DAY 1: FES → IFRANE → ZIZ VALLEY → MERZOUGA DESERT

Your private driver picks you up from your accommodation in Fes early in the morning. The road heads south through the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, passing through the alpine town of Ifrane — known for its European-style buildings and cool mountain climate — and through Azrou, where Barbary macaques can often be spotted in the ancient cedar trees by the roadside.

The descent from the mountains into the Ziz Valley is one of the most dramatic transitions in Morocco: from cool forested heights to a long, lush corridor of date palms stretching southward through the pre-Saharan landscape. By late afternoon, the dunes of Erg Chebbi rise dramatically from the desert floor, glowing orange and rose in the evening light.

You arrive at the foot of the dunes in time for a golden-hour camel ride into the Sahara. At your luxury desert camp, a traditional dinner is served under an open sky, followed by an evening of live Berber music around the fire. Your private tent, with its own en-suite bathroom, awaits beneath a desert sky blazing with stars.

DAY 2: MERZOUGA DESERT DISCOVERY

The entire second day belongs to the desert. After watching the sunrise from the top of the dunes, you set out by 4×4 on an off-road excursion into the most remote corners of the Erg Chebbi.

The centrepiece of the day is a visit to a nomadic Berber family in their desert encampment — an encounter of genuine warmth and cultural depth. Welcomed with mint tea, you spend time learning about their traditions, their way of reading the landscape, and their extraordinary relationship with the Sahara. It is the kind of encounter that stays with you long after you leave.

The afternoon is open for sandboarding, photography, and a guided hike through the Monkey Fingers Canyon — a hidden geological formation of extraordinary rock shapes carved by wind and time into the desert landscape. At sunset, another camel ride from the camp, then a final evening of music and stargazing.

DAY 3: MERZOUGA DESERT → RISSANI → TODRA GORGE → DADES VALLEY

Breakfast at the camp, then the drive west begins. Rissani — the ancient market town at the edge of the Sahara and the ancestral home of Morocco’s Alaouite dynasty — is worth a stop on market days (Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) when the souk fills with traders from across the region.

From Rissani, the road continues to Tinghir and the Todra Gorge — a narrow slot canyon where sheer limestone walls rise over 300 metres above a shallow mountain stream. Walking through the gorge floor is one of the tour’s most powerful natural experiences: the scale, the silence, and the light are extraordinary. The afternoon drive through palmeries and pre-Saharan valleys ends in the beautiful Dades Valley for the night.

DAY 4: DADES VALLEY → BOU THARAR → KELAAT M’GOUNA → SKOURA → OUARZAZATE

Today’s route explores some of the south’s most beautiful and least-visited landscapes. Departing the Dades Valley, you head into the hidden gorge of Bou Tharar — a narrow, dramatic canyon route of extraordinary scenic beauty, rarely visited by tourists and far removed from the standard tour circuit.

The route continues through Kelaat M’Gouna — the heart of Morocco’s rose-growing region, famous for its rose water and rose oil production — and through the lush Skoura Oasis, a wide palmery filled with crumbling kasbahs and ancient irrigation channels. Along the way, you visit a Berber family who live in a cave dwelling carved into the Atlas mountainside — an encounter of remarkable authenticity and one of the tour’s most memorable cultural moments.

The day ends in Ouarzazate — Morocco’s cinematic capital and the gateway to the Sahara — where you spend the night.

DAY 5: OUARZAZATE → AIT BEN HADDOU → HIGH ATLAS MOUNTAINS → TELOUET KASBAH → MARRAKECH

The final day is rich in heritage and mountain drama. From Ouarzazate, a short drive brings you to the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extraordinary earthen towers and fortified lanes that has starred in films from Lawrence of Arabia to Game of Thrones. Its ancient alleyways, communal granaries, and sweeping views over the valley make it one of Morocco’s most evocative stops.

From Ait Ben Haddou, the road climbs into the High Atlas Mountains. Rather than taking the main Tizi n’Tichka route, this tour detours to the Telouet Kasbah — a grand but crumbling 19th-century palace once belonging to the powerful Glaoui chieftains of the Atlas. Its ornate tilework, carved plaster ceilings, and rooms frozen in time make it one of Morocco’s most atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful stops.

From Telouet, the mountain road winds down through a dramatic gorge and back into Marrakech, where you are dropped at your accommodation in the early evening.