Departure from Fes at 8 O’clock, traveling past Ifrane, where the houses have sloping roofs, remarkable and unusual in Morocco. This is to cope with the yearly snowfall. Near Azrou, 1250 meters, with the geomorphologic Berber name which means “stone” or “rock” you can see Barbary apes in the oak and cedar forests of the Middle Atlas.
From here we drive along the N13 south over the Middle Atlas, passing through Timahdite (once again a Barber name, and as the word begins and ends with the letter “t”, it signifies it is feminine.)
We reach Midelt, 1508M, which is called “the apple capital “ of Morocco and lies at the foot of Ayachi Mountain. The town serves as the commercial agricultural center for the surrounding area and is also one of Morocco’s principal cities for the mining of several minerals, such as fluorite, vanadinite, quartz, and cerussite. This is where we will stop for lunch.
We continue south traveling over the Tizi-n-Tarlamt pass known as the “she-camel” pass. We descend through the Ziz Valley, which is particularly well-known for its palm trees and the length of the oasis. All along the road, there are innumerable “kasr's”, small villages of individual houses. From here, we reach the mining town of Errachidia (e.g. copper and malachite) and then Erfoud, famous for its date festival and fossils. It is fascinating to see how these millions of fossils have been worked into artifacts and so the shops are worth a visit. There is no obligation to buy anything!
You continue to Rissani and finally the famous red Erg Chebbi Dunes in Merzouga. You take a Camel ride of an hour to an hour & a half either setting out from the camp or to it. There is also the possibility to take the 4×4 to the camp.
Your dinner and overnight are in a luxury camp with a private bathroom, king-sized beds, beautiful Moroccan furnishings, and lamps tastefully arranged to enhance your enjoyment of the silence and beauty of the dunes.

If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise, when the color of the dunes and the play of shadows are an awesome sight. After breakfast at the camp, we leave for Tinghir and the Toudgha Gorges. On the way, you pass the water channels- “khettarat”- which you can descend into to appreciate the architecture and genius behind this form of irrigation which prevents evaporation in the summer heat. The channels start at a higher gradient at one end until they finally emerge at the surface of the soil where they are fed into the fields. You can find out more about these channels by reading Andrew Wilson’s work.
In the gorge and the valley, there are opportunities to walk beyond the gorge itself or by the village gardens and Fields before you reach it. Later the itinerary continues to the Dades Valley. The area, which now forms the Dades Gorges, lay at the bottom of the sea millions of years ago. Great quantities of sediment were deposited around giant coral reefs, and over time this material become compacted into a variety of sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone.
Eventually, the movement of the earth’s crust caused the region to rise above the sea, forming The Atlas Mountains and the surrounding landscape. The night is spent in a hotel or kasbah.

After breakfast, a visit to the Dades Gorges and a short walk there is scheduled. Back at the car, your 4-day desert tour from Fes to Marrakech continues, going off-road along the Boutaghar piste to visit Berber nomads in Their caves and partake of a glass of tea with them. This visit makes it clear to the visitor just how hard existence is for these nomads in this very dry landscape, trying to feed their goats and bring up Their children.
From here we continue through The Valley Of the Roses, famous for its Rose Festival in May. Cosmetic and toiletry items are produced and valued throughout the country.
In Skoura and the Oasis there, Kasbah Amredhil waits for a very worthwhile visit. The kasbah has been beautifully restored and gives a clear idea of life within such housing. It is made entirely of Adobe, an excellent building material; warm in winter and cool in summer, due to the thickness of the walls. 45 minutes later you reach Ouarzazate, where you spend the night in a guest house.

After breakfast, the route goes on to Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, one of Morocco’s seven World Heritage sites, and the backdrop for many Hollywood blockbusters. It is the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and some of the buildings date back to the 17th century.
From here you drive along the beautiful and awe-inspiring Ounila Valley, full of bends in the roads and surprises at the hues of the rock and soil, Berber villages and gardens, as well as smaller Kasbahs.
We continue to Telouet set right in the midst of the mountains and once the seat of the last pasha of Marrakech, El Glaoui, from where the highest pass in Africa, Tizi-n-Tichka was controlled. Each addition to the building now stands in ruins exposed to the wind and the rain, having been abandoned and plundered after Thami El Glaoui, left Morocco for France, where he died. Wait to be pleasantly surprised by the traditional interior decoration as you reach the farthest end of the Kasbah.

At the end of the afternoon, having crossed the Tichka pass, we arrive in Marrakech. Your 4-day desert tour from Fes to Marrakech comes to an end as your driver escorts you to your riad.