The Great Desert of Morocco Tour - Ait Ben Haddou - Up to -70% | Voyage Privé

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  • Travel across Morocco’s deserts and discover a beautiful landscape filled with mesmerising colours, welcoming locals and stunning historical sites.
  • An English-speaking driver and guide will accompany you to captivating regions, sharing information along the way and stopping for thrilling photo opportunities.
  • Stay in comfortable 4* hotels, riads and luxury camps in Standard Rooms as you dine on international and local flavours every day.

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Your Itinerary In Brief

Are you dreaming about going on a trip to the Sahara Desert? Experience the life of Berbers and nomads, enjoy the desert’s silence, the feeling of total freedom and watch amazing sunsets along with a magical starlit sky at night.

 

Create your own Sahara adventure as you drive on the caravan's road. Visit Morocco’s great deserts, explore two desert regions on a 5-night tour or four deserts on a 7-night tour.

 

Discover the region of Zagora, the Dunes of Tino, the M’hamid Sahara Desert, Erg Lihoudi and the Merzouga’s Erg Chebbi Dunes. Visit the Valley of One Thousand Kasbahs along with Morocco’s Natural wonders of the Todra Gorges, our Grand Canyon and the Dades Valley. Sip tea and eat couscous with a Berber family and bake bread on volcanic rocks. This tour is ideal for thrill-seekers and those wishing to explore the real desert. Couples, families and small groups are welcome.

 

5 nights / 6 days

Day 1: Arrival to Marrakech

Day 2: Marrakech – Tizi n Tichka – Telouet – Ait benhaddou

Day 3: Ait benhaddou – Zagora – M’hamid Elghizlane

Day 4: M’hamid Elghizlane -   Agdz - Tamnougalt - Ouarzazate

Day 5: Ouarzazate – Marrakech

Day 6: Depart

 

7 nights / 8-days

Day 1: Arrival to Marrakech

Day 2: Marrakech – Tizi n Tichka – Telouet – Ait benhaddou

Day 3: Ait benhaddou – Zagora – M’hamid Elghizlane

Day 4: M’hamid Elghizlane -   Tinfou -  Tzarine – Rissani - Merzouga

Day 5: Merzouga - Tinerhir & Todra Gorge - Dades Valley – Ouarzazate

Day 6: Ouarzazate - Agelmouss - Marrakech

Day 7: Marrakech

Day 8: Depart

Your Itinerary In Detail

5-night Tour

Day 1:  Arrival to Marrakech

Meet and greet our representative and transfer to your hotel.

Stay overnight at Palm Menara Hotel or similar.

 

Day 2:  Marrakech – Tizi n Tichka – Telouet – Ait benhaddou (breakfast & dinner)

After breakfast, depart early in the morning from your riad/hotel in Marrakech and travel through the High Atlas Mountains via the Tichka Pass (2260 m) – the highest road pass in Morocco offering spectacular panoramic views of the mountains and valleys with a snaky road, beautiful landscapes with different colours and the Berber villages along the way.

 

After a panoramic stop here, continue to the Telouet Valley until we find ourselves on the ancient Salt mines route used to bring the much sought-after goods from the court of the Sultans. We soon reach Anmiter village to visit the pasha's palace (Elglaoui) in the Glaoua lands, a fortified citadel. The pasha had managed to overshadow the sultan by controlling most of what is today Morocco and decided to build his palace in the middle of nowhere, where his family had originated from.

 

Here, you will have free time for lunch (at your own expense). Afterwards, we will take the way that leads to Ait Benhaddou Kasbah, crossing the Ounila valley. Check in to your hotel. Later in the afternoon, visit the Kasbah Ait Benhaddou, the postcard-like UNESCO listed adobe citadel.

 

You will also see, Ksar Ait Benhaddou which has been used as a backdrop for many Hollywood blockbusters. It was one of the most important fortress strongholds on the old Salt Road caravan routes, where traders brought gold, ivory and salt from sub-Saharan Africa to Marrakech and beyond.

 

Dinner and overnight stay at Riad Tamdakhte or similar.

 

Day 3: Ait benhaddou – Zagora – M’hamid Elghizlane (breakfast & dinner)

After breakfast, meet your driver and head to Mhamid Lghizlane.

 

Departing from Ait Benhaddou and through the eastern Anti Atlas and along beautiful arid and rocky landscapes onto Tizi-n-Tinfifte Col. Upon arrival at Agdz, we start on a green track that leads to an oasis and through more little villages. The tracks go along the right side of Draa Wadi, crossing over the palm grove, where we can see the crops of wheat and barley. Arriving in Zagora, we will visit the pottery workshops, the Tamegroute kiln and the Koranic library. Then we take the road to Tagounite, before arriving to Mhamid where the Draa valley and civilization end.

 

Around 4 p.m, you will start the nomadic life by riding the camels and travel along the desert with its different facet of life and experience one of the most fascinating sand dunes sites we will ever see. Witness the superb sunset in the middle of the high sand dune.

 

Dinner and overnight stay at Kasbah Sahara Hotel.

Day 4:  M’hamid Elghizlane -   Agdz - Tamnougalt - Ouarzazate (breakfast & dinner)

Wake up and enjoy an early morning stroll before having breakfast to views of the beautiful sunrise among the sand dunes (optional). Ride your camel back to Mhamid and meet your driver for the start of your return journey to Ouarzazate  along Draa Valley and Tansikht (see the henna fields), discovering the hidden treasures of the Southern region and the road of 1,000 kasbahs. Arrive to Tamnougalt village and have free time for lunch.

 

The great Ksar Tamnougalt has been, for many centuries, the capital of Mezguita tribe and the seat of the Kaid representing the Sultan in the area. Successive Kaids built different Kasbahs, at first within and later outside the Ksar, some of them quite spectacular in size and decorated in a unique southern Morocco style.  Arrive in Ouarzazate and check in at your hotel.

Dinner and overnight stay at Karam Palace Hotel or similar.

 

 

Day 5:  Ouarzazate – Marrakech (breakfast & lunch)

After a late breakfast, leave your hotel for a short tour of Ouarzazate.

 

Start with the panoramic photo of Taourirt Kasbah, the second residence of the old pasha of Marrakech "Elglaoui" and optional visit of the cinematographic centre or Moroccan Hollywood. Ouarzazate became famous when its nearby Kasbah; Ait Benhaddou appeared in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. Other films shot in this area are Gladiator, The Mummy, Jesus of Nazareth, Babel, the Prince of Persia, Asterix & Obelix etc.

 

Say goodbye to the desert of Morocco from its gate Ouarzazate, keeping the best memories of this country, and head back to Marrakech through Agelmous and Tichka.

 

Enjoy a Berber lunch in Ait Ourir village on a restaurant terrace overlooking the river Zat.

 

Arrive in Marrakech and check in to your hotel.

 

You will have the rest of the afternoon free, for relaxing at your hotel or souvenir shopping in the Marrakech souks

 

Overnight stay at the Palm Menara Hotel or similar.

 

Day 6: Departure

Have breakfast at the hotel. Take your departure transfer to Marrakech airport.

7-night Tour

Days 1 - 3 will be the same as the 5-night tour. 

 

Day 4:  M’hamid Elghizlane -   Tinfou -  Tzarine – Rissani - Merzouga  (breakfast & dinner)

Following an early morning stroll before having breakfast to beautiful sunrise among the sand dunes (optional), ride your camel back to Mhamid and meet your driver for the start of your return journey to Nkoob along Draa Valley and tansikht.

 

Pass Zagora’s Dunes of Tinfo and visit the old Kasbah Ait Lkaid in the village of Tamegroute. At the end of the main road you will find the famous road sign to Timbuktu that reads “52 jours” – 52 days by camel. The Dunes of Tinfo (as well as many other sand dunes in Morocco) are famous for their healing qualities for rheumatoid arthritis. Continue to Tazarine, a small town located 10 km from the oasis of Tamsahalte.

 

On a platform just above the town, visit the beautiful panorama over the city with dozens of mosques and palm gardens. After a short break in Tazrine, where you will have free time to get your lunch, take the road to Rissani, a Sahara Desert town in the middle of Tafilalt region, the ancient Alawi Dynasty and Mohammed VI, the current King of Morocco are originally from here. Stop for a photo of the old Mausoleum of Moulay Ali Sharif, the first King of the Alawi Dynasty. Continue the road to Erfoud to explore a Museum of Fossils and see how fossils are made.

 

Erfoud is a very active city, while maintaining its name as a modern Moroccan Sahara Desert town, it still preserves a certain authenticity of a true Arab city with an impressively “wild” market and gorgeous surrounding landscapes filled of oasis, dunes, and Rocky Mountains. 

 

Arrive in Merzouga and Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes before sunset. Ahmed and his Touareg family will share some of the Sahara Desert’s secrets. As you ride a camel across these silent, mystical dunes, there will be countless opportunities to photograph the endless rolling desert.

 

Dinner and overnight stay at a Luxury Camp.

 

Day 5: Merzouga - Tinerhir & Todra Gorge - Dades Valley – Ouarzazate (breakfast & dinner)

After breakfast, leave Merzouga dunes for Todra Gorge and the Dades Valley to Ouarzazate.

 

After 1.5-hour drive, visit the Todra Gorge, a canyon in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountains in Southern Morocco near the town of Tinerhir. Both the Todra and neighbouring Dades rivers have carved out cliff-side canyons.

 

Local people and Nomads live in the area and can be seen with their small donkeys or herding camels and goats. The drive is scenic as with the new roads built, you will drive past the small villages at the mouth of Todgha River. The Gorge extends from the village of Tamtatouche to Tinerhir, with cliffs rising dramatically up to 300 m on each side of a narrow corridor and make up some of the most impressive cliffs and are by far, the highest in Morocco.

 

The Gorge is considered as a spectacle, with its gigantic rock walls changing colour to create magical effects with the sunlight. Continue to Boumalen Dades, a valley that boasts limestone cliffs with uniquely shaped erosions and superb scenery and the valley’s windy roads. Driving along you will pass flower and vegetables fields, riverbanks and several fortified ksours. Here, you will have free time for lunch.

 

After Lunch, continue through the Valley of Roses. This perfumed Valley is located north of El Kelaa Des Mgouna in a pleasant journey in route to Ouarzazate. Your driver will stop for you to view the floral distillation factories laid out in the small kasbah town that manufacture the entire nations products of eau de rose. The harvest is understandably a labour of love and the culminating festivities of the annual Rose Festival are all the livelier for it. On the same the road to Ouarzazate, visit Skoura and its “Valley of One Thousand Kasbahs" a fertile oasis lined with immense palm groves that provide great views of the Atlas Mountains alongside deserted landscapes. The most beautiful kasbahs in southern Morocco can be found here. Many of them are still partially inhabited.

 

Dinner and overnight stay at Karam Palace Hotel or similar.

 

Day 6: Ouarzazate - Agelmouss - Marrakech (breakfast & lunch)

After a late breakfast, leave your hotel for a short tour of Ouarzazate.

 

Start with the panoramic photo of Taourirt Kasbah, the second residence of the old pasha of Marrakech "Elglaoui" and optional visit of the cinematographic centre or Moroccan Hollywood. Ouarzazate became famous when it’s nearby Kasbah; Ait Benhaddou appeared in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. Other films shot in this area are Gladiator, The Mummy, Jesus of Nazareth, Babel, the Prince of Persia, Asterix & Obelix etc.

 

Say goodbye to the desert of Morocco from its gate Ouarzazate, keeping the best memories of this country, and head back to Marrakech through Agelmous and Tichka.

 

Enjoy a Berber lunch on route in a restaurant terrace overlooking the river Zat. Arrive in Marrakech and check in to your hotel.

 

Overnight stay at Hotel Palm Menara or similar.

 

Day 7: Marrakech (breakfast & lunch)

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel. Today you will discover Marrakech. Your tour will take you to the El Bahia Palace then on to Dar El Basha Qaurter to see the traditional Moroccan restaurants and on to the Qassabine and Smarine Souks (markets) to peruse their speciality goods of basketwork, dried fruit, spices, and fabrics.

 

The ancient Rhaba Kedima Square reveals a fusion of Africa and Arabia characteristic of the city, where locals arrive by the hundreds to buy mysterious potions to make magic spells and cures with ingredients ranging from seeds and barks to chameleons and lizards.

Have lunch at a local restaurant in the medina.

 

Overnight at stay Hotel Palm Menara or similar.

 

Day 8: Departure(breakfast)

Have breakfast at the hotel. Take the departure transfer to Marrakech airport. 

 

End of services.

Your Hotels

Just for you
Just for you:
  • Arrival and departure transfers (Marrakech airport / Hotel / Marrakech airport)
  • Transportation included
  • English-speaking driver
  • Entrances to monuments: Kasbah Telouet - Kasbah Tamnougalt
  • For 5 nights / 6 day tour: 5 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 3 dinners
  • For 7 nights / 8 days tour: 7 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners

HAND-PICKED JUST FOR YOU

Maximum room capacity

You will stay in Standard Rooms in 4* hotels, riads or luxury camps (or similar) carefully selected for you.

 

Your hotels during the 5 nights tour:
- Marrakech : Palm Menara Hotel or similar
- Aït Benhaddou : Riad Tamdakhte or similar

- M'hamid Elghizlane : Kasbah Sahara Hotel
- Ouarzazate: Karam Palace Hotel or similar


Your hotels during the 7 nights tour:

- Marrakech : Palm Menara Hotel or similar
- Aït Benhaddou : Riad Tamdakhte or similar

- M'hamid Elghizlane : Kasbah Sahara Hotel

- Merzouga: Luxury Camp
- Ouarzazate: Hotel Karam Palace or similar

Your Dining Choices

Your custom dining package during your tour is as follows:


- 5 nights: 4 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 3 dinners (excluding drinks)


- 7 nights: 6 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 4 dinners (excluding drinks)

Your Optional Excursions

4X4 Safari on the Berber roads

Your Optional Excursions

At the foot of the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas, head out on an adventure on the Berber roads to meet the locals and discover their traditions. 

Hot Air Balloon, Hammam and Massage

Your Optional Excursions

Created exclusively for Voyage Privé customers, enjoy a unique experience by discovering Marrakech aboard a hot air balloon. 
Prolong this feeling of escape with a visit to the Turkish bath for 45 minutes of exfoliation, in addition to a relaxing 30-minute massage.

Your Journey to Morocco

Flights:

You may choose from Economy, Premium or Business class flights on sectors that they operate, at the next stage of the booking process.

 

The flights included are with either a scheduled or no-frills airline and are subject to live availability and prices can change. You can choose your preferred departure times during the booking process. Please select your flight options carefully as departure and arrival airports may differ.

Your Destination

Marrakech

Marrakech is the epicentre of culture in Morocco, thanks to its ancient Medina, lively souks, and historic monuments. Immerse yourself in the heady atmosphere, with snake charmers in the bustling Jemaa El Fna Square, peace and tranquillity at the Bahia Palace, or an onrush of colour and spices in the dense souks of the Medina.

 

While Marrakech preserves its centuries-old history at places such as the Koutoubia Mosque, the city's Bohemian atmosphere is most present in Jardin Majorelle, a landscaped botanical garden created by French artist Jacques Majorelle and later bought by Yves Saint-Laurent. Alternatively, visitors can escape the city altogether and take a trip to the Atlas Mountains to visit the region’s traditional Berber villages and argan oil cooperatives.

 

At the end of the day, Le Jardin Secret is the perfect place to enjoy a stylish meal in a chic Moroccan courtyard. Alternatively, retreat to one of the Medina’s rooftop restaurants for a delicious tagine while watching the sunset over the city mosques.

In More Detail

Please find practical information about your trip
This tour is not accessible to people with reduced mobility.

Pets are not allowed.
No taxes to pay on the spot.

Price includes:

  • 5 nights or 7 nights accommodation as per itinerary
  • Meals as per itinerary
  • Arrival and departure transfers (Marrakech airport / Hotel / Marrakech airport
  • Return transport throughout tour
  • Driver speaking French, English, Italian, Spanish
  • Entrances to monuments: Kasbah Telouet - Kasbah Tamnougalt & Bahia Palace (for 7-night stay only)

 

Price does not include:

  • Local taxes
  • Tips and gratuities
  • Drinks

If booking as a single traveller, room occupancy is not guaranteed. You may be placed in either a single, double or twin room, based on the availability of the property at the time. 

The location shown on our map is to be used as a guide only and the actual location of the property may differ.

Your contact details may be passed on to the hotel so that they can make contact with you to discuss your booking in advance of your arrival.

You may be asked to provide a credit/debit card deposit on arrival to cover any purchases made in the hotel.

Although we endeavour to provide up to date information we cannot guarantee that all hotel facilities and services will be available during your stay, especially when travelling out of the main holiday periods.

Star rating standards may differ to that of the UK, depending on the country of travel.

 

Please note that due to the current situation, any information mentioned is subject to change or adaptation.

We strongly recommend that you contact the hotel three days before your departure to keep you informed of the latest changes and information.

You can also refer to our FAQ section to find more information on the development of the situation.

We suggest that you keep informed of the latest regulations in force:

 In the UK via the corresponding link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus

Your Contract

If you book a package which includes flights, your contract will be with Voyage Privé. The air holiday package(s) shown are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is 10170.

If you book a package which does not include flights, then ATOL protection does not apply. Your contract will be with the provider of the accommodation and not Voyage Privé. Voyage Privé acts only as agent for the accommodation provider.

Please read our booking conditions before confirming your holiday.

The Voyage Privé Promise

  • A unique selection of high-end accommodation
  • Exclusive perks and discounts of up to -70%
  • For all inquiries, refer to our help centre available 24/7
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