Tours from Ouarzazate

 

Exotic Moroccan Red Dunes of Merzouga Tour - 3 days

Ouarzazate, Skoura, Dades Gorge, Todra Gorge, Erfoud, Merzouga, Draa Valley, Ouarzazate

3 days and 2 nights

All meals, accommodation, 4WD, petrol, and camel rides included

A return trip to the exotic red sand dunes of Merzouga, to have the desert experience of a camel ride, sunset, camp-fire, music in the bivouac and spend a night under the expansive desert star filled sky. Along the way enjoy the scenic views of spectacular rock formations, valleys and oasis.

Map data ©2022 Inst. Geogr. Nacional

Itinerary

  • Departing 8am we drive from Ouarzazate to the Dades gorges travelling beside the Dades River, which separates the High Atlas and Low Atlas mountains. Stopping at the picturesque Oasis of Skoura and visiting the stunning Kasbah Amridil. From here we travel through Kela’a M’gouna, the Valley of Roses, where the roses are distilled to produce oils, lotions and creams found on sale throughout the country. From there the next place to visit is the Dades Valley with its green gardens along the river and amazing rock formations where we stop for lunch and the afternoon of either relaxing or walking along the river valley. You will spend the night in a hotel.

  • After breakfast, continue to the next gorge of Todra where we will stop for some sight seeing of this narrow and steep sided gorge. We then continue onto Tinjdad, and the Oasis of Tafilalet where we stop to go down into the fascinating underground water channels deep below the earth, always cool and preventing the evaporation of this priceless source of irrigation. Lunch will be in a Berber village along the way. In Erfoud, famous for its Date Festival, you can stop to see the workings of thousands of fossils made into all sorts of artifacts. We then continue onto our bivouac at the Erg Chebbi dunes. In the afternoon after a welcoming glass of tea, watch the stunning sunset against the high dunes (250m) and afterwards there is dinner and the night in a nomad tent at the foot of the dunes.

  • Early birds can watch the spectacle of the majestic sunrise where the colour of the dunes and the play of shadows are an awesome sight. After breakfast we drive back east towards the Dra’a Valley via the villages of Tazzarine (featured in the film ‘Babel’) and stopping at N’Kob for lunch. We then drive to Tanasikht, along the track of the ancient caravan route, reaching the Dra’a valley, full of large palm trees and ancient Kasbahs in Agdz for a scenic stop. The road then crosses the Tizi-n-Tinfifite pass to Ouarzazate and the night in a riad or hotel.

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