Marrakech Trip Overview
Start and end in Marrakesh! With the In-depth Cultural tour Marrakech Guided visit, Desert Tour & ATV in Erg Chaabi Dunes, you have a 6 days tour package taking you through Marrakesh, Morocco, and 9 other destinations in Morocco. Marrakech Guided visit, Desert Tour & ATV in Erg Chaabi Dunes.
Additional Info
* Duration: 6 days
* Starts: Marrakech, Morocco
* Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi, Morocco
Start and end in Marrakesh! With the In-depth Cultural tour Marrakech Guided visit, Desert Tour & ATV in Erg Chaabi Dunes, you have a 6 days tour package taking you through Marrakesh, Morocco, and 9 other destinations in Morocco. Marrakech Guided visit, Desert Tour & ATV in Erg Chaabi Dunes.
Itinerary
Day 1: Pickup from Marrakech airport
Pass By: Marrakech, Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi
Meeting at the airport for the pick up to your accommodation in Marrakech. Overnight stay in Marrakech.
No meals included on this day.
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Marrakech: Riad Anya or similar
Day 2: Marrakech Sightseeing
Pass By: Marrakech, Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi
After breakfast, transfer to Marrakech. A licensed guide takes you on a journey of Marrakech. The tour allows you to visit many landmarks such as Bahia Palace, Ali Ben Youssef Madrasa, Saadian tombs, Dar Si Said, and more.
Stop At: Palacio da Bahia, 5 Rue Riad Zitoun el Jdid, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
What you could build with Morocco’s top artisans at your service for 14 years, and here you have it: The Bahia palace. The palace is a 19th-century building, consisting of rooms decorated with stunning stuccos, paintings, and mosaics palace and a set of gardens located in Marrakech, Morocco. intended to be the greatest palace of its time. The name of the Bahia Palace means in Arabic “brilliance”. As in other buildings of the period in other countries, it was intended to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan styles. There is a 2-acre (8,000 m²) garden with rooms opening onto courtyards.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Saadian Tombs, Rue De La Kasbah, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
Anyone who says you can’t take it with you hasn’t seen the Saadian tombs, near the Kasbah mosque. Saadian Sultan Ahmed Al Mansour Ed Dahbi spared no expense on his tomb, importing Italian Carrara marble and gilding honeycomb muqarnas (decorative plasterwork) with pure gold to make the Chamber of 12 Pillars a suitably glorious mausoleum. Al Mansour died in splendor in 1603, but a few decades later, Alaouite Sultan Moulay Ismail walled up the Saadian Tombs to keep his predecessors out of sight and mind. It was the French who opened them up again in 1917.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Dar Si Said Museum, 8 Rue de la Bahia, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
A monument to Moroccan maalems (master artisans), Dar Si Said showcases Marrakech’s graceful riad architecture and regional craftsmanship. Grand Vizier Bou Ahmed had the power, but his brother Si Said apparently had the master artisans to make his home a model of quiet elegance.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Jardin Majorelle, Rue Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech 40090 Morocco
Other guests bring flowers, but Yves Saint Laurent gifted the entire Jardin Majorelle to Marrakech, the city that adopted him in 1964 After a sequence of events that included, in rather unfortunate order: launching hippie fashion, and an obligatory stint in the French Military. Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé bought the electric-blue villa and its garden to preserve the vision of its original owner, landscape painter Jacques Majorelle, and keep it open to the public. Per his instructions, Yves Saint Laurent’s ashes were scattered over Jardin Majorelle upon his June 2008 passing.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Medersa Ben Youssef, Ben Youssef Square, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
The Ben Youssef Madrasa is an Islamic madrasa functioning today as a historical site, the Ben Youssef Madrasa was the largest Islamic college in Morocco at its height. The madrasa is named after the adjacent Ben Youssef Mosque founded in the 14 th century by the Almoravid Sultan Ali ibn Yusuf. “You who may enter my door, may your highest hopes be exceeded” read the inscription over the entryway. This Quranic learning center was once the largest in North Africa and remains among the most splendid
Duration: 20 minutes
Pass By: Jemaa el-Fnaa, 38 Jemaa el-Fna, Rue El Ksour, Marrakech Morocco
Think of it as live-action channel-surfing. You will discover drama already in progress. The hoopla and halpa (street theatre). The daily performance is underway. Snake charmers blast oboes to calm cobras hissing at careening Vespas; henna tattoo artists, water sellers in fringed hats, and musicians tune up their instruments.
Stop At: Koutoubia Mosque, Rue el Ksour, Derb Sabai, 13, Marrakech 40000 Morocco
The Koutoubia serves a spiritual purpose, but its minaret is also a point of reference for international architecture. The 12th-century 70m-high minaret is the prototype for Seville’s La Giralda and Rabat’s Le Tour Hassan, and it’s a monumental cheat sheet of Moorish ornament: scalloped keystone arches, jagged merlons (crenellations), and mathematically pleasing proportions. When the present mosque and its minaret were finished by Almohad Sultan Yacoub el-Mansour in the 12th century, 100 booksellers were clustered around its base – hence the name, from Kutubiyyin, or booksellers.
Duration: 10 minutes
Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Marrakech: Riad Anya or similar
Day 3: Marrakech – Telouet – Ait Benhaddou – Ouarzazate – Boumalne Dades
Pass By: Tizi n Tichka, Imlil Village, Ouarzazate 45000 Morocco
The journey takes via the High Atlas Mountains, through many authentic towns crossing Tizi n’Tichka which connects Marrakech with pre-Saharan oases. the road ascends and takes a turn for the scenic amid oak trees, walnut groves, and oleander bushes. Past the village, if Taddert, the landscape is stripped of color. Atop the Tizi n’Tichka that is 2962m altitude, we gradually descend into the lunar landscape of the Anti Atlas and the desert beyond.
Stop At: Telouet Kasbah, Telouet Morocco
Our first stop is the visit of Telouet Kasbah the once-glorious stronghold that has been left to crumble, and the best indication of Telouet’s former position as the center of a trans-Saharan trading empire is the 2nd-floor receiving court. No less than 300 artisans were recruited to complete salons faceted with stucco, zellij, and painted cedar ceilings that make Marrakech’s royal Bahia Palace seem like a freshman artisan effort. But the Telouet kasbah was not destined to be the Pasha’s ultimate pleasure palace. After independence, Pasha Glaoui was ousted from the Bahia palace and died shortly thereafter of cancer in exile in Telouet.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Ait Ben Haddou, Ait Ben Haddou, Souss-Massa
The journey continues to Ait Benhaddou kasbah. The Unesco protected kasbah seems suspiciously frozen in time: with Hollywood touch-ups, it still resembles its days in the 11th century as an Almoravid caravanserai. Movie buffs recognize this red mudbrick kasbah 32km from Ouarzazate from Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth (for which much of Ait Benhaddou was rebuilt), Jewel of the Nile, and Gladiator.
Duration: 30 minutes
Pass By: Ouarzazate, Ouarzazate, Draa-Tafilalet
35km from Ait Benhaddou kasbah to Ouarzazate. This city is Strategically located and has gotten by largely on its wits instead of its looks. For centuries, people from Atlas, Draa & Dades valley converged to do business at Ouarzazate’s sprawling Taourirt kasbah, and a modern garrison town was established here in the 1920s to oversee France’s colonial interests. The movie business gradually took off in Ouarzazate after the French protectorate left in the 1950s, and ‘Ouallywood’ movie studios have built quite a résumé providing convincingly exotic backdrops for movies supposedly set in ancient Rome, Somalia, and Egypt.
Pass By: Skoura, Skoura, Beni Mellal-Khenifra
The drive takes you from Ouarzazate through Skoura. By the time caravans laden with gold and spice reached Skoura, the camels must have been gasping. After a two-month journey across the Sahara, Blue-robed Tuareg desert traders offloaded cargo from caravans in Skoura, where middle Atlas mountaineers packed it onto mules headed to Fez. Ouarzazate is now the region’s commercial center, but Skoua’s historic mudbrick castles remain, and desert traders throng Monday & Thursday souqs brimming with intensely flavourful desert produce. When market days are over and palm-tree shadows stretch across the road, no one seems in hurry to leave. Elsewhere, life goes on as usual – but in Skoura, it remains a wonder.
Pass By: El Kelaa M’gouna, El Kelaa M’gouna, Souss-Massa
The last town before reaching your accommodation in Boumalne Dades is El Kelaa M’gouna. Although it takes its name from the nearby M’Goun mountain, the small town of Kelaa M’Gouna is famous for roses and daggers. Some 50km from Skoura, pink roses start peeking through dense roadside hedgerows. During the May rose harvest you will see rose garlands everywhere, especially during the town’s signature rose festival that takes place on the first weekend of May.
Pass By: Boumalne Dades, Boumalne Dades, Souss-Massa
Nomads crossings rose valleys and two-tone kasbahs: even on paper, the Dades valley stretches the imagination. From the daunting High Atlas to the north to the rugged Jebel Saghro range south, the valley is dotted with oases and mudbrick palaces that give the region its fairytale nickname – Valley of a thousand kasbahs.
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Boumalne Dades: Riad Dar Blues or similar
Day 4: Boumalne Dades – Todra Gorge – Erfoud – Merzouga
Stop At: Todgha Gorge, R 703 near the town of Tinerhir, Tinerhir 45520 Morocco
After breakfast, the drive takes you to Todra gorge in Tinghir.
Being stuck between a rock and a hard place is a sublime experience in the Todra Gorge, where the massive fault dividing the High Atlas from the Saghro mountain is at some points just wide enough for a crystal-clear river and single-file trekkers to squeeze through. The road from Tinghir passes green Palmeras and Berber villages until, 15km long, high walls of pink and Grey rock close in around the road. The approach is thrilling and somehow urgent, as though the doors of heaven were about to close before you.
Duration: 20 minutes
Pass By: Erfoud, Erfoud, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Fossilized bathtubs and moist, sweet dates are Erfoud’s current claims to fame, though it was once the end of the road. In September or October Erfoud has an increasingly well-attended date festival, with dancing and music. The market at the southern end of town sells local dates alongside fresh produce.
Pass By: Rissani, Rissani, Meknes-Tafilalet Region
Rissani is the last town before we reach Merzouga desert, it is also where the River Ziz quietly ebbs away, but between the 14th and 18th centuries, it was the location of the famed desert capital, Sijilmassa, where fortunes in gold were traded and enslaved people were trafficked via caravans crossing the Sahel. Rissani was so strategic that the Filali (ancestors of the ruling Alawite dynasty) staged their battle here to supplant the Saadians.
Stop At: Merzouga, Merzouga, Draa-Tafilalet
As the journey ends on the edge of the Merzouga desert, Once among the dunes, you will be welcomed into a charming Kasbah where you will be able to relax beside the swimming pool and enjoy the tunes of a desert blues band well into the evening.
Duration: 10 hours
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Merzouga desert: Takoujt hotel or similar
Day 5: Merzouga – Marrakech
Pass By: Marrakech, Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi
Early wake up to enjoy the sunrise in the early morning. After breakfast, quad biking activity crossing the dunes back to the car. The journey takes an alternative route to enjoy more sightseeing along Alnif to Tazarin, Draa valley, Ait Souen mountains towards Ouarzazate. We reach Marrakech by early evening. Overnight stay in Marrakech.
Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight stay in Marrakech: Riad Anya or similar
Day 6: Airport transfer
Pass By: Marrakech, Marrakech, Marrakech-Safi
Transfer to Marrakech airport
Meals included:
• Breakfast
No accommodation included on this day.
