The Marrakech to Fes desert crossing, day by day
If your trip starts in Marrakech and ends in Fes, this is how to join the two with the Sahara in between. Over the Tizi n'Tichka to Aït Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate, a night in the Dades Valley, then Todra Gorge and a camel trek into Erg Chebbi for a night in a luxury camp, and north through the Ziz Valley, Azrou and Ifrane to Fes. About 1,150 km in three days, in a private vehicle with your own driver-guide, on whatever date you choose. Not sure three days is enough? How many days do you need in Morocco compares the routes.
The first hour out of Marrakech is all climbing. The Tizi n'Tichka carries the road to 2,260 m, the highest pass in the country, and the mountains drop away behind you in switchbacks. Past the summit the colour changes: green gives way to ochre and red. Aït Ben Haddou is the first stop that holds you properly, an earthen ksar on the hillside, UNESCO listed and familiar from Gladiator and Game of Thrones; lunch is taken facing it. Ouarzazate and its film studios come next, then the road runs quietly through the rose fields and Berber villages of the Rose Valley into the Dades Valley, where you check in and the evening is your own.
Breakfast, then the Todra Gorge, where the cliffs close over the riverbed and the road narrows to a slot. Tinghir comes next, a long green palm grove under old Berber villages, and after it Erfoud, the fossil town. The desert starts for real at Merzouga: your camel caravan is waiting at the foot of the dunes, and the trek crosses Erg Chebbi as the light turns orange. The camp is private, with your own tent, your own bathroom and a hot shower. Dinner, Berber drums around the fire, and a sky with no town light anywhere near it. If camels are not for you, a 4x4 runs out to the camp instead.
Someone will wake you for the sunrise, and it is worth it: the dunes change colour minute by minute. Breakfast at the camp, then the road turns north. The Ziz Valley opens below a viewpoint, Morocco's largest palm oasis, a green river of trees in bare rock. Lunch stops in Midelt, the town between the two Atlas ranges. In the afternoon comes the cedar forest at Azrou, where the wild Barbary macaques live by the roadside, and Ifrane, with its pitched roofs and clean streets, the town Moroccans call Little Switzerland. Fes arrives in the late afternoon, and you are dropped at your hotel or riad.
Desert nights are cold from November to March and summer afternoons are hot, so pack a layer either way — 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 Marrakech to Fes 3-day tour follows the same road. If you need to finish back in Marrakech, take the Marrakech to Merzouga round trip instead. Or tell us your dates on the custom tour page and we plan the route around you.
