Booking this Ouarzazate to Erg Chebbi Dunes tour ensures a true desert adventure in the south’s most popular tourist attraction. There is much to discover about Berber life in the region as you travel. You can choose to stroll in Skoura’s oasis, and to visit the beautiful Kasbah of Amredhil there. In the Valley of the Roses, you can sample the Damascene rose cosmetic products. From there you go off road to a very barren area but a living space for local Berber nomads. You can stop and have tea with a nomad family.
In the Dades Valley, you can marvel at the geologically fascinating rocks and hillsides. You will spend the night in this fascinating valley in a beautiful guest-house. The following day there are the other gorges in Toudgha to discover and walk in.
In the desert, you get to have that much anticipated camel ride which will take you to the top of the dunes. From there you can watch the sunset, one of the highlights of the day. Back at the desert camp, you will enjoy a sumptuous famine. And then round a camp fire, the day is brought to a close with nomad and Berber music, which you are welcome to join in. The peace and calm of the desert and your private tent lull you to sleep as you go back through the day’s excitements in your mind.
Enjoy the spectacle of the sunrise from the top of the nearest dunes the next morning. In the Dra’a Valley with its innumerable palm trees, ancient housing and desert oases you will understand more about how the Berbers have lived here for thousands of years. The oldest Kasbah in the Dra’a Valley is well worth a visit.
Desert Tour 3 days Departure from Ouarzazate
Morning departure to the Dades Gorge, passing the Oasis of Skoura, where numerous ancient kasbahs, some sadly in ruins, stand amongst the palm trees.
From here, our route takes us through Kela’a M’gouna, the Valley of Roses, where we stop to see the cosmetic articles made locally from the valley’s abundant blossoms. These products are well-known throughout Morocco and are highly valued.
From here, you take an off-road route to have a better impression of the landscape and to visit Berber nomads for a glass of tea. You stop in the Dades gorge for lunch after which you have time to walk in the gorges, in the fields and gardens. You spend the night in a hotel or Kasbah, or if you wish you could walk into the hills to spend the night with a Berber family.
After breakfast, the trip continues a short distance to Tinghir and the very different Toudgha gorges where you can take a short walk to appreciate the steep sides to the gorge and the narrow expanse of the sky above. From there, you continue to the Chebbi dunes via Tinjdad, and the Oasis of Tafilalet near Erfoud, famous for its Date Festival, and Rissani, which is the seat of the Alaouite family of the present king of Morocco.
Between Tinjdad and Erfoud, you can stop to go down into the fascinating underground water channels deep below the earth, always cool and preventing the evaporation of this source of irrigation. In Erfoud itself, you can stop to see the workings of thousands of fossils made into all sorts of artifacts.
Lunch will be in a Berber village along the way. At the bivouac, you are welcomed with a glass of tea before taking a camel ride to watch the sunset from the top of the dunes.
You have dinner and spend the night at an authentic nomad camp with shared bathroom facilities and a private tent for each couple or family.
If you wake up early enough, you can watch the spectacle of the sunrise, when the colour of the dunes and the play of shadows are an awesome sight. The itinerary continues to the Dra’a Valley via the village of Tazzarine (featured in the film ‘Babel’), and on to N’Qob for lunch.
In the afternoon the journey takes us to Tanasikht, to drive along the ancient caravan route to discover the real Dra’a Valley, with its huge palm trees and ancient villages. Outside Agdez at the head of the valley, you can visit the oldest Kasbah in the whole valley, Kasbah Tamnougalte. It is still inhabited by several families.
You return to Ouarzazate over the Anti Atlas Mountains and the Tizi-n-Tinfifte pass. You arrive back in Ouarzazate at the end of the afternoon. Your 3-day desert trip from Ouarzazate to Merzouga comes to an end as your driver escorts you safely back to your riad. Your Ouarzazate to Erg Chebbi dunes tour 3 days comes to an end around 18:00.
