk through the ksar, whose towers of rammed earth have stood beside the caravan road since at least the 17th century. The afternoon belongs to the High Atlas: a long climb to the Tizi n'Tichka pass and a winding descent to the plain of Marrakech, where you arrive in the early evening.
Marrakech medina · Majorelle Garden · Walking tour
Your last day is devoted to the Red City. With a local guide, visit the Ben Youssef Madrasa, once the largest Koranic school in North Africa, the Bahia Palace and the Saadian Tombs, and walk beneath the Koutoubia minaret. The souks lie between them all, and your guide knows the quiet corners where craftsmen still work.
The afternoon is free for the Majorelle Garden, a hammam or last-minute shopping. The tour ends at your riad, or we take you to Menara airport for an evening flight.
Every tent is private. Pick the comfort level that suits you; tell us your choice when you book.
Private tents with their own en-suite bathroom, offering a good balance between comfort and the authentic feel of a Berber camp.
Spacious, elegantly furnished tents equipped with air conditioning and heating, so you stay cool on summer nights and warm in winter. Ideal for couples and families.
Absolutely. Every tour is private, so you can add or remove nights, change the camp style, combine routes or start on a different date. Tell us what you have in mind and we will adapt the plan and price.
A private, air-conditioned minivan or 4x4, depending on group size. Our vehicles are under five years old, regularly inspected and insured for tourist transport.
Yes, families travel with us often. Children love the camel ride and the camp. For young children we usually recommend a longer version of the route, with shorter driving days.
Comfortable clothes, a warm layer for the evenings, a hat or scarf, sunglasses, sun cream and closed shoes. For the desert night, a small backpack is enough; your main luggage stays safely in the vehicle.
Both camps have private tents with en-suite bathrooms, hot showers and comfortable bedding. The mid-range luxury camp offers a good balance between comfort and authenticity. The luxury camp adds air conditioning and heating in every tent, plus more spacious, elegantly furnished tents, so you stay comfortable on hot summer nights and cold winter ones.
Before you go
Where the dunes are, the best season to visit and what a night in Erg Chebbi is really like.
Tanneries, madrasas, viewpoints and craft quarters in Morocco's oldest imperial city.
A practical packing list for medinas, mountains and a night in the Sahara, with what to wear in each season.
Related tours
A fast but unhurried taste of the Sahara from Fes: cedar forests and Barbary macaques, the Ziz Valley canyon, sunset on the dunes and a night in a desert camp.
The favourite round trip from Fes. Two nights in the south give you a full day to explore Merzouga's lakes, nomad families and villages before your camel trek.
Link Morocco's two great cities through its wild heart: Middle Atlas forests, a night in Erg Chebbi, the Todra Gorge, the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs and Aït Benhaddou.
The one-way crossing with room to linger: two nights around Merzouga, then the Todra Gorge, the Dades and Rose valleys and a night in Ouarzazate before the Atlas.
