3-Day Merzouga Desert Trip from Marrakech with Aït Benhaddou

• Meet your Moroccan tour guide at your riad or hotel and proceed towards Ouarzazate through the Tizi n'Tichka Pass (2,260 m) in the High Atlas Mountains.

• Enjoy beautiful landscapes with changing colours and Berber villages along the way between Marrakech and Ouarzazate, the doorway to the Sahara Desert.

• Visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aït Benhaddou. This kasbah is one of many locations that served as a natural setting for films shot in the area, such as 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Jesus of Nazareth'.

• Take a walk and cross the dried river to discover Aït Benhaddou, then climb to the top of the hill to overlook the kasbahs.

• Afterwards, head directly to Ouarzazate and continue to Skoura palm grove and the Valley of the Roses, the centre of Moroccan roses and rose products.

• Continue via the unusual rock formations of the Tamnalt Hills to Dades Gorge, carved over centuries by the Dades River. Stay overnight in Dades Gorge, lined with red and mauve rock in the heart of the valley.

7 hours of journey.

• Take the road to the second gorge via the Berber villages of the Dades Valley. Enjoy free time for a short visit to Todra Gorge, with canyons about 300 m high, a preferred place for mountain climbers.

• Afterwards, leave for the Erg Chebbi dunes in the Merzouga Sahara Desert and have lunch on the way before arriving in Erfoud.

• Once you arrive at the hotel near the dunes, enjoy a cup of mint tea. Then hop on a camel for a 1-hour sunset ride to the camp's oasis and watch the sunset.

• Spend the night in a nomadic tent under shooting stars. Have dinner to the tunes of Berber music in the camp.

5 hours of journey.

• After sunrise, ride a camel back to the hotel.

• Have breakfast and, after a quick shower, return to Ouarzazate over the High Atlas Mountains.

• Arrive in Marrakech in the evening around 8 pm (approximately 10 hours).