4 day Tangier Desert Tour

Your 4 day Tangier Desert Tour, "Cities & Sands" starts when we pick you up at your riad/hotel in Tangier in the morning and head into the beautiful Rif Mountains. Our first stop is the city of Chefchaouen at the foot of the mountains. Chefchaouen is known as Morocco's “Blue City”. Yes, it really is blue! Bright blue! Chefchaouen is home to a myriad of fascinating arts and crafts shops. We’ll have lunch there and you’ll have time to explore the winding streets.

We’ll then drive on to the Imperial City of Fes, where you’ll check in to your riad in the medina. You’ll have free time in the evening to explore.

After breakfast at your riad on Day 2 of your 4 day tour from Tangier to Marrakesh, we'll start our drive to the Sahara Desert. You’ll see the amazing change in the landscape as we travel through the Middle Atlas Mountains.

We’ll take a break in Ifrane, a popular ski resort town known as the "Switzerland of Morocco", with its steeply-peaked rooves designed to shed show easily. We’ll pass through Azrou, with its large cedar forest. If you wish we can make a brief stop to see the Barbary apes which inhabit the forest.

Lunch will be in Midelt, the “apple capital” of Morocco.

After lunch, we’ll drive alongside the Ziz Valley. The impressive palm-filled Ziz Oasis stretches for hundreds of meandering kilometres along the valley floor. You’ll have a chance to take some beautiful panoramic photos at a lookout point beside the road.

We’ll pass through Erfoud, famous for its Date Festival each October and known for its fossils and fossil products, then turn off the highway and travel across flat rocky desert to the Saharan region of Merzouga, towards the magnificent sand dunes of Erg Chebbi. Erg Chebbi has the highest dunes in North Africa, and the sight of them rising suddenly out of the desert floor never fails to impress!

At the hotel, your camels will be waiting to take you into the dunes as the late afternoon sun sinks over the sands. You’ll leave civilization behind and camel-trek into the high dunes, where you’ll see the sands change colour as the sun moves across the sky. You’ll have time to explore, take pictures, and watch the sunset before returning by camel to the tent camp about 1 hour from the dunes. There, you’ll enjoy a traditional Moroccan meal.

After dinner you’ll be entertained with African music – drumming and singing and dancing – around a campfire.

We’ll leave the dunes behind onDay 3 and start heading towards Marrakesh. After breakfast, we'll drive to Rissani, where you'll have a chance to visit the souk (market). This is where local people do most of their shopping. On Tuesdays, the travelling market arrives, and people flock from nearby villages to shop.

We’ll continue on our way to Tinghir and the Todra Gorge. Tinghir is home to a green oasis of palms & gardens - such a difference from the dunes of the Sahara! Todra Gorge has nearly vertical 300-metre-high rock walls and a shallow river.

Here we’ll stop for lunch at a nearby restaurant, and you’ll have a chance to walk along the river.

From there we’ll drive through the Dades Valley, known as the "Valley of the Thousand Kasbahs", following the winding road through the mountains.

You’ll stay the night in a Berber guesthouse overlooking the spectacular Dades Gorge. Nearby you’ll see the rock formation known as “Monkey Toes”.

You’ll have time for a walk through the impressive Dades Gorge in the morning of Day 4 before we resume our journey. We’ll head to Kalaat M’Gouna, the “Valley of the Roses”, where millions of rose petals are harvested each year to produce a huge array of rose-infused products for culinary and cosmetic use. The harvest is celebrated in May with the annual Rose Festival – worth attending if you can arrange your visit around this popular festival. We'll make a stop here so that you can see, smell, and, if you wish, purchase some products made from local roses.

We’ll then head to Skoura, famous for its palmerie, where we’ll visit the picturesque Kasbah Amridil. The 17th century fortified village (ksar) along the river is mostly in ruins now, but the Kasbah (fortified mansion) on the south end was built in the late 19th century and is one of the most impressive kasbahs in Morocco. It is still owned and maintained by the same family today.

We’ll pass through Ouarzazate, known as the "Hollywood of Morocco". Ouarzazate is home to several film studios, both Moroccan and international. The surrounding landscape is a popular on-location site and has been used to portray everything from the Egyptian desert to the surface of Mars.

We’ll then drive to Ait Ben Haddou, the oldest Kasbah in the south of Morocco, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the village was originally built in the 17th century, people still live and work there today, their homes built right into the rock or with mud bricks, which are made locally using the same methods as in ancient times. Ait Ben Haddou has also featured in many films, including The Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven.

We’ll have lunch in the village, and you’ll have time to explore the Kasbah. It’s a gentle climb through winding streets to the top, where you can see in all directions.

After that we’ll head into the High Atlas Mountains, crossing over Morocco’s highest road pass – the Tizi-n-Tichka pass at 2260m. We’ll stop at the top of the pass for refreshment and to take pictures of the stunning views before descending towards Marrakesh.

We’ll reach Marrakesh in the evening and drop you off at your riad/hotel. This completes your 4 day Tangier Desert Tour, "Cities & Sands".