11-Day Morocco Desert Off-Road Tour with Erg Chigaga and Aït Benhaddou

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Day 01

Arrival in Marrakech

• Welcome to the capital of tourism and many 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 02

Marrakech Medina, Palaces, and Gardens

• Today is your first touch of Morocco with your private Marrakech-born-and-bred guide, as it will be in some other spots.
• Embark on an exploration of the Red City from its old quarter, where the Medina's skinny lanes lead to lavish sites, tombs, and religious monuments decked out in marble. Visit Bahia Palace, El Badi Palace, and the Saadian Tombs.
• Afterwards, your driver/tour guide will pick you up for the outside-Medina visit to explore the Majorelle Garden, Yves Saint Laurent Museum, and Berber Museum.
• While in Marrakech, you will surely encounter thousands of motorcyclists and horse carts roaming 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's frenetic pulse.

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Day 03

Marrakech to Demnate and 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 east of Marrakech into 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 natural travertine bridge that formed over the 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 that, the Ameridil Oued is an extraordinary sight even from the road, as is the grandest and most extravagantly decorated Ameridil Kasbah.

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Day 04

Skoura, Valley of Roses, Dadès, and Todgha

• Via the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs and 50 km away from Skoura, you cannot miss the bottles of local rosewater for sale in Kelaa M'gouna, a small town famous for roses and daggers.
• Take off-road onto the Atlas and M'goun Mountain to glimpse some of the best views, along with hidden livestock, ancient rust-red landscapes, and a series of crumbling kasbahs and ksour lining the Dadès Valley.
• While you are there, you should not miss the Monkey Toes, one of nature's wonders.
• Head on to visit Todgha Gorges.

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Day 05

Todgha Gorges to 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, leave Todgha Gorges towards the rambling ksar of N'kob, where 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 lodging for nomads.

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Day 06

N'kob through Tamegroute to M'hamid El-Ghizlane

• Set the compass for the southeast and head to Morocco's wildest desert via the Draa Valley, a 125 km belt of palm-tree oases that eventually merges into the Sahara near M'hamid.
• Stop in an unusual place that was once the most important settlement in the Draa Valley, with its green poetry. The Zawiya Naciria is still a pilgrimage site and a refuge for the mentally ill, as well as a working Quranic school with a library that was once the richest in Morocco, containing 4,000 books of ancient illuminated texts.
• Leave Tamegroute through a dauntingly bleak landscape of sun-scorched rubble to the end of the paved road at M'hamid El-Ghizlane, the climax of this tour and the gateway to the towering dunes of Erg Chigaga.

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Day 07

Off-road to Erg Chigaga

• 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 08

Camel Ride and Desert Life in Erg Chegaga

• Live the best way of nomad life and explore the desert. Hear its windy whisper by riding the camel. Today, you will have a chance to fully live a real desert experience with your camel guide as you discover the fauna, flora, and history of the desert.
• Enjoy lunch served in the middle of nowhere among the 300-meter-high dunes.

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Day 09

Erg Chegaga to Ouarzazate via Lac Iriki and Taznakht

• Wake at dawn to watch the sun begin its daily arc, with a cool blue morning sky replacing the Sahara shadows just before it becomes a glowing ball of fire.
• Exit Erg Chigaga and head north to Ouarzazate via a rough road out of the desert, crossing the 80 km-long dry lake bed of Lac Iriki, made well known by the Paris-Dakar Rally, and continuing through the Sahel and Reg to Foum Zguid.
• Head 85 km north to Taznakht, a handy stop for a quick bite, coffee, petrol, and, yes, carpet. Arrive in the strategically located Ouarzazate.

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Day 10

Ouarzazate, Aït Benhaddou, and Tizi n'Tichka to Marrakech

• Leave Ouallywood and head to Marrakech through some of Morocco's most stunning landscapes, beginning with Aït Benhaddou, the UNESCO-protected red mud-brick ksar from the 11th century.
• After lunch with a local family and a visit to 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 (2260 m). Arrive in Marrakech.

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Day 11

Departure from Marrakech

• Today we do not say goodbye; we both say take care and see you sooner rather than later for another adventure.