DAY 1: CASABLANCA- RABAT – FES

Morocco culture tour from Casablanca with “Atlas Mountain Hiking” offers you Casablanca excursion travel and we start travelling to the Dades Valley via the Tizi n’Tichka Pass and over the High Atlas Mountains. Today you will enjoy travelling through the dramatic pass and the fascinating views of the Berber villages and the amazing landscape changing as the day progresses. Your first stop will be at the Ait Benhaddou Kasbah. Continue to the Dades Gorges through the road of “the Thousand Kasbahs”, which offers many fine photo opportunities of nature and people. You’ll get to Kalaat Mgouna – famous for roses and its annual festival during the roses harvest in May. On to the Dades Valley where you will enjoy seeing the amazing rock formation famous as “the monkey toes”.

DAY 2: FES DAY TRIP

Leave the Dades valley towards Tinghir and the Todgha valley. Watch the panoramic views of the old mud Berber villages overlooking the valley. Get to the Gorges and walk under the 300 meters high red cliff, where many Rock-climbers come to enjoy their preferred sport. You will enjoy a 2 hours hike within the valley. After lunch, your journey continues to Merzouga via Erfoud through the oasis of Tafilalet, the largest date palm grove in Morocco. You will have the opportunity to walk the authentic souk of Rissani, and learn about the trading caravans travelling as far as Timbuktu in Mali. Get to Merzouga in the afternoon and check in to your riad.

DAY 3: FES – IFRANE – AZROU – MIDELT – ERFOUD – RISSANI – MERZOUGA

After traditional breakfast we travel towards Ifrane, through hills covered in forests of cork oak and giant cedar, home of a few Barbary apes. Crossing beautiful and tranquil passes over both the Middle and High Atlas ranges we will catch a first glimpse of the south’s incredible architecture. Lunch in Midelt, approached through a bleak plain of scrub and desert. The dramatic peaks of the High Atlas, rising behind the town, provide a spectacular background. We will drive south to Erfoud and Rissani, a huge oasis containing over six million palm trees, edged by many ksours (fortified villages). Continuing along a striking route that marks the transition to desert, we will travel to your amazing Kasbah hotel at edge of the golden sand dunes.

DAY 4 – MERZOUGA DESERT EXCURSION AND CAMEL RIDE

Wake to a desert sunrise and then return to the Hotel by camel. After traditional breakfast, we go in 4 WD off-road tour around the dunes via the oasis of Merzouga, we visit Khamlia village and the Gnawa musicians, originally slaves brought from black Africa. We listen to their spiritual music, then we continue to meet desert nomads in their tents. Not far away there’s the lake of Merzouga, with its bird populations, and we ’ll leave for Rissani. Once called Sijilmassa, this was the meeting place for the salt caravans, coming from Timbuktu in Mali. Here you’ll walk through the souk, selling spices, vegetables and cloths. After a lunch pizza in Rissani we drive back to our riad / hotel, and we get ready to ride camels into the pink sands of Morocco’s highest dunes. We will have time to wander the dunes before sunset. Dinner is served, followed by traditional music and the night in a nomad tent.

DAY 5 – MERZOUGA – TODGHA GORGES – DADES GORGES & VALLEY

Leaving the desert, we drive to Todgha Gorges. This 1000ft Gorges is hemmed in on all sides by vertical limestone cliffs and is called Morocco’s Grand Canyon. There’s time to explore the Gorges today, from its plunging depths to dizzying heights. The charm of Todgha lies in its changing colours as the sun slowly moves from east to west. We move onto the stunning Dades for the night.

DAY 6 – DADES VALLEY – ROSES VALLEY – SKOURA – OUARZAZATE – AIT BENHADDOU KASBAH – ATLAS MOUNTAINS – MARRAKECH

After traditional breakfast we will drive toward Ouarzazate, going off-road to visit Berber nomads in their caves and partake in a glass of tea with them. From here, we will continue through the Valley of the Roses, famous for its Rose Festival in May, and past the kasbahs of Skoura. After a visit to the cinematographic museum of Ouarzazate, “Hollywood of Morocco”, we will cross the riverbed to visit Ait Benhaddou which offers spectacular views down over the village and the surrounding countryside. In the afternoon we’ll drive across the High Atlas mountains. We cross over the Tizi n’Tichka pass (2260m) which offers stunning views of the mountains before descending past Berber villages to the plain surrounding Marrakech. We finish our tour in Marrakech.

Casablanca private tour with “Atlas Mountain Hiking” finishes and we would like to thank you for travelling in Morocco with us.