5 days/4 nights: “From Essaouira to Marrakech: desert feeling in Erg Chigaga and the oasis of the Draa Valley”

You start in the morning from your riad/hotel in Essaouira. The journey heads south along the Atlantic to Agadir. From Agadir we drive through the fertile Sous Valley and reach Taroudant with its imposing city walls and enchanting old town. Dinner and overnight stay in a riad.

After breakfast, continue eastwards via the Sous Valley to Tazenakth and Foum Zguid in the desert. Drive off-road on the old Paris-Dakar track to the Iriki salt lake, which is usually dried up for many years, only to come back to life in times of increased rainfall, and then to the dune landscape of Erg Chigaga, which stretches over 40 kilometres.  The golden-coloured dunes reach a height of 300 m and our desert camp is located in the middle of the dunes. Practise sandboarding on the dunes and enjoy the wonderful sunset as well as the hospitality of the nomads, with the famous mint tea, the ‘Whiskey berbère’ as a welcome drink. Dinner and overnight stay in a private tent in our comfortable desert camp as well as nomadic romance with the fantastic starry sky await you

If you are spending the night in the desert, you should get up early to see the sun rise behind the dunes. After breakfast, you will set off with our dromedaries for a hike in the dunes of Erg Chigaga. If the opportunity arises, you will stop to drink tea with a nomadic family and after about 2 hours you will reach your resting place, a large tamarind tree, in the shade of which you will have your lunch prepared. Mint tea, bread baked in the hot sand, meat skewers (brochette) and of course the Moroccan salad taste simply fantastic in the middle of the dunes. Dinner and overnight stay in the desert camp.

After breakfast, drive off-road to the Iriki Oasis and then over sand dunes to Mhamid, once a lonely oasis and an important stage on the old caravan routes. This is where the long oasis of the Draa Valley begins, which was formed from the waters of the High Atlas and stretches from Ouarzazate to Mhamid. The most beautiful part of the oasis with millions of date palms stretches from Zagora to Agdz. Dinner and overnight stay in a riad in Agdz.

After breakfast, head north via the film city of Ouarzazate (visit the Kasbah Taourit and the film studios if you wish) to Ait Ben Haddou, a kasbah built from mud bricks. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is considered the most beautiful and famous kasbah in Morocco and has served as the backdrop for films such as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and ‘Gladiator’. After the visit, lunch and onward journey over the High Atlas and the 2260m high Tizi-n-Tichka Pass to Marrakech. The route offers stunning views and leads along a steep road lined with oak forests, walnut and almond trees, past the mud and stone houses of the Berber villages and rushing mountain streams. Before Marrakech, we reach the Kasbah of Telouet; along the former route of the caravans, this was the seat of power of the El Glaoui family, which is why it is sometimes also called the Palace of the Glaoui. Arrival in Marrakech in the late afternoon.