Top Luxury Desert Tours in Morocco
Welcome to our selection of sensational Luxury Desert Tours in Morocco!
We are of the belief that visiting the desert is not just a visual experience but an interactive one, where you will encounter not only the natural wonders of the Sahara but the local Berber people and their rich history, culture and traditions.
Our expertise and genuine love for what we do stems from the fact that we are personally from local Berber families ourselves, so have an in-depth understanding of the desert and its inhabitants.
Our Mission Statement is thus to encourage understanding and interaction with the Berber people and their lands through sustainable tourism, allowing you to interact with our people while preserving their nomadic lifestyle and traditions and also protecting the environment.
We are aware that some travellers like to travel as cheaply as possible and rough it, but that others prefer a more luxurious vacation. Thus, we try to combine the two and provide a top luxury desert tour in Morocco with a budget as reasonable as possible.
The Best Luxury Desert Tours in Morocco From Fes
Luxury Desert Tour From Fes to Marrakech via Merzouga and Erg Chebbi: 4-Day Tour.
For those who want to see a bit more of Morocco, we organise tours that begin in one city and end in another, so here we start in Fes, visit the desert for a day or two and then finish at your luxury accommodation in Marrakech. This includes travel through the Atlas Mountains, visits to plenty of Berber villages and towns, kasbahs, palm plantations, deep gorges and of course the Sahara Desert where you will have a camel trek, watch the sunset and sunrise from the crest of the dunes and share in the desert nomad lifestyle with dance, dinner and song. We will share stories and our cultures around the campfire under the bright starlight. And our desert tents are truly luxurious providing everything you would expect to find in four-star hotels.
Day One : Fes – Ifrane – Azrou – Midelt – Errachidia – Merzouga – Erg Chebbi Dunes.
The perfect recommended desert tour from Fes. Fes is located at the foothills of the Middle Atlas mountains, so, after your breakfast, our friendly chauffeur will pick you up from your hotel or riad and you will begin the ascent into the mountains. With the city behind you, you’ll soon notice the tranquillity and cool, crisp, fresh mountain air.
Through the fragrant cedar forests you drive to the quaint Berber town of Ifrane, notable for its Alpine, Swiss-chalet style architecture and the statue of the Lion of Ifrane, made by Italian prisoners of war during WWII. Nearby is the village of Michliffen, a ski resort in the winter months when the mountains are snow-covered. Surprising to many to find winter sports facilities in Morocco.
Next stop in the cedar forest is near the equally pretty town of Azrou where you get a chance to see the famous “Barbary Apes”, actually a species of macaque monkey. Please don’t feed them, they are becoming fat and unhealthy and their numbers are dwindling.
On across the high plateau, the High Atlas Mountains soon loom up ahead of you and we cut through them to the town of Midelt and then the desert-edge town of Errachidia, you continue along the beautiful and fertile Ziz Valley, passing Berber villages until we go off-road in your luxury 4×4, fully air-conditioned vehicle until you reach a tented desert-nomad encampment near Merzouga.
Here, our Berber family will welcome you like old friends or family, give you a refreshing mint tea and show you to your luxury desert tent where you can freshen up, shower and change ready for your first camel trek. Your camel will take you to the dune crest of Erg Chebbi, one of the highest dunes in Morocco, where you will watch the stunning sunset. Returning, you will find a fine table laid out for you on a dune top, or you can go to our excellent restaurant-tent, and will enjoy a specially prepared traditional dinner. Then join us around the campfire under the myriad stars, share stories, song and dance. Walk barefoot with the sand between your toes.
Fall asleep in your luxury tent to the sweet strains of Berber music in a carefully crafted mix of high luxury and ancient tradition.
Day Two: Twenty-Four Hours in The Sahara Desert!
And it’s up to you to choose how to spend your time in the desert.
But first, it’s a walk to the crest of the dunes again early in the morning to see the sun come up, the one thing that is as beautiful as a desert sunset as you watch the shifting shadows and the colour changes of the sands. Then you’ll have your breakfast made with fresh produce that is entirely locally sourced.
But how will you spend your day? For the more mechanically minded, you can take an ATV out to drive around the dunes, or for the more fitness oriented, maybe some time spent sandboarding from the dune tops. Perhaps visiting the local villages or taking a longer camel trek deeper into the desert would suit you better. Or would you rather just relax in the beautiful surroundings with a good book and an iced drink?
End the day watching another sensational sunset from the dune tops, enjoy another delicious dinner and share more of your culture with us around the flickering campfire. Be amazed by the sheer number of stars and how close they seem to be. Then it’s a return to your luxury tent, shower and huge, comfortable bed.
Dreams are made of this.
Day Three: Erg Chebbi – Rissani – Tinghir -Todra Gorges – Dades Gorges
Another magnificent sunrise over the dunes, another first-class breakfast and then it’s off on the road again, first to Rissani, famous for its goatskin leather, and then to the town and vast palm groves of Tinghir, shortly followed by the Todra Gorges, very popular with rock climbers due to their shear, high walls above the little often dry stream that runs through them. The neighbouring Dades Gorges are just as spectacular and beautiful, but here there is a proper river running through them and a series of dwellings and hotels along its route. You’ll be staying the night, of course. in the most luxurious hotel in the area, which also has a very fine restaurant.
Day Four : Dades Gorges – Skoura Palm Plantations – Ouarzazate Film Studios – Ait Benhaddou and Glaoui Kasbahs – Tizi n’Tichka Pass – Marrakech.
After your delicious breakfast, you’ll be heading out of the Dades Gorges and travelling first to the vast date palm plantations of Skoura via a road sprinkled liberally with pretty Berber villages. The next stop is the Hollywood of Africa, Ouarzazate where you can visit the film studios, where movies like “Indiana Jones” and “Gladiator” as well as TV shows such as “Game of Thrones” were filmed.
Your next stop will be at the magnificent Ait Benhaddou Kasbah, built on the side of a steep hill above a shallow river and also the backdrop to many Hollywood movies, Then another UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Glaoui Kasbah at Telouet, an impressive fortress.
Finally, you can enjoy the tremendous views from the Tizi n’Tichka Pass as you cut through the western High Atlas Mountains and onto the plains back to Marrakech where you will be dropped off in the early evening at your hotel or riad.
N.B. We do offer a Three Day Luxury Desert Tour From Fes to Marrakech via Merzouga and Erg Chebbi, which omits day two, so you get limited time in the desert, or we provide a Five Day Luxury Desert Tour From Fes to Marrakech via Merzouga and Erg Chebbi which gives you a whole extra day in which to enjoy more of the desert activities available to you.
We also arrange the reverse tours based on a Four Day Luxury Desert Tour From Marrakech to Fes via Merzouga and Erg Chebbi.
Please don’t hesitate to ask us about any of these or any other tour you may wish to go on.
THE BIG ONE! LUXURY DESERT TRIP FROM FES TO MARRAKECH: 7-Day Tour.
The ultimate Luxury Desert Trip from Fes! Seven days including visits to the three major dune complexes in Morocco; the famous Erg Chebbi, the huge and remote Erg Chigaga, and the lesser-known and beautiful Erg Lihoudi. You will experience camel trekking, off-roading, nomadic desert encampments, nights under the stars with the Berber people around the campfire under the myriad stars and much, much more. This amazing adventure also includes mountain passes across the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas ranges and takes in cedar forests, barbary apes, the best kasbahs in the country, deep gorges and Berber villages, and even the Hollywood of Africa! An experience second to none.
Day One : Fes – Azrou – Midelt – Erfoud – Merzouga – Erg Chebbi Dunes.
Our friendly, experienced guide will collect you from your riad or hotel after breakfast and you will make the short ascent up into the Middle Atlas Mountains, first stop at Azrou in the fragrant cedar forests where you’ll get a chance to encounter the famous Barbary monkeys, but please don’t feed them, they’re becoming fat and unhealthy! Across the high plains, you travel to Midelt, famous for its apples, where you’ll have your lunch. Then you cut through the Tizi n’Talghaumt Pass through the High Atlas Mountains and down along the verdant Ziz Valley and its palm trees and along “The Road of A Thousand Kasbahs” past innumerable Berber mud-brick villages. We pass through the desert-edge city of Errachidia and on to Erfoud, famous for its fossils and Festival of Dates before you see the dunes appear suddenly on the horizon like a mountain range. Here we enter Merzouga, at the base of the Erg Chebbi dunes where a refreshing glass of mint tea awaits you at our luxury desert encampment where you can walk with the sand between your toes before an amazing desert sunset.
Join your new Berber family around a roaring fire, exchange stories, sing and dance under so many stars that it can hardly be believed.
Sleep to the sweet strains of Berber music in your luxury desert tent with all mod-cons and a nice, big comfortable bed.
Day Two : Erg Chebbi – Tinghir – Todra Gorges – Tinejdad – Dades Gorges.
Awaken early to watch the sun come up over the dunes and the shifting shadows and colour changes across the sands. Then back to camp for a breakfast made entirely from locally sourced products, and off to Tinhgir and the steep-sided Todra Gorges, much loved by rock climbers, for luncheon and some locally made souvenirs. We continue through Tinejdad along the palm groves, where we can stop for a stretch of the legs before ending the day in the Dades Gorges in a very luxurious hotel with spectacular views.
Day Three : Dades Gorges – Tizi n’Tazzazerte Pass – N’Qob – Tansikht – Agdez.
Following breakfast, you will set out south, through the Tizi n’Tazzazerte Pass that cuts through the foothills of the High Atlas mountains at an elevation of 2,308m above sea level. This takes you to N’Qob, a village with forty-five kasbahs, and on to the Draa Valley at Tansikht and afterward, we will visit the Tamnougalt kasbah and palm oasis at Agdez where you can do a little exploring before arriving at your first class hotel for the night.
Day Four : Agdez – Zagora – Tamgroute – M’hamid – Erg Lihoudi.
We take the old caravan trade route along the Draa Valley to Zagora after your breakfast. This road has panoramic views of the mountains, Berber villages, kasbahs and palmeries and there is plenty of time to stop off for photo opportunities or just to stretch your legs.
After lunch in Zagora, you visit the potteries of Tamgroute where you can also visit the Quranic Madrassa (school) and see some of the precious ancient documents, and also explore the secret underground village. The asphalted road ends at M’hamid where you go off-road in your 4×4, back into the Sahara until you reach the Erg Lihoudi dunes where another luxury bivouac awaits you and you have the opportunity to watch another desert sunset.
Day Five: Erg Lihoudi – M’Hamid – Sahara Desert – Erg Chigaga Dunes.
You can watch another desert sunrise and then partake of another breakfast where the ingredients all come from local small farms. Afterward, you’ll return to the village of M’Hamid where you can stock up at the markets and visit some kasbahs. Then it’s an off-road drive across the rock desert or Hamada to the Erg Chigaga dunes via a beautiful Sacred Oasis. The Erg Chigaga is a remote area, still unspoiled, serene and silent, truly in the desert proper. There are the largest dunes in Morocco, some of them reaching over 50m above the surrounding sands. They extend for over 30km and are an awesome spectacle.
You transfer to a camel for a trek along the dunes and to see a spectacular desert sunset. Another luxury desert nomad encampment awaits you with everything you would expect from a top hotel. Sweet dreams will surely come to you as you sleep in the tranquility of the sands under the uncountable bright stars.
Day Six: Erg Chigaga – Lake Iriqui – Foum Zguid – Taznakht – Ouarzazate.
After your morning meal, you’ll offroad another almost 100km through the Sahara Desert with stops at the alien landscape of the dry bed of Lake Iriqui, desert mountains and plateaus, and some fossil collecting. On the desert’s edge, you’ll have your lunch in the Berber village of Foum Zguid where you can also shower to remove the last of the dust and sand. Northwards you’ll continue through palmeries and villages to Taznakht town, well-known for its traditional Berber carpets and rugs. After lunch in this pretty little place, you’ll travel on to Ouarzazate, “the Hollywood of Africa”, where you’ll spend the night in a luxurious riad.
Day Seven : Ouarzazate – Ait Benhaddou Kasbah – Telouet – Tizi n’Tichka Pass – Marrakech.
Following breakfast, you’ll visit nearby Ait Benhaddou, a magnificent kasbah and UNESCO World Heritage Site, built on the side of a steep hill. It has often been used as the backdrop for film and TV series such as “Gladiator” and “Game of Thrones”. After lunch, you’ll visit another UNESCO site, the Glaoui Kasbah in Telouet which is more of a fortress in style, much of it in ruins, but still well worth a visit. Then through the mountains via the awesome Tizi n’Tichka Pass and across the plain to Marrakech where you’ll arrive in the early evening to be dropped off at your hotel or riad.
N.B. If you wish to spend more time in the desert we can add an extra day to your itinerary, either at Erg Chebbi or Erg Chigaga, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we’re only too glad to help.