3 Days desert tour from Marrakech to Merzouga

Leave your riad at 07:30 and immediately begin climbing the High Atlas on the N9. As the red-ochre ramparts of Marrakech fade in your rear-view mirror, the road corkscrews past olive groves and cedar forests to the windswept Tizi n’Tichka Pass (2,260 m). Pause at several scenic pull-outs where Berber women sell argan-oil treats, and your driver points out remote ksour clinging to the mountainsides. Descend to the semi-arid plains of Ounila and reach Aït Ben Haddou by late morning. A local guide walks you over the mud-brick footbridge, through labyrinthine alleys, and up to the grain-store granary for a rooftop panorama made famous in Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

After a lunch of grilled brochettes on a terrace overlooking the ksar, continue ten minutes to Ouarzazate. Film buffs can tour the massive Atlas Studios sets (optional) or snap photos outside the crenellated Taourirt Kasbah. Re-joining the “Road of a Thousand Kasbahs,” you trace the lush Skoura palm grove, stopping at roadside stands selling rose-water and saffron. By late afternoon the asphalt snakes into the crimson-walled Dades Gorge. Check into a family-run kasbah lodge; stretch your legs on a sunset stroll to the famous “Monkey Paw” rock formation before sitting down to a tagine dinner by the fireplace.

Wake to birdsong echoing along the Dades River and enjoy a rooftop breakfast of msemen crêpes with mountain honey. The morning drive follows the Dades switchbacks—hairpins so photogenic they star in every desert-tour Instagram feed—then levels out to a moonscape dotted with fortified granaries. Forty minutes later you enter the towering marble corridor of Todra Gorge, its 300-metre cliffs narrowing to a slot just 10 m wide. Wander beside the turquoise stream, perhaps sharing the path with Berber shepherds leading goats to water.

Continue east across the Tafilalt plain, passing oasis towns like Tinjdad where you can visit an underground qanat irrigation museum. In Erfoud, Morocco’s “fossil capital,” tour a workshop polishing 380-million-year-old orthoceras marble—souvenir heaven for geology fans. In the late afternoon the asphalt ends at the Merzouga erg. Swap wheels for hooves (or 4×4 if you prefer) and embark on a 45-minute camel trek, cresting apricot dunes just as the sky ignites in purples and golds. At your luxury tented camp, sandboard down nearby slopes, sip mint tea around the fire, feast on saffron-infused couscous, then drum beneath a Milky Way so bright it casts shadows.

Rise before dawn for an optional camel ride to a high ridge where the first sunbeams ripple over the dunes—an unforgettable photo op. After a hot shower and hearty Berber breakfast, depart camp by 08:30, skirting the black-rock Hamada du Draa desert. A coffee stop in Alnif lets you bargain for trilobite fossils or taste date-filled ma’amoul pastries. The road then threads the volcanic Jbel Saghro massif, descending to the ribbon-green palms of the Draa Valley near Agdz—perfect for a quick kasbah-viewpoint selfie.

Re-enter Ouarzazate around midday for a leisurely lunch (try almond-crusted pastilla) before tackling the High Atlas once more. Mid-afternoon light bathes the crags of Tizi n’Tichka, and you’ll likely spot shepherds bringing flocks home while golden eagles ride the thermals. Expect to roll into Marrakech between 18:30 and 19:00; your driver will drop you at your hotel or the airport, closing the chapter on a whirlwind three-day Moroccan odyssey—from imperial city to Saharan sea of sand and back.