Fes to Marrakech, the desert way
If your trip starts in Fes and ends in Marrakech, this is the way to join the two cities. Instead of the motorway or a flight, you go south: over the Middle Atlas through the cedar forest at Azrou, down the Ziz Valley to the dunes of Erg Chebbi for a night in the desert, then west along the Todra and Dades gorges and over the Tizi n'Tichka pass into Marrakech. It covers about 1,150 km in three days, in a private 4×4 with your own driver-guide, and it leaves on whatever date you choose.
The longest driving day, and the one that changes the most. You leave Fes early
and climb into the Middle Atlas, where the air turns cool and the cedar forest
around Azrou closes over the road — this is where the wild Barbary macaques
live. Lunch in Midelt, between the two Atlas ranges, then the descent: the
plateau gives way to the Ziz Valley, a 20 km ribbon of palm trees cut into red
rock. By late afternoon the last ksour of Erfoud are behind you and the Erg
Chebbi dunes appear on the horizon, rising up to 150 metres. Your camel caravan
is waiting at the foot of them, and you ride in as the sun goes down. Dinner,
Berber drums and a fire at the camp.
Sunrise over the dunes is worth the early start — the sand goes from grey to
deep orange in about fifteen minutes. After breakfast at the camp you head west
through Rissani, the old caravan town that was the capital of the Tafilalet,
then across the black hammada towards Tinghir. The palm grove there runs for
30 km along the river, and just behind it the road enters the Todra Gorge, where
limestone walls 300 metres high narrow to barely 10 metres apart. You finish the
day in the Dades Valley, driving the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, with the night
in a hotel looking out over the gorge.
The last day is the cinematic one. You follow the Valley of Roses, where the
Damask rose harvest fills the air every May, then reach Ouarzazate, Morocco's
film capital and home to Atlas Studios. Thirty kilometres on stands Aït Ben
Haddou, the fortified earthen village on the UNESCO list since 1987 — you will
recognise it from Gladiator and Game of Thrones, and you cross the river and
climb to the granary at the top for the view over the whole ksar. Then the High
Atlas: the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,260 m, switchback after switchback, until the
Haouz plain opens up and Marrakech appears below. Drop-off at your riad or the
airport.
Nights in the desert drop to around 5 °C from November to March, and there can be snow at Ifrane in winter, so pack a warm layer — our Morocco desert packing list covers the rest, and the best time to visit Marrakech guide has the weather month by month. If you would rather share the cost, the shared Fes to Marrakech 3-day tour follows the same road from €100. If you need to finish back in Marrakech, take the private Marrakech to Merzouga round trip instead. Or tell us your dates on the custom tour page and we plan the route around you.
