4-Day Tour Package from Ouarzazate to Merzouga and Marrakech

Morning pickup in Ouarzazate. You drive east through the Skoura palm grove, past the imposing Kasbah Amerhidil, one of the largest in Morocco, and on into the Valley of Roses near Kalaat Mgouna, best visited in May during the rose festival.

The road continues to Boumalne Dades and into the Dades Gorge, where the eroded rock formations known as the Monkey Fingers rise above the valley floor. In the late afternoon you can walk into the gorge or climb up to the panorama point, before an overnight stay in a kasbah hotel with valley views.

After breakfast, you drive east to walk the Todra Gorges, where 300-metre limestone cliffs frame a clear river and narrow to just 10 metres wide at the canyon floor.

From there the road runs via Tinghir, Erfoud with its fossil workshops, and Rissani to Merzouga, where your camels are waiting at the edge of the dunes in the late afternoon for the trek into Erg Chebbi at sunset.

Dinner is served around the fire with traditional drum music, under a sky filled with stars, at a luxury desert camp such as Camp Nomad Palace.

You wake before dawn for sunrise from the highest dune crest, one of the most unforgettable sights in Morocco, then return to camp for a Berber breakfast.

You drive south via Rissani into the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest river valley, 200 kilometres of date palms and mud-built kasbahs strung along the water. Stops in Tamegroute, home to the Green Pottery cooperative, and Agdez give you time to walk through the palm grove before an overnight stay in a traditional guesthouse.

You drive north through the Anti-Atlas back to Ouarzazate, then on to Aït Ben Haddou, the earthen ksar featured in Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and Lawrence of Arabia, and walk through the fortified village across the river.

From there the road climbs over the High Atlas via the Tizi n'Tichka pass, 2,260 metres up, before you arrive in Marrakech in the late afternoon for drop-off at your hotel, riad, or the airport.