DAY 1: Marrakech - Telouet - Ait Benhaddou - Skoura/ Dades Gorge ( 5/6 hour drive)

As our private  tour of Morocco leaves Marrakech, the distant haze begins to resolve itself into a jagged mountain range - the High Atlas mountains, jutting abruptly from the plain. Our route follows the same one caravans used centuries ago, to bring into Marrakech slaves, gold and precious wood from the other side of the ocean of sand, the Sahara.

Beautiful scenery and small villages built in tiers succeed among oak trees, walnut groves and snow patches before arriving at the Tizi n Tichka pass, at 2260 meters high. Once over the pass a totally different picture is unveiled: the lunar landscape of the Anti Atlas. Scent of thyme from the bushes around fills the air. Just after the pass, the tour leaves the tarmac and goes off- road to then reach Telouet and former pasha's palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community was managing the nearby salt mines. Of the three palaces, only one survives and throughout its large rooms, one can admire the excellence of the Moroccan craftsmanship from more than a century ago.

Leaving Telouet behind, flat top bluffs and rocky buttes that wouldn't be out of place in a western movie loom above the route. The gardens by the river bed melt into a gigantic green serpent imprisoned between the barren light brown walls of the canyon, only to escape out into the horizon. Here and there, decaying Kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. 

Later, skirt past Tamedaght and stop to visit UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, the postcard- like adobe citadel. A fat, red sun, only underlines the beige tones of the mud- and- straw mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. In spite of the local ‘guides’, the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already... Past Ouarzazate, our bespoke tour of Morcco reaches yet another lush area, nested between the deserted crest and the desolate plateaus: Skoura palmgrove. We can arrange for accommodation here or press onwards to Dades gorges. 

Then, our trip reaches Kelaa des Mgouna, famous for the nearby Valley of Roses and 'Rose Festival', where at the end of a 3 day celebration usually held in May, a local girl is crowned 'Rose Queen'. The most looked after product is eau- de- rose and two factories in the area distil and export the product. The process uses approximately three thousand kilograms of rose petals to extract a liter of rose oil.

Further on, Boulmane de Dades follows, the starting point to explore the spectacular Dades Gorge, a lush carpet set against the massive rocks and quite popular among those interested to trek. 

DAY 2: Skoura/ Dades - Tinerir - Todra Gorge - Rissani - Merzouga - Erg Chebbi ( 5/ 4 hour drive)

Back on the road, our first stop is Tinerhir (Tinghir), with its extensive palm grove, the ksours built into the rocky hills above it and its mysterious decaying Jewish quarter. Tinerir has been for generations a stop for nomadic Berber tribes travelling from the mountains north of it towards the desert during the winter months. A rather inconspicuos hidden gem is the 19th century adobe mosque nested within the old crumbling ksour, a heaven for photography enthusiasts. 

Todra Gorges , lie only 15 km from Tinerhir, presenting an arresting spectacle with its crystal clear river emerging from it, its huge walls changing color to magical effect as the day unfolds. Its 300 meters ( 1000 feet ) high walls are home to more than 150 bolted routes and at any time of day you can catch a glimpse of someone rock climbing his way up the gigantic walls.

Before reaching Merzouga where the tarmac ends, our 4x4 Morocco tour passes Erfoud and Rissani. In Erfoud we can stop for a visit at Musee des Oasis. Rissani used to serve as last stop on the great caravan routes south and gold and slave auctions were taking place here as late as 1800’s. Before it, the caravan trade and the most important city in Morocco was Sijilmassa, the ruins of which lie opposite Rissani. From its gates, Ibn Battuta and Leo Africanus left Morocco to embark on their illustrious journeys across the Sahara into African countries, at a time when Sijilmassa was the trading hub between Europe and Africa and Arab pure bred horses from Morocco a much coveted commodity at the court of Timbuktu:

[Here ( in Timbuktu) are many shops of artificers and merchants, and especially of such as weave linnen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbarie merchants bring cloth of Europe... Here are verie few horses bred, and the merchants and courtiers keepe certainn little nags which they use to travel upon: but their best horses are brought out of Barbarie. And the king so soon as he heareth that any merchants are come to town with horses, he commandeth a certain number to be brought before him, and chusing the best horse for himselfe he payeth a most liberal price for him.] ( Leo Africanus - History and description of Africa)

Soon after we reach Merzouga and in the distance you glimpse the first leviathans of sand forming the Sahara: the dunes of Erg Chebbi. We'll stop for a break at a local kasbah where you can leave some luggage and/ or have a shower before being hopped onto a camel and taking the route to the camp nested in the middle of the dunes. Then, while the staff of the camp is unloading your luggage and preparing your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. Take a moment and watch the sun hide behind dunes heavily shaded, shadow turning them from golden to burnt orange. There is nowhere else you would rather be. After dinner, the camp staff turn out to be quite gifted musicians. At night, dazed by the millions of stars glittering above, the silence is so thick you feel you could cut a strip and wear it as a scarf, as you fall asleep.

DAY 3: Erg Chebbi - Erfoud - Alnif - Nkob - Skoura ( 5 hour drive)

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. Stories of Scheherezade, Ali Baba and his 40 thieves, have created a mythical Arabian landscape that reality often struggles to match. Except for moments like this one...

The road to Tazzarine sees almost no traffic, providing a scenic link between Tafilalet and Draa Valley. Aside from the landscape, fossils and prehistoric rock carvings are this region’s main attraction. The scenery grows wilder as you approach Tazzarine, set in a grassy oasis surrounded by bare mountains. Past Nkob, with its prominent old Kasbah and dense palm grove, we will enter the Djebel Saghro, a starkly beautiful jungle of volcanic peaks, quite unlike the mountains we have already encountered so far. One can only wonder whether the stark conditions of life around these parts have helped shaping the character of its inhabitants. This is where in the winter of 1933, a 2000 Ait Atta Berber army resisted a 8000- man and 44 planes strong French army as the French were looking to complete their colonization of Morocco. 

General Guillaume, one of the French army heads wrote: ''Our opponent reveals the best warrior of North Africa. He is brave to temerity. He accepts deliberately to sacrifice his possessions, his family, and even his own life, to defend his freedom... This instinctive horror proven against all coercion and domination justifies the  desperate resistance opposed to any foreign penetration. Everyone defends his territory until the end, with a fury that can surprise, but which commands admiration.''

Once on the other side, we will stop for dinner and accommodation in the palm grove of Skoura. 

DAY 4: Skoura - Ouarzazate - Fint Oasis - Marrakech ( 5 hour drive).

After breakfast, do not miss a walk in the palm grove, an amazing world of its own: date palms at the edge, terraces of olive, pomegranate, almond and fruit trees further in, with grain and vegetable crops planted in between. Here, the river is diverted and separated by man- made streams to irrigate each and every garden as everyone gets his '8 hour slot' of water. You can witness the ingenious distribution of water through kettaras and seguias and the local craftsmen shape their colorful potteries. Succulent trees ripple in a breeze that wafts down the valley as the village is softly hushed, the only sound the bleating of far- off goats. 

Back on the road, our 4 day Morocco tour leaves the palmgrove behind as the road climbs, twists and turns its way up into the mountains, before breaking through the scarp at the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft. Stopping at the pass and looking back, you catch a glimpse of the Draa valley and the oases, a green river of palms snaking up into the haze bordered by the Kasbahs, adobe guardians rising as if from the earth where the green gives way to the desert.

The nearby Fint Oasis provides a precious opportunity to witness life within an oasis set among a stone desert, albeit hundreds of miles away from the Sahara. Smaller in size than a palm grove, an oasis is an essential component of the desert, where water comes out of the ground and used to be shared equally among the caravans. A small community still inhabits the lush gardens surrounding the oasis, preserving the century-old traditions.

Then our tour crosses Ouarzazate, made famous by its film studios where scenes of  'Game of Thrones' were recently shot. We will then start our way back crossing the High Atlas. Few people know it but this route was first laid out by the French Foreign Legion back when Ouarzazate was no more than a French army outpost. Our trip serpents its way through the abrupt valleys and mountain peaks and our desert tour arrives in Marrakech later in the evening.

DAY 1: Marrakech - Telouet - Ait Benhaddou - Agdz.

As the private tour of Morocco leaves Marrakech, the distant haze begins to resolve itself into a jagged mountain range - the High Atlas mountains, jutting abruptly from the plain. Our route follows the same one caravans used centuries ago, to bring into Marrakech slaves, gold and precious wood from the other side of the ocean of sand, the Sahara.

[... in the sands of that country is gold, treasure inexpressible. They have much gold and merchants trade with salt for it, taking the salt on camels from the salt mines. They start from a town called Sijilmasa... and travel in the desert as it were upon the sea, having guides to pilot them by the stars or rocks in the desert. ] ( Tohfut-ul- Alaby by anonymous author, 12th century)

Beautiful scenery and small villages built in tiers succeed among oak trees, walnut groves and snow patches as we brave the pass Tizi n Tichka pass at 2260 meters high. Scent of thyme fills the air. We then dwell into back roads, to shortly reach Telouet and former pasha's palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community was managing the nearby salt mines. 

Leaving Telouet behind, our journey crosses spaghetti western backgrounds to then follow the canyon. The gardens by the river bed melt into colourful mosaic and decaying kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. Late afternoon. Then it's the right time to visit UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, the postcard- like adobe citadel. A fat, red sun, only underlines the beige tones of the mud- and- straw mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. You will be offered guidance but the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already... As we pass through Ouarzazate, we can stop and visit the famous film studios where recently scenes of Game of Thrones were shot. 

Soon after leaving Ouarzazate behind, the road climbs, twists and turns its way through dark orange calcified ridges, before breaking through the scarp at the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft and descend onto the lush palmgrove of Agdz. Right after the pass you catch a first glimpse of the valley and the oases, the green swath of palms snaking up into the haze bordered by the Kasbahs, adobe guardians rising as if from the earth where the green gives way to the desert. There is no road sign but somehow you become aware you have entered a different land, Le Grand Sud. Dinner and accommodation in a guest house inside the palm grove.

DAY 2: Agdz - Zagora - Tamegroute - Erg Lihoudi /Erg Chigaga.

Draa Valley , with its numerous oases, Biblical villages and kasbahs, used as overnight stops by the caravans until not too long ago is the beginning of the 'caravan highway' connecting for centuries Timbuktu, Gao and the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali to Barbary ( present day Morocco).

[As a result of the conquest of the states of the Sudan, the Sultan of Morocco received so much gold dust that envious men were all troubled. So from then on Al- Mansour only paid his officials in pure metal and in dinars of proper weight. At the gate of his palace 1400 smiths were daily engaged in making pieces of gold. This super abundance of gold earned the sultan the surname Adh - Dhahabi ( the Golden).] ( Al Iffrani- 'History of Saadi dinasty in Morocco', 18th century).

Have a guided tour of the palm grove after breakfast. Then, cross over the palm grove and visit the Black People village, descendants of the Harratin, the black slaves from across the Sahara. Stroll around the eerie kasbah of Tamnougalt to then follow the route along Biblical villages all the way to Zagora. More ancient than Zagora is Amezrou, nearby. The important Jewish community had left behind the silver jewelry craft and the adobe synagogue. Later on, in Tamegroute, visit the library which hosts a fine collection of Qorans printed on gazelle hide and 12th century old works on mathematics, medicine and history. What makes Tamegroute famous though, is the typical green glaze cast inside the local earth ovens. Roof tiles, jars, dishes and pottery produced here are traded in souks from Tangier all the way to Agadir. The last stretch of the day will take us from Zagora to M'hamid, where the tarmac ends. The first dunes, Erg Lihoudi, are only a 30 minutes drive away. For those that want to experience the true desert, the more remote  dunes of Erg Chigaga await in the distance, a 2 hour off- road driving from Mhamid. As you approach the dunes, you will be met by our camel man and trade the 4x4 for camels to arrive at the desert camp by the time the sun dips onto the horizon. 

While the staff of the camp unloads your luggage and sets up your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. And lose yourself. There is nowhere else you would rather be. Have your dinner in front of your private tent, by the camp fire. At night, dazed by the millions of stars glittering above, the silence is so thick you feel you could cut a strip and wear it as a scarf, as you fall asleep.

DAY 3: Erg Chigaga - Foum Zguid - Tazenakht - Ait Benhaddou - Marrakech or Erg Lihoudi - Zagora - Ouarzazate - Marrakech.

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. After toddling across sand dunes, our trip reaches the perfectly flat Lake Iriki, nowadays completely dry, casting the fata morgana mirage... Later on, we will have tea with a family of nomads and search for fossils. Then, we take on the hamada, the much dreaded stony desert, to finally reach Foum Zguid. Farewell Sahara, hello tarmac. Have lunch by the pool at a local lodge or a casual snack in the village. On the way to Taroudant, we pass through Tazenakht, a carpet weaving center and center of Berber carpets trade. Later on, we complete the loop and get back to the route we left behind after visiting Ait Benhaddou on the first day.

We will then start our way back crossing the High Atlas. Few people know it but this road was first laid out by the French Foreign Legion back when Ouarzazate was no more than a French army outpost. The journey serpents its way through the abrupt valleys and mountain peaks and our custom Morocco tour arrives in Marrakech late in the evening.

Day 1: Casablanca - Rabat ( 1 hour drive).*driving times don't include the various stops along the way.

Our private Morocco tour starts off with Casablanca ( we can also start the tour in Marrakech or Rabat, to suit your flights) which does not hold much in the way of historical sites. That is perhaps the reason why King Hassan 2 decided to give the city a landmark- the second largest mosque in the world.  The last few years of its completion, 1400 craftsmen worked by day and 1000 by night. The marble, cedar wood and granite all come from Morocco while the glass chandeliers and white granite columns were brought from Murano, Italy. 

Next, our itinerary takes us to the capital Rabat, recently declared UNESCO world site. A quiet administrative center, Rabat has also a much richer history and makes the perfect introduction to Morocco, suspended somewhere between Europe and the Arab world. We will visit the 12th century Kasbah des Oudayas and its Andalusian Gardens, an important outpost of the Almohad dynasty. We can dwell further into the past and visit the Merenid necropolis of Chellah, where Phoenician, Roman and Merinid traces blend. But perhpas better stories are to be told about Sale, the sister city to Rabat and a flourishing piracy center, centuries ago. Our guide here, a local university teacher will relate how water canals used to run inside its gates and its pirates were famous for rapidly attacking European ships and taking illustrous nobility as prisoners. Once inside the city, the massive doors would close and the European powers had no other choice than to pay the ransom requested. The Republic of Sale, a state within a kingdom, even came into existence briefly and refused to pay any tax to the sultan. 

Day 2: Rabat - Meknes - Volubilis - Fez ( 3 hour drive).

After breakfast, our bespoke Morocco tour is headed towards Meknes , an imperial city that rose to prominence with the sultan Moulay Ismail ( 1672- 1727) who set the capital of Morocco to Meknes and gave it its golden age by building his imperial palace, city walls and kasbahs upon dismantling Badi palace in Marrakech and fetching to Meknes most of its marble, ivory and wood.

Places of interest in Meknes include Bab El Mansour gate, Masoleum of Moulay Ismail, the imperial palace and the royal granaries and stables. Back on the road we are to reach shortly the Roman ruins of Volubilis with its Galem’s baths, basilica, capitol and forum. Of particular interest is also the nearby sacred village of Moulay Idriss . Moulay Idriss was Prophet Mohammed's great grandson and fled Mecca during the 8th century AD. He established himself at Volubilis, converted the locals to Islam and founded the first Moroccan imperial dynasty. A walk around the village or even a trek in the charming countryside followed by lunch with views on the Roman ruins is worth considering. The journey should reach Fez late afternoon/ evening. Dinner and accommodation inside the medina of Fez.

Day 3: Fez - guided tour of the city ( no drive).

With the first light of dawn, you realize you have travelled in time. Four centuries? Five? If it weren’t for the satellite dishes adorning every roof, it could be more. Perhaps as much as the Kayraouine University and mosque, now 12 centuries old, the oldest still working university in the world. The heyday of the caravan trade coming from Timbuktu is long resolute. 

'At the end of the fifteenth century, however, Fez was still enjoying great commercial prosperity and was at the peak of its fame as a seat of learning, its mosques and libraries being the resort of students from many parts of the Muslim world. It was therefore the most natural haven for the exiles from Granada' ( E.W. Bovill - The Golden Trade of the Moors).

There are thousands of derbs, streets so narrow you could whisper in your neighbor’s ear. Your private English speaking guide will collect you from the Riad just after breakfast and try to make some sense out of the apparently chaotic old town. The numerous Islamic schools, among which the most ornate are perhaps Bou Inania and El Attarine, will wow you with their intricate stucco and cedar engravings that have so well resisted the passage of centuries. Out in the streets again, you will most likely smell the tanneries before you see them... Dozens of workers toil over open vats, dipping skins in to treat them before hand-dyeing them in bright yellow, red and white, stomping them under the hot sun to distribute the pigment. 

The guided tour of Fez takes us to Nejjarine Square you can catch your breath enjoying a mint tea on the roof terrace of Nejjarine Foundouk, an 18th-century caravanserai, turned woodwork museum after six years of painstakingly renovation. “There is a good deal of frustration involved in the process of enjoying Fez,” wrote Paul Bowles about Fez and that still holds true nowadays. Just when the walls seem to cave in on you, a little square comes up and suddenly all menace disappears. The secrets to be found around every corner draw you into the long forgotten world of travels of Ibn Battuta and Leo Africanus. 

Day 4: Fez - Ifrane - Azrou - Mildelt - Merzouga - Erg Chebbi ( 7 hours drive).

With Fez in the background, our custom Morocco tour serpents its way up into the shade of cedar forests. Our trip takes us first through Ifrane, the ‘Switzerland of Morocco’, quite popular  during the snow season when it becomes Morocco’s prime ski resort. Prettier walks are to be had in the foothills of the next town, Azrou. Country lanes wind through pine forest and lush villages. Hard to believe that tonight you'll be treading desert dunes... The dense forest is also home to the Barbary macaque, almost domesticated now and the 800- year old Gouraud’s cedar. On the other side of the Middle Atlas, the countryside is pigmented by apricots, walnuts and plum trees and pictures of rural Berber life as we approach Midelt.

A few hours later, our Morocco trip arrives in Erfoud and the change in landscape is sharp - Sahara is not far now. Given the time we will visit the ancient Jewish district and the Musee des Oasis. Reach the kasbah by the dunes and trade the 4x4 for camels. The camel ride is swift and the transfer can also be made by 4x4. Shortly after, while the staff are busy unloading your luggage, try to find the highest dune and reach the top. For as far as you can see, there is nothing but sand, an ocean of it as set to conquer everything that stands in its way. And while the sun sets, there is nowhere else you would rather be. Dinner and accommodation in a private tent in a camp in the dunes. Here, you have the choice between a basic tent with toilets/ bathroom outside or a comfort tent/ luxury tent with en suite bathroom and toilets. If possible, we recommend adding an extra day in the dunes, especially more so during winter time, when days are short. Have tea with the nomads, visit the old mines, pick up fossils, discover the rock engravings or dinosaur sites or quad bike in the dunes.

Day 5: Erg Chebbi - Tinejdad - Todra Gorges - Tinerir - Dades/ Skoura ( 4-5 hour drive).

Try to wake up to catch the sunrise- there is nothing quite like it... Have breakfast back at the kasbah by the dunes in Merzouga. After breakfast our route takes us first to Rissani that used to serve as a caravan trading post until a century ago. Gold and slave auctions were taking place here as late as 1800’s. Before it, the caravan trade and the most important city in Morocco was Sijilmassa, the ruins of which lie opposite Rissani. From its gates, Ibn Battuta and Leo Africanus left Morocco to embark on their illustrious journeys across the Sahara into African countries, at a time when Sijilmassa was the trading hub between Europe and Africa and Arab pure bred horses from Morocco a much coveted commodity at the court of Timbuktu:

[Here ( in Timbuktu) are many shops of artificers and merchants, and especially of such as weave linnen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbarie merchants bring cloth of Europe... Here are verie few horses bred, and the merchants and courtiers keepe certainn little nags which they use to travel upon: but their best horses are brought out of Barbarie. And the king so soon as he heareth that any merchants are come to town with horses, he commandeth a certain number to be brought before him, and chusing the best horse for himselfe he payeth a most liberal price for him.] ( Leo Africanus - History and description of Africa)

Before Tinerir, we'll explore a local ksour, a honeycomb traditional village where sun shafts trickle through open pits. The spectacular Todra Gorges, lie only 15 km from Tinerir, presenting an arresting spectacle with its crystal clear river emerging from it, its huge walls changing colour to magical effect as the day unfolds. We are back in the Atlas mountains as we pass through Tinerir, an important center for the Berber nomad tribes with its extensive palm grove, the decaying  ksours  and 19th century adobe mosque. Less touristy, the Dades Gorges are worth a detour, with their awkward monkey fingers rock formations and great trekking opportunities. We can stop for the night in Dades or continue for one more hour and spend the night in the palm grove of Skoura. 

Day 6: Dades/ Skoura - Ouarzazate - Ait Benhaddou - Telouet - Marrakech ( 4- 5 hour drive)

This morning our boutique Morocco tour takes us first to the immense palm grove of Skoura. Tour the palm grove with Abdel and learn about kasbah architecture, marriage customs and life in the community. In the shade of the palm trees, you will walk past pumpkins and figs, grapes and tomatoes, coriander, parsley and rosemary. Olives are pressed into the precious oil – dip your bread into it and try a local’s breakfast. Fire, water, earth and dye are what make most of things here. Or else, go for a trek at the foothills of the High Atlas mountains. 

In Ouarzazate, time allowing, we can visit the film studios where more recently some of the episodes of Game of Thrones were shot. Half an hour later, our tour turns right to shortly arrive at post- card perfect UNESCO world site of Ait Benhaddou. There is always someone willing to guide you but the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already.

Past Tamdaght and the kasbah made famous by the slave scene from 'Gladiator', the beauty of the valley serpenting underneath the route is beyond words. In the wall of the canyon, the nomads have dug galleries of grottoes where they used to stock their grains. Telouet is next, where the former pasha's palace dominates the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui overshadowed the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and  decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls. Shortly after Telouet, the trip joins the main road again and after innumerous twists, over Tizi n Tichka pass, we descend the High Atlas and reach the plain. Ahead in the night, lays dormant and sensual Marrakech, its walls and eighteen gates enveloping hundreds of foundouks, once protecting the caravans and their precious cargos. 

Day 7: Marrakech - visit of the city ( no drive).

Where Fez is the bashful scholar, the ‘red city’ is the exuberant dancer. More than its opulent night life and luxurious palaces, the design boutiques or the French restaurants, it’s something in the air. The light of the south as some may call it, a certain feeling that nothing can go wrong, a certain je ne sais quoi… A good point to start is perhaps Maison de La Photographie, located in one of the most authentic districts of Marrakech. The photos on display document life in Morocco from late 1800’s all the way to the 1950’s. The roof terrace offers 360 degrees views over the Medina and is the perfect spot for a mint tea and postcard- photo shoots.

Crossing the souks you may want to spoil yourself with some shopping. Miles of Ali Baba closet- size caves where everything glitters will lure you in. Marrakech has the finesse of craft met in Fez but also bears the influence of foreign artists that have taken residency in the city, making  it a mecca for the intrepid global shopper. If too early in the day for shopping, you can also admire the dyeing of the wool or the looming of a Berber carpet on site. Past Place des Epices and its shops stuffed with turtles, colorful spices and witchcraft accessories, we make our way into the Kasbah. Not before entering the gardens of 19th century Bahia Palace, an epitome of Islamic art of the era and residence of the grand vizier. Uncovered by chance in 1917, the nearby Saadi Tombs hold the remains of the sultans responsible for the last golden age of the city , the 16th and 17th century. The Carrara marble stands witness to the wealth of the dynasty and so does the nearby El Badi palace, albeit only a ruin nowadays. The palace never completed and the next sultan dismantled the marble, ivory, precious wood and used it all to build his royal palace in Meknes. 

As the sun sets and the shades of its towers lose their contour, the fumes start rising on the nearby Jemaa El Fna square. Musicians, acrobats, snake charmers, witch doctors and food stalls all come alive as if they had never left. This is the city at its most essential, a place where people from everywhere mingle, perform and people- watch, half way between a tableau vivant and a circus show. Try to catch one of the story tellers in action, a tradition perpetuated for centuries, likely to disappear soon. A different way to discover Marrakech is booking a cooking class complete with lunch inside a local's home and a tour of the medina to sample the various ingredients that make up the staple of Moroccan cuisine: the preserved vegetables, the smmen butter, the farnatchi, the herbalist, the souika market, mechoui ovens and more. 

Day 8: Marrakech.

Should time allow for it, we recommend spending the morning visiting some of the gardens that made the 'red city famous'. The Almohad dynasty of 12th century built most of them. Agdal gardens, south of the city was where the waters from the Atlas Mountains were converged by ingenious Arab engineers. They also created Menara gardens with its ornate pavilion overlooking the waters, still a favorite of marrakchi families for picnic on Sundays. One other garden belonged to a painter who had fallen in love with Marrakech in the 1920’s and decided to create his own version of paradise on earth. Majorelle Gardens were subsequently acquired by Yves Saint Laurent and then made available to the general public. They are best visited early in the morning before they become overcrowded. 

Or perhaps you fancy a Moroccan hammam ( steam bath) and body scrub with the locals in one of the dozens well- kept public baths scattered around the Medina. If you still have the energy, the village of Imlil, an hour drive from the city, offers tremendous trekking opportunities for a few hours or a full day. 

Depending on your flight out, the driver will drop you off at the airport two hours before your flight. If you are flying out of Casablanca, keep in mind it takes 3 hours to make it to the airport there from Marrakech.

Day 1: Marrakech- Tizi n Tichka- Telouet- Ait Benhaddou ( 4 hour drive). *driving times don't include the various stops. 

As our 5-day tour leaves Marrakech, the distant haze begins to resolve itself into a jagged mountain range - the High Atlas mountains, jutting abruptly from the plain. Our route follows the same one caravans used centuries ago, to bring into Marrakech slaves, gold and precious wood from the other side of the ocean of sand, Sahara.

[... in the sands of that country is gold, treasure inexpressible. They have much gold and merchants trade with salt for it, taking the salt on camels from the salt mines. They start from a town called Sijilmasa... and travel in the desert as it were upon the sea, having guides to pilot them by the stars or rocks in the desert. ] ( Tohfut-ul- Alaby by anonymous author, 12th century)

Beautiful scenery and small villages built in tiers succeed among oak trees, walnut groves and snow patches before arriving at the Tizi n Tichka pass, at 2100 meters high.  Once over the pass a totally different picture is unveiled: the lunar landscape of the Anti Atlas. Scent of thyme from the bushes around fills the air.

Just after the pass, the tour leaves the tarmac and goes off road to then reach Telouet and former pasha's palace dominating the village, a fortified citadel that is both a microcosm of an empire and its demise. Pacha Glaoui overshadowed the sultan by controlling most of nowadays Morocco and  decided to erect a palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from. He had employed the most skilled artisans to build and decorate his main residence and, in its golden age, armies, stables and Christian slaves were confined within its walls while a flourishing Jewish community was managing the nearby salt mines.

Leaving Telouet behind, our Moroccan itinerary crosses spaghetti western backgrounds to then follow the canyon. The gardens by the river bed melt into a gigantic green serpent imprisoned between the barren light brown walls of the canyon, only to escape out into the horizon. Here and there, decaying kasbahs stand witnesses of an age soon resolute. Late afternoon. The right time to visit UNESCO site of Ait Benhaddou, the postcard- like adobe citadel. A fat, red sun, only underlines the beige tones of the mud and straws mixture and through the covered passages and stone walls, the past filters itself into the present. In spite of the local ‘guides’, the best is to just lose yourselves in its alleyways. There is always a new way to reach its peak, from where the snowcapped Atlas Mountains framed by the denim blue sky will steal your breath away. If the climb up hadn’t already. Dinner and accommodation next to Ait Benhaddou. 

Day 2: Ait Benhaddou- Ouarzazate- Agdz- Zagora ( 3 hour drive)

After breakfast, our trip crosses Ouarzazate, made famous by its film studios where scenes of 'Game of Thrones' and 'Gladiator' were shot. As we leave Ouarzazate behind, the road skirts through desolate arid landscapes.  Soon after, the road climbs, twists and turns its way through bleached volcanic ridges, before breaking through the scarp at the pass of Tizi n'Tinififft and descend onto the lush palmgrove of Agdz. Right after the pass you catch a first glimpse of the valley and the oases, the green swath of palms snaking up into the haze bordered by the Kasbahs, adobe guardians rising as if from the earth where the green gives way to the desert. There is no road sign but somehow you become aware you have entered a different land, Le Grand Sud.

Draa Valley, with its numerous oases, Biblical adobe villages and kasbahs, used as overnight stops by the caravans until not too long ago is the beginning of the 'caravan highway' connecting for centuries Timbuktu, Gao and the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali to Morocco. 

[Until the beginning of the 17th century the Taghaza- Timbuktu road, pre- eminent in the gold trade and still more important as a cultural highway appears to have been the greatest of the routes across the desert. At any rate, up to the 1880's the Saharan trade was a factor of considerable importance in the economy of Morocco] ( E.W. Bovill - The Golden Trade of the Moors)

We will stop at Tamnougalt and roam through the eerie kasbah before crossing over the palm grove and stopping to see a small untouched community of Harratin, likely descendants from traded slaves. Further on, you can also admire megalithic rock paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes. Our itinerary today concludes with reaching the tranquil town of Zagora. A mock serious road sign spelling 'Timbuktu – 52 days by camel' still greets the visitors. The first real dunes a 2 hour drive away. We will stop for accommodation and dinner in a beautiful guest house nested in the palmgrove nearby.

Day 3: Zagora- Tamegroute- Mhamid- Erg Chigaga ( 3 hour drive).

In the shade of an ocean of palm trees, locals get the best out of their fertile land as olives, pumpkins, quinces, apples, pomegranate, wheat  and barley all grow aroused by the ancestral system of irrigation. We more than recommend a guided tour of this unique habitat. The nearby village of Amezrou, carries on the Jewish tradition of silver crafting and the local adobe Jewish synagogue still stands. We will stop for a break in Tamegroute where century old Qorans and Arab treaties on astronomy and sciences are neatly arranged behind glass windows at the local library.  The same village carries a pottery tradition known throughout Morocco and it is of interest to witness the shaping and baking of the emerald pots and dishes inside traditional earth ovens. Crossing Jbel Bani, we wave hello to Mount Tagine on our right and, before long, we reach M’hammid, where the tarmac ends - the last village before the Sahara. 

The next two hours of our tour make full use of the four wheel drive as rocky desert gives way to gravel and then sand dunes, past the occasional water well and oasis. The anticipation built doesn’t quite prepare you for the spectacle ahead of you: sleepy yet shifting leviathans of sand as far as the sight can stretch, dotted by the occasional desert camp. These are the dunes of Erg Chigaga. Here, we can arrange for you to be met and taken by camel ride to the camp for the last bit of the way. While the staff of the camp is unloading your luggage and preparing your dinner, you climb onto the highest dune you can find. And lose yourself in the moment. As the sun slowly sets over the dunes, there is nowhere else you would rather be. At night, dazed by the millions of stars glittering above, the silence is so thick you feel you could cut a strip and wear it as a scarf as you fall asleep. Dinner and accommodation in a private tent.

Day 4: Erg Chigaga- Foum Zguid- Tazenakht- Taroudant ( 7 hour drive).

(If you have an extra day at hand, it is worth spending an extra night in Tata inside a 500 year old noble house to then reach Taroudant on the evening of the next day following one of the most dramatic and off the beaten track roads in Morocco).

Should you have missed the sunrise… well, try not to. If yesterday was about getting away from civilization, today is about getting back to it. After toddling across sand dunes, our trip reaches the perfectly flat Lake Iriki, nowadays completely dry, where the Draa river used to form its estuary. Later on, we will have tea with a family of nomads and search for fossils. Then, we take on the hamada, the much dreaded stony desert, to finally reach Foum Zguid. Farewell Sahara, hello tarmac. On the way to Taroudant, we pass through Tazenakht, a carpet weaving center and center of Berber carpets trade and then Taliouine with its magnificent Kasbah. In the right season, learn how the saffron is turned into the spice.  

Arriving in Taroudant, there is hardly anything more relaxing after the desert trip than a plunge in the refreshing pool and/ or ridding off the sand inside the in- house hammam ( steam bath) at the local guest house. As the lights start to twinkle, in the gardens the scent of jasmine perfumes the air while dinner is set. Dinner and accommodation inside the medina of Taroudant or in the palm grove nearby.

Day 5: Taroudant- Taghazout/ Chichaoua- Marrakech ( 4- 5 hour drive).

Taroudant lies in the middle of a fertile agricultural plain that crashes into the foothills of the Anti Atlas while nudging the Sahara in the south. Also called sometimes ‘Petit Marrakech’ due to its similar looking walled old town, it is in fact older than its northern sister. Its walls were built by the Saadi sultans back in 16th century when the city was their capital and the main base to attack Portuguese invaders on the nearby Atlantic coast. In this quiet town where most folks go around on their bycicle, hop on a caleche and have a tour around the city walls or wander the souks best known for silver, honey and argan oil and imagine how Marrakech used to be 30 years ago. 

There are at least two ways to return to Marrakech. You can return via the highway from Agadir, after having enjoyed some time on the beach in Taghazout. Or, you can choose to take the highway to Marrakech and stop on the way to visit a 500 year- old apiary where the owner will introduce you to traditional bee- growing, have you taste the different sorts of honey (our favorite must be argan honey) and invite you for an organic lunch in his home. Arrive in Marrakech late afternoon.