11-Day Off-roads and Erg Chigaga Morocco Cultural Tour
Highlights
Marrakech
cultural, camping, Desert
Private Tour
11 Days
Easy
English, French, Spanish
Description
Sign up for this and experience the best of our desert and off-roading on this cultural tour of Morocco and Erg Chigaga Desert. Discover the amazing Medina in Marrakech, the picturesque gorges of Imi n’Ifri and the Amridil Kasbah. Later, drive via a thousand Kasbahs route to the gorgeous valley of Dades and Todgha. Also, see Ouarzazate, the Hollywood of Africa and ride a camel.
Itinerary
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Day 1: Arrive in Marrakech
- Welcome to the capital of tourism and people’s first taste of Morocco. You will be welcomed by your tour guide who will be waiting for you at the airport.
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Day 2: Marrakech Walk and Talk
- Today is your first touch of Morocco with your private Marrakech born and bred guide as it will be in some other spots.
- Embark exploring the Red City from its old part with its Medina’s skinny lanes that lead to lavish sites, tombs and religious monuments decked out in marble. Visit Bahia and El-Badii Palace and Saadien’s Tombs.
- Afterwards, your driver/tour guide will pick you up for the outside Medina visit to explore the Majorelle Garden, Museum Saint Laurent, Berber Museum.
- While in Marrakech, you will surely encounter thousands of motorcyclists and horse-carts roaming in the city, and some of them pull over next to the vast square of Jemaa El-Fnaa, where it’s carnival every night, and musicians, acrobats, storytellers, and slapstick acting troupes tap into the Medina frenetic pulse.
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Day 3: Marrakech - Demnate - Skoura
- Your adventure tour in morocco truly begins with a jump start today; you will be picked up by your driver/tour guide and head to the east of Marrakech in the high central Atlas accessible through the regional hub of Demnate, a lively town to explore.
- Encounter the route to the picturesque gorges of Imi n’Ifri, a nature travertine bridge that formed over gorges 1.8 million years ago. The paths are clearly marked by the bridge so that you can walk down into the gorges and through the toothy maw by yourself.
- Follow the road to Skoura, a stunning range of imposing Kasbahs. Besides, the Ameridil Oued is an extraordinary sight even from the road and the grandest and most extravagantly decorated Ameridil Kasbah.
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Day 4: Skoura - Kelaa M’gouna - Dades Gorges - Todgha Gorges
- Via the valley of a Thousand Kasbahs and 50km away of Skoura, you cannot miss the bottles of local rosewater for sale in Kelaa M’gouna, a small town famous for roses daggers.
- Take off-road onto the Atlas and the M’goun Mountain to glimpse some best views along with hidden livestock to the ancient rust-red and a series of crumbling Kasbahs & Ksour line the valley of Dades.
- While you are there, you should not miss the Monkey toes, one of nature’s wonders.
- Head to visit Todgha Gorges.
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Day 5: Todgha Gorges - N'kob
- This morning you’ll have the chance to see Todgha Gorges by daylight, with its gigantic rock walls changing colour to magical effects as the day unfolds.
- Later on, eave Todgha gorges towards the rambling Ksar of N’kob with its prehistoric rock-carving sites and 45 mud-brick ksours make you stop by and stare. The name N’kob comes from a cave that once served as a lodging for nomads.
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Day 6: N'kob - Tamegroute - M'hamid El-Ghizlane
- Set the compass for southeast head to Morocco’s wildest desert via Draa valley, a 125km belt of palm trees oases that eventually merges into the Sahara near M’hamid.
- Stop in an unusual place that was once the most important settlement in the Valley of Draa with its green poetry. The Zawiya Naciria is still a pilgrimage site and refuge for the mentally ill and a working Quranic school with a library that was once the richest in Morocco of ancient illuminated texts containing 4000 books.
- Leave Temegroute through a dauntingly bleak landscape of sun-scorched rubble to the end of the paved road of M’hamid El-Ghizlane, the climax of this tour and the gateway to the towering dunes of Erg Chigaga.
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Day 7: In M'hamid El-Ghizlane
- Begin your off-road journey to Erg Chigaga, a splendid stretch of towering dunes and golden sand sea, the largest sand sea in Morocco, where you’ll surely choose to drift off to sleep while watching the twinkling stars after dinner.
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Day 8: In Erg Chegaga
- Live the best way of the nomad life and explore the desert and hear its windy whisper is by riding the camel. Today, you will have a chance to fully live a real desert experience with your camel guide to discover the fauna, flora and history of the desert.
- Enjoy lunch that will be served in the middle of nowhere in the 300 meter-high dunes.
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Day 9: Erg Chegaga - Foum Zguid -Taznakht - Ouarzazate
- Wake by dawn to watch the sun starting its daily arc with a cool blue morning sky as it replaces the Sahara shadows just before becoming a glowing ball of fire.
- Exit Erg Chigaga and head north to Ouarzazate via a rough road out of the desert through the 80s km long dry lake bed of Lac Iriki that made well-known by the Paris-Dakar rally and through the Sahel and Reg to Foum Zguid.
- Head 85 km north to Taznakht, a handy stop for a quick bite of coffee, petrol and, yes, carpet. Arrive at the strategically located Ouarzazate.
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Day 10: Ouarzazate - Ait Benhaddou - Tizi N'Tichka - Marrakech
- Leave Ouallywood and head to Marrakech through some of Morocco’s most stunning landscapes beginning with Ait Benhaddou, the UNESCO-protected red mud-brick Ksar from the 11th century.
- After lunch with a local family and the visit of the Ksar, drive along craggy cliff tops to tiny Berber villages in North Africa’s highest mountain range via the splendid Glaoui Kasbah in Talouate and the lush green Ounilla Valley all the way through the Tizi n’Tichka pass (2260m). Arrive at Marrakech.
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Day 11: Marrakech Departure
- Today we do not say goodbye; we both say take care and see you sooner than later for another adventure.
What's Included
What's Excluded
What To Bring
Meeting Point
Cancellation Policy
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For cancellations upto 2 days before the tour -
Refund of 80% of the tour price.
Price
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This is a private tour |