Itinerary
Arrive in Marrakesh and settle into your traditional riad, a hidden oasis built around an interior courtyard—quiet, cool and restorative within the Medina’s lively maze of streets. If time allows, take a gentle walk through the Medina or step onto your rooftop terrace as the city eases into evening. Listen as the call to prayer—the adaan—ripples across rooftops, a daily rhythm that briefly draws the city into shared stillness. Tonight, gather for a relaxed welcome dinner and your first taste of Morocco’s hospitality. Enjoy slow-cooked tagines and freshly baked bread, paired with glasses of mint tea. Here, attay is more than a drink—it’s a gesture of welcome, offered with care and intention, and the first thread in the shared experience ahead.
After breakfast, travel south over the High Atlas via the dramatic Tizi n’Tichka Pass. This winding road climbs through mountain landscapes shaped by terraces, forests and centuries of movement between Marrakesh and Morocco’s southern reaches. Stop in Ouarzazate to visit Taourirt Kasbah, a striking example of southern Morocco’s earthen architecture once tied to regional power and trade. Wander its narrow corridors and shaded courtyards, where thick adobe walls and carved details reveal a blend of defense and artistry. Continue into the Draa Valley, where a ribbon of date palms shelters villages built of sun-dried mud brick. For centuries, this oasis corridor guided trans-Saharan caravans carrying salt, gold and ideas between North and West Africa. Arrive in Zagora by late afternoon, a frontier town at the desert’s edge. As the light softens over the palms, settle in and enjoy a relaxed dinner beneath the first hints of Saharan sky.
Today, explore some of the Drâa Valley’s most culturally rich communities, where craft and daily rhythm remain deeply tied to place. In Tamegroute, visit workshops known for their distinctive green-glazed ceramics, fired in kilns fueled by palm fronds. Watch potters shape and glaze their work—objects made for everyday use, carrying an artistry passed through generations. Step into the centuries-old Koranic library, where time-darkened manuscripts hint at the region’s scholarly and spiritual heritage. Continue to the nearby kasbah of Amezrou, historically known for its silversmithing tradition. Wander narrow passageways and pause for mint tea. Practice a few Tamazight greetings with your hosts—Azul (hello) and Tanemmirt (thank you)—small exchanges that bring the day’s encounters to life in a personal way.
Begin at an unhurried pace, then trade paved roads for open desert as you travel by 4x4 across the stony hamada and low dune fields of Morocco’s southern Sahara. Your guide, Lahcen—born and raised in this region—shares an insider’s knowledge of desert plants, wildlife and the stories carried by its sands. If you wish, take an optional camel ride across the dunes, moving at the timeless pace once essential to desert travel and trade. As dusk settles, arrive at camp in the vast dunes of Erg Chigaga—one of Morocco’s most remote dune systems. Gather for dinner beneath an expansive sky. Later, meet nomad musicians whose rhythms echo across the sand, turning the evening into something intimate, celebratory and deeply rooted in place.
Walk a stretch of the old Salt Road with Lahcen and local nomads, following routes once traveled by caravans moving between oases and distant markets. Learn to read the desert through subtle signs—wind-sculpted ripples, beetle tracks, hardy shrubs and the quiet logic of survival in a seemingly spare world. Pause for a picnic and taste abadir, a calzone-like bread stuffed with peppers, onions and meat, folded and baked directly in the sand—a traditional meal once favored by caravan travelers. If you wish, join in the preparation, connecting with time-honored desert culinary practices. Later, travel by 4x4 to Lake Iriki where the surrounding landscape offers insight into shifting desert ecologies. When welcomed, share tea with nomadic families, a simple ritual of hospitality that carries deep meaning in remote places. With luck on your side, you may glimpse addax, gazelles or ostriches, along with smaller desert life such as jerboa, desert sparrows or the elusive fennec fox (wildlife sightings vary). Return to camp beneath a million-star sky—an enduring reminder that here, nature and culture are inseparable.
Rise early to watch sunrise spill across the dunes, casting long shadows and soft light over the Sahara. Begin your journey north, pausing in photogenic desert villages such as Ouled Driss, where daily life unfolds in the same warm earth tones as the surrounding landscape. Follow the Draa’s palm belt to Agdz—whose name means “resting place” in Tamazight—a subtle clue to the valley’s long role as a corridor of movement and exchange. Continue through the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, where fortified towers and earthen villages speak to centuries of family life, trade networks and the importance of irrigation. Arrive in Skoura, a broad palm grove stitched together by canals, gardens and shaded pathways. Settle into your lodge, a cool refuge humming with cicadas and birdsong, and gather for a relaxed evening meal as the oasis quiets around you.
Walk through Skoura’s palm grove with your local guide, Abdessamad, learning how families have managed water for generations using khettaras—ingenious underground channels that distribute life-giving water across the oasis. Notice the layered agriculture that makes oasis living possible: dates high above, fruit trees in the middle canopy, and vegetables growing below in the shade. Along the way, listen for hoopoes and bee-eaters, and catch the subtle fragrance of blossoms carried on the breeze. This afternoon, visit Mohamed—one of Skoura’s last traditional potters—whose family name, Al Fakhar, means “The Potter.” Watch as he shapes utilitarian pieces on a foot-powered wheel, then try your hand at forming a simple bowl yourself. It’s a rare chance to experience living tradition not as a performance, but as everyday craft.
Begin with a relaxed cooking class hosted in a palm grove home. Travel on foot or by tuk-tuk to meet your local hosts, then learn Moroccan techniques from the inside out—measuring spices by scent, chopping fresh herbs, and experiencing the slow alchemy of tagine cookery. When the meal is ready, gather for a long lunch and enjoy what you’ve created, paired with stories shared across the table. In the afternoon, choose how you’d like to spend your time. Explore storied Kasbah Amridil, return to the pottery studio to collect a rustic keepsake, or simply rest and journal in the quiet beauty of Skoura. However you spend it, the day offers the kind of space that turns travel into connection.
Travel west toward Aït Ben Haddou, the UNESCO-listed ksar of stacked mud-brick homes rising above a shallow riverbed. Walk its narrow passageways and fortified walls, where architecture speaks to both protection and community life along historic caravan routes. Continue with a visit that celebrates Amazigh oral traditions, where songs, jewelry and contemporary expressions honor a culture carried through spoken history—wisdom passed from generation to generation, woven through language and story. Later, cross back over the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka Pass, descending into the greener folds of the Ourika Valley, where mountain life feels suddenly close again.
Spend the day exploring trails in and around Toubkal National Park. Choose a route suited to your energy and interest—from gentle valley walks through walnut groves to more challenging paths with expansive views. Your local guide tailors the pace and terrain to match conditions and the group’s ability, sharing the kind of insight that comes only from a lifetime spent on these mountainsides. At midday, arrive in an Amazigh village for a home-cooked meal. Enjoy flatbreads fresh from a traditional clay oven, herb-laced salads and warm conversation that turns lunch into something far more memorable than a stop along the trail. This is mountain life experienced from the inside—simple, generous and deeply human.
Savor a slow morning in the High Atlas. Read on a sun-warmed terrace, watch shepherds trace distant slopes, or simply take in the sweeping mountain vistas that define this region. Those who wish may choose a traditional Moroccan hammam experience—warmth, steam and the cleansing ritual of black soap—emerging refreshed and restored. This evening, gather for a farewell dinner and toast the friendships and landscapes that have shaped your journey. BssaHa—to your health—and to the enduring traditions you’ve encountered along the way.
Transfer from Kasbah Bab Ourika to Marrakesh Airport.
