8 days Marrakech Sahara desert trip Overview:
Duration: 8 days – 7 nights
Departure: Marrakech
Arrival: Marrakech
8 days Marrakech desert trip itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive at Marrakech airport.
8 days Marrakech Sahara desert trip departure: The guide of Morocco Helping Tour will meet you at the airport and pick you up at your riad/hotel accommodation.
Day 2: Marrakech sightseeing (cultural tour with a local city guide).
After breakfast in the riad, you will start exploring Marrakech “the Red City of Morocco”. Your guide will ensure that you see most of the sites with historical and cultural interest – including the famous Jemaa El Fna square, the Koutoubia Mosque, the Saadian tombs; the Palace of Bahia and the Ben Youssef Coranic School. Lunch at a restaurant near the square, then in the afternoon visit the Majorelle Gardens, and have a short visit to the new city of Marrakech. Overnight accommodation will be at the same riad.
Day 3: Marrakech – Ait Benhaddou – Ouarzazate – Rose Valley – Dades Gorges
Morocco Helping Tour guide will meet you again at Hotel/riad in Marrakech at 8:00 a.m, our tour will take us over the heart of high Atlas Mountains and Tizi n’Tichka Pass (2260m). We’ll stop to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the mountains and the special Berber Villages on the way. Once, we cross the mountains we get to the gate of desert, the oldest and famous Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou – A Unesco World Heritage Site used as a backdrop for more than 20 films (Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, Games of Thrones…We will stop for lunch, then visit this old mud kasbah. Then we will travel through the city of Ouarzazate (Hollywood of Africa) – with biggest cinema studios – after then, we continue south to the Valley of Roses where around 400 tons of rose petals are picked every year and sent to be processed into rose water,which we called it also as the distillation of roses in order to produce the creams and perfumes. Later, we will drive all along the road of thousand kasbahs before arriving at Dades Valley, overnight in a hotel /riad overlooking the Valley.
Day 4: Dades Gorges – Todra Gorges – Erfoud – Merzouga – Sahara Desert
Today after breakfast in the hotel/riad and we will set off to Todra valley: a green fertile valley surrounded by old mud villages, then we drive around 14 km, we get to Todra gorges: a canyon rising to 500m in a valley dotted with Palm trees and Berber Villages. After lunch in the gorge, we will drive to the Desert (Erg chebbi) passing by an old underground irrigation system (Khettarat), which is a system that help people to water their farms. We will continue towards south, we reach Sahara desert where your camels are waiting to give you a ride crossing the golden dunes. The final stop will be at the camel place where we are going to ride them and spend an overnight in the nomadic tent and enjoy the company of a band playing Berber music under the stars in the heart of the desert/ Sahara, This a beautiful experience that you might need to film in the desert/ Sahara.
Day 5: Exploring the desert area (culture and history)
After breakfast in the riad/hotel you will start an explorative journey of the area. You’ll visit the Gnawa people, originally slaves brought from Sudan, to experience their music and lifestyle. After that, we will drive in desert area where you will have the opportunity to meet the nomad families still living in Berber tents and explore their way of life. Today our lunch will be local meal (Berber pezza) with a local family. You may also visit the souk in Rissani, a traditional town which was the origin of the ruling family in Morocco and the meeting place of the Caravans trading as far as Timbuctou in Mali. Here you will see a lot of men hooded and women veiled. After this long journey you’ll be welcomed with a glass of mint tea before you check in to your riad/ hotel where your dinner and breakfast are included.
Day 6: Merzouga (Erg chebi) – Alnif- Nkoub – Ouarzazate
We will have a traditional breakfast at the riad. Later on, we will start our journey towards the city of Ouarzazate (the Hollywood of Africa) and have some stops on the unique panoramic views among the Anti-Atlas Mountains. We will pass through many villages of different Berber tribes. The main stop will take us place in daraa valley You will wake up early to experience an amazing sunrise in the top of the big sand dunes, then, which is the largest and longest valley full of the palm trees, it considered also as the main source of the date the county. After lunch in a traditional restaurant we will drive directly to Ouarzazat where our riad accommodation takes place.
Day 7: Ouarzazate – High atlas- Marrakech
After breakfast in the riad, we will set off for Marrakech over the high Atlas Mountains. Arrival to Marrakech where you will have free afternoon to enjoy the city more.
Day 8: Transfer to the airport
We will pick you up from the riad toward the airport where the service of Morocco Helping Tours Company end.
Marrakech 8 days desert tour includes:
Free pick up from Airport is “Optional”
Private 4×4 vehicle/minibus
Several languages speaking driver
Tour guide “Optional”
Accommodation including “Bed, dinner and breakfast”
Camel trekking in Merzouga dunes
1 night in a desert camp including “Bed, dinner and breakfast”
Free pick up to the airport “just if your departure is the same day as the tour finishes or the next day”
Note: Please contact us for any tour reservation, our team will get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Thank you.
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What our customers said
Amazing vacation
I am so glad I book our tour with Morocco Helping Tours. The level of serivice, the professionalism, attention to detail – all was top notch. Mohammed and Said were amazing! We felt like we know each other forever and I think we made friends for life. I highly recomend to hire Mohammed and his team if you are planning to go to this beatiful country! Once again, thank you for everything!… Read more
Highly recommend Morocco Helping Tours
My husband and I visited Morocco for our honeymoon and chose this company for our desert tour. They were absolutely amazing. Mohammed was incredibly informative and full of fun facts about every location we visited. He really knew his stuff. Hassan, our drivers was amazing too. They thought of everything for us to make our trip extra special and romantic as it was our honeymoon. We actually initially only booked them for the desert tour but ended up extending with them and traveled with them the rest of the time we were in Morocco. I could not say enough kind things about this company. They were great. I highly recommend them… Read more
Moroccan trip
We were group of 15 people from Russia and we choose to book the tour with this company. We had a great time and were pleased our choice. They have a lot of different option tours and pretty flexible. We chose this company for cheap price and real local experience. Thanks to Omar for guiding and showing us around his country… Read more