Multi-Day Tours in Marrakesh

Most multi-day tours in Marrakesh start the same way, with a pick-up around 07:30 and a day across the Atlas. Ouarzazate is about 200 km away, three and a half hours without stops, so the first day goes on detours: Telouet, the Glaoui family's palace-kasbah, mostly ruin now; Aït Benhaddou; the Taourirt kasbah and film studios at Ouarzazate. Then the road forks. South through Agdz it follows the Draa valley to Zagora, about 350 km from Marrakesh, with the old library at Tamegroute nearby. East, past the palm grove of Skoura, it runs through the Dadès and Todgha valleys to Merzouga. Erg Chegaga lies beyond M'Hamid, where the valley road ends.

Most Marrakesh multi-day tours run two to four days. Two days means Zagora: a long drive out, a camel ride at sunset, a night in a camp and the same road back. Three days means Merzouga, with the long drive home on the last evening, or the same loop ending in Fes, which swaps the return for the Ziz valley and the cedars of the Middle Atlas. Four days adds Zagora to Merzouga, or a different road back through Rissani and the Draa, and a five-day 4x4 trip reaches Chegaga. Longer circuits of a week to two weeks usually open with an airport pick-up and a day in Marrakesh itself. The group departures sold as low cost are the two-day Zagora and three-day Merzouga trips.

Practical. Marrakesh is mild in winter, 19C by day in January and 6C at night, but the pass, the gorges and the camps are colder, so pack a fleece. July afternoons average 38C in the city and more in the desert. Medina riads are collected at the nearest point a car can reach. Take a small backpack for the camp night and leave the suitcase in the vehicle or at the lodge. The camel ride to the tents takes one to two hours each way, and the last day ends back in the city around seven in the evening.