6 days/5 nights: “”From Essaouira to Marrakech: desert, oases, kasbahs, gorges and Berber villages”

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. From the Draa Valley, the route heads east via Nkob into the enchanting natural landscape of Jebel Saghro and the Tizi-n Tazazert Pass.The route offers the most beautiful panoramic views of the Jebel Saghro. Via Boumalne Dades you reach the spectacular Dades Gorge, with its many bizarre rock formations, oases and Berber villages. Dinner and overnight stay in a riad in the Dades Gorge.

After breakfast, we set off on our day hike in the Dades gorges.  You start with your guide from your riad and hike on narrow paths through the canyons (without water), fields and oases of the Dades Gorge. You stop for a picnic and return to your riad in the afternoon. The hike can be adapted to your personal requirements. Dinner and overnight stay in the riad in the Dades Gorge.

After breakfast, leave the Dades Gorge and drive westwards via Skoura and Kelaa M’Gouna to the Rose Valley and then on to the famous Valley of the 1000 Kasbahs, where you can visit the Kasbah Amridil, which is well worth seeing. Continue to Ait Ben Haddou, a kasbah built from mud bricks. This UNESCO World Heritage Site 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‘ or ’Gladiator”. After the lunch break, the journey continues over the High Atlas and the 2260 metre-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 past rushing mountain streams. Arrival in Marrakech in the early evening.