Morocco Desert Tours – Desert Morocco Adventure

Morocco desert tours have been the most popular destinations organized by Desert Morocco Adventure for years. Most of them start from the city of Marrakech. The attraction of the desert brings to mind the stories of Saint-exupéry. Here, you meet with a form of beautiful and hospitable indulgence in which the “blue men” live. All Desert Morocco Adventure’s desert trips pass along the Dades and Draa valleys.

Whether you are in Marrakech or Fez, you will often come across the travel agencies or guides that offer desert tours, it is Morocco’s highlight. The desert tours currently available online on the Desert Morocco Adventure’s site will take you to the largest sand dunes of Merzouga. Located southeast of Marrakech and south of Fez, this is a famous destination. Most trippers choose to spend 3 or 4 days discovering these beautiful areas, some more days on foot. For those who have very little time in Morocco to spend and are looking for a unique experience, the Agafay desert can be a good option but don’t expect sandy dunes like what Erg Chebbi offers, it’s a rocky and arid environment. Yet, you can stay overnight in a luxury camp with all the necessary equipment, also with a swimming pool. If you have already visited Erg Chebbi and want to see more spectacular dunes in the south of Morocco, the dunes of Erg Chegaga are definitely the best. A 4×4 is a must for this trip.

What to See during Morocco Desert Tours

If you start your desert journey from Marrakech, in the direction of Tizi n’tichka, the first town you will come across is Ouarzazate, opposite the small Berber villages. Ouarzazate, where different cultures and crafts merge, is the starting point of the oasis route. This city is located at the intersection of roads leading to the Dades Valley which comes from the High Atlas and Draa Valley whose bed extends into the M’hamed desert. If your desert journey departs from Fez, you will drive along the Ziz Valley, which feeds the immense palm grove of Tafilalet, before getting lost in the sands of Taouz.

At the beginning of the city of Ouarzazate is the famous ksar of Ait Ben Haddou which is known throughout the country. This ksar is quite famous because it has been used for some scenes in movies and television series like Gladiator and Game of Thrones and also because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Leaving the city, on the way to Tinghir, the Kasbah of Taourirt attracts the attention of travelers, who are amazed by so much beauty. The kasbah was built by Glaoui, who commanded by cunning over much of southern Morocco in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This monument is so famous because certain scenes from the movies were shot here. The ultimate highlight is the fact that UNESCO has also added this kasbah to the World Heritage of Humanity.

Another landmark, much more recent, is one of the must-visit places in Ouarzazate: the movie studios. Since the 1960s, more and more filmmakers came to Ouarzazate to use many natural settings and the quality of lighting in the famous scenes of some of the major cult films.

Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou is one of the highlights of Morocco Desert Tours, besides the gorges, valleys, and Erg Chebbi dunes

From Ouarzazate, the road to Boumalne Dades leads along the Dades Valley. The next stop is Skoura. Around the village, you will come across an astonishing number of roadside roses. The leaves are made into rosewater at a factory near Kalaat M’Gouna, which hosts the Rose Festival in April. The Dades Valley will show you some of Morocco’s most impressive landscapes. Enclosed by the High Atlas and Anti Atlas, the Dades Valley offers extreme contrasts between bone-dry areas and heartwarming oases. Along the way, you will encounter kasbahs, ksour, fig fields, and palm groves. Immediately at the entrance to the municipality of Boumalne Dades, the road leads on the left through the high cliffs on the river with their increasingly striking colors. When it is dry, travelers cross the Atlas directly from Dades Gorge to Todra Gorge.

At the edge of a large oasis is the entrance to the Todra Gorge. On the way to the mountains, the small villages are as colorful as rocks. Some villages are in ruins. At an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, the Tinghir palm grove stretches to the foot of the Atlas. From Tinghir the road leads to the desert town of Erfoud and Rissani. For centuries, Rissani was the capital of the Tafilalt area, the last glimpse of civilization before the caravans moved south. Here the packages with cloth, dates, and especially salt were loaded onto the camels. Now there is hardly any trace of that prosperous time. But if you follow the deeply furrowed road that winds around Rissani, you’ll discover sleepy villages with baked clay houses huddled in the stifling heat. Here the scenery is quite modest; this is the threshold of the desert. The further you venture, the more the desert advances to finally reach the last palm trees.

Merzouga is 41 km from Rissani. You need a four-wheel drive to make the trip to the dunes. The sand dunes of Erg Chebbi near the village of Merzouga are the largest sand dunes in the country. It is 150m high and stretches for miles. It’s a great place at sunrise. From here you can take a camel ride through the scorching desert or stick to a gentle stroll in the sand. On returning to Marrakech, you will pass through the Draa Valley. It is a 200 km long river that irrigates palm groves and crops before disappearing into the desert sands. Here the scenery is beautiful where the changing colors are most visible during the first and last hours of the day. Mysterious kasbahs and ksour are scattered along the road

Here are some of Desert Morocco Adventure’s most popular Morocco desert tours

Desert Morocco Adventure is a tour company in Morocco that specializes in organizing day trips and extraordinary Marrakech desert adventure tours. If you want to book a desert tour with Desert Morocco Adventure, you can choose the tour that suits you on the tours page. The tours depend on the number of days you want to spend in the region.