Camel Trekking from Tangier to Marrakesh through Sahara – 5 Days

Your 5-day tour with Morocco Road Trips will begin with you being picked up from the airport, port or your accommodation in Tangier and being transferred to Chefchaouen, the Blue Pearl of Morocco. This journey will take you through the Rif Mountains and Tetouan where you will enjoy beautiful landscapes, until you reach the stunning village of Chefchaouen, renowned for its striking blue-washed buildings. The medina here has a Spanish-style square, surrounded by many funky art and craft shops, restaurants and cafes with roof terraces. You will have the opportunity to have lunch here before we continue on our way to Fes, where you will spend the night.

After breakfast your guide will meet you at your riad and you will begin your tour of Morocco’s oldest Imperial City. Fes is an important religious, cultural and intellectual centre. You will start at the royal palace with it’s seven closed doors and then go to the Fes El Bali (the old medina). You will begin in the Andalous Quarter and see the Andalous Mosque, which was built in the 9th century, and then the Karaouinnes University which was built in 857AD. Afterwards you will go to the tanneries where you will experience the process by which animal skins are rendered supple and rot-proof. After lunch, your driver will meet you outside the medina to drive you to take in the stunning, panoramic views of the medina from hills outside the city. Your driver will then drive you back to your riad.

After breakfast we leave Fes towards Merzouga Sahara Desert, travelling through the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas Mountains, past Ifran and Azrou to Midelt where you will stop for lunch. Then we will continue, crossing the Ziz River and driving past thousands of sky-scraping palm trees and fortified kasbahs to Erfoud, and then on to Merzouga and Erg Chebbi. Here you will venture into the desert on a camel trek to see the sunset and then spend the night in a traditional desert camp. You will have an authentic tagine for dinner, drink delicious mint tea, listen to traditional Berber music while watching the stars and the rising moon in the breath-taking Sahara Desert.

After an early morning wake-up call to watch the sunrise over the dunes (possibly the best moment of this journey), you will ride your camel back to the hotel where you will have the opportunity to shower. Your driver will meet you here to continue your journey featuring one beautiful scene after another, including the stunning oasis of Tinghir where you will be able to walk along the Todgha riverbank and visiting Berber villages learning about the lifestyle of the local inhabitants. You will visit the magnificent Todgha canyons carved out by the Todgha River and have the opportunity to have lunch here. In the afternoon, we will drive along the kasbah road to the Dades Valley – here you will have the opportunity to visit one of the fortified kasbahs before you arrive at your hotel in the Dades Gorge.

Bid farewell to the Dades Gorges after breakfast, and we will continue our journey through the Roses Valley to Kalaa Mgouna where you will have the opportunity to visit one of the Rose Co-operatives and learn about how the locals prepare rose-scented perfumes based on distilled rose water. We will continue to Ouarzazate through the Skoura oasis which is famous for its palm groves. Then we will stop for lunch at Ait Ben Haddou, before visiting the kasbah there which is a UNESCO world heritage site – this is used as a location for many Hollywood movies and for fashion and commercial shooting. In the afternoon, our road trip will continue through the High Atlas Mountains, crossing the Tizi n Tichka Pass, passing by many Berber villages with houses made from stone and mud. You will notice immediately that the way of life for locals here has not changed for centuries! We will arrive in Marrakech in the late afternoon.