Moroccan Discovery Tour: Cities, Desert & Mountains – 7 Days
- Private vehicle & driver — Pick-up at your riad, pace set by you
- Local licensed guide — Licensed guide nº2898 · since 2011
- Book on WhatsApp — Reply within 1 hour · no payment at this stage
- Dinner at a family home in the Fes medina
- Camel trek plus sandboarding on the great dunes
- The rose valley of Kalaat M'Gouna on the kasbah road
From Fes, this fully private 7-day route costs from €1050 per person, with your own driver and licensed guide throughout — no group departures. Key stages: Merzouga.
A week built around experiences rather than mileage. The route is the classic Fes-to-Marrakech crossing — but the days inside it are anything but standard: dinner cooked and shared at a family home in Fes, sandboarding down the Erg Chebbi after your camel ride, the rose valley in kasbah country, and a Marrakech finale that pairs a street-gastronomy tour with a traditional hammam.
We built this itinerary for the travellers who ask for “the real thing” rather than a checklist — the ones who would trade a second monument for a second glass of tea at somebody’s table. Every experience is genuinely local, arranged through people we work with year-round, and woven into the route rather than bolted on.
Private vehicle and driver-guide throughout; licensed guide in Fes and Marrakech; ensuite desert camp.
- Dinner at a family home in the Fes medina
- Camel trek plus sandboarding on the great dunes
- The rose valley of Kalaat M'Gouna on the kasbah road
- Street-gastronomy tour and traditional hammam in Marrakech
- The full Fes→Marrakech crossing underneath it all
Photos from the tour
Itinerary
Open a day to see the detail: transport, accommodation, meals and activity time.
Day 1 Fes, arrival
Fes receives you gently: airport pickup, a riad inside the old walls, and an orientation stroll along the medina's edge as the evening call to prayer laps over the rooftops. No agenda tonight — the labyrinth can wait until you have slept on Moroccan time.
Day 2 The old medina, a family table at night
A guided day in Fes el-Bali — madrasas, tanneries from the terrace, the artisan quarters at working tempo — with the evening as the day's true summit: dinner at a family home in the medina. Dishes with no written recipe, seconds you cannot refuse, and conversation that outlasts the mint tea. This is the meal guests describe months later.
Day 3 To Merzouga: camels and sandboards
The crossing south via Erfoud's fossil country to Merzouga, where the afternoon turns athletic: camels into the Erg Chebbi at golden hour, then boards waxed for sandboarding down the big slopes — a sport with soft landings and unreasonable laughter. Camp night: ensuite tents, lantern dinner, drums, the Milky Way at full volume.
Day 4 Valleys, kasbahs and roses
Sunrise on the dunes, then the day of valleys: the Todra Gorge's canyon walk, the Dadès kasbahs, and the rose valley at Kalaat M'Gouna — distilleries and rose-water stalls in any season, pink fields if your dates land in the bloom. The evening settles at Aït Ben Haddou, the great ksar catching the last light.
Day 5 Over the Tichka to Marrakech
A guided morning inside Aït Ben Haddou if the stories tempt you, then the Tizi n'Tichka — 2,260 m of switchbacks and mint-tea viewpoints — down into Marrakech. First contact with the souks at dusk, when the lamps and the drummers arrive together.
Day 6 Marrakech: food, souks and steam
Marrakech in two of its best registers. A guided morning through palaces and souk arteries, then the evening's double bill: a street-gastronomy tour that eats where the queue is Moroccan — grill stalls, olive stands, the right msemen griddle — capped by a traditional hammam: steam, black soap, the kessa scrub, and a walk home feeling newly minted.
Day 7 Departure
A courtyard breakfast with nothing scheduled against it, one last lane if something has been calling, and your transfer to the airport. Seven days measured in experiences: a family's table, a board on a dune, a scrubbed-clean walk through the red evening.
The Kalaat M'Gouna roses bloom late April to May — outside those weeks the valley is still handsome, just not pink. Tell us your dietary notes before the family dinner and cooking experiences; every kitchen on the route is briefed ahead.
Included in your tour
- Private air-conditioned 4×4 or minivan with English/French-speaking driver-guide — 7 days
- Pickup at Fes airport or your hotel
- Nights 1–2: Fes riad (2 nights) — half-board
- Night 3: luxury ensuite desert camp — half-board
- Night 4: kasbah hotel, Ait Ben Haddou — half-board
- Nights 5–6: Marrakech riad (2 nights) — half-board
- Guided visit of Fes with a licensed local guide (Day 2)
- Guided visit of Marrakech with a licensed local guide (Day 6)
- Guided visit of the Aït Ben Haddou ksar (UNESCO)
- Camel trek in the dunes
- Traditional hammam session
- Guided food tour
- Drop-off at your Marrakech hotel or at the airport
Not included
- International flights
- Lunches and beverages
- Entrance fees to monuments and historical sites (optional — pay directly)
- Tips for guide and driver
- Personal expenses
- Travel insurance (recommended)
Questions travellers ask
What is a desert camp actually like?+
Our standard is the luxury ensuite camp: a proper bed with linen, a private bathroom with hot shower, rugs, lanterns, dinner served at camp and music by the fire. It is under canvas and off-grid — but closer to a small hotel in the dunes than to camping.
How long is the camel ride, and is it hard?+
About an hour into the dunes at sunset, at walking pace with a handler leading — no experience needed, and children love it. If camels are not for you, a 4×4 transfer to the same camp takes minutes; just tell us.
How cold does the desert get at night?+
Colder than anyone expects: near freezing on December–February nights, and a sharp drop after sunset in any season. Camps provide thick blankets; you provide a warm layer and something for your head.
Erg Chebbi or Zagora — which desert should I choose?+
Erg Chebbi (Merzouga) is the great dune sea — 150-metre dunes and the classic Sahara picture — but it is a long drive. Zagora's dunes are smaller and a day closer to Marrakech, ideal for 2-day tasters and young children. Our tour pages say clearly which one each route visits.
More answers in the “The desert experience” chapter of our Travel FAQ →
