Marrakech to Fes Through the Sahara: A 7-Day Road Trip
The most beautiful way to travel between Morocco’s two great cities is not the direct road. It is a week-long loop over the Atlas and through the desert.
The direct drive from Marrakech to Fes takes most of a day. The route through the Sahara takes a week, and it is one of the great road trips in the world.
Over the High Atlas
Leaving Marrakech, the road climbs through Berber villages to the Tizi n’Tichka pass. On the other side the landscape changes completely: red earth, palm oases and kasbahs. Ait Benhaddou, a fortified village of earth and straw, is the first great stop.
Valleys and gorges
From Ouarzazate the road follows the Dades valley, the “Road of a Thousand Kasbahs”. The Dades Gorges have a famous winding road, and the Todra Gorges a canyon so narrow that the cliffs almost touch above you.
The Sahara
After Tinghir and Erfoud, the dunes of Erg Chebbi appear on the horizon. This is where you leave the car, ride a camel at sunset and sleep in the desert.
North through the Ziz Valley and the Middle Atlas
The road north follows the long palm valley of the Ziz, crosses the plateaus around Midelt and enters the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas, home to Barbary macaques. Ifrane, with its sloping roofs, is often called the “Switzerland of Morocco”.
Fes
The journey ends in Fes, Morocco’s spiritual and cultural capital, with a day to explore the medina with a local guide.
How long are the drives?
Marrakech to Merzouga is roughly 550 kilometres and Merzouga to Fes around 470, which is why the route is split over several days with stops every hour or two. With a private driver you never drive more than you want, and every stop is a viewpoint, a kasbah or a café.
See the full day-by-day plan: 7 Days from Marrakech to Fes via the Sahara, or the reverse route from Fes to Marrakech.
Ready for 7 days in Morocco?
Private tours from the airport back to the airport, with a night in the Sahara.
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