Transfer from Marrakech to Essaouira.

3 hours drive to Riad Zahra, a very comfortable guest house in Essaouira. Essaouira is picturesque port town on the Atlantic coast and features an artist community and lots of local culture.

Today we’ll be exploring the souks and culture of Essaouira’s old town before spending a relaxing evening exploring its streets and restaurants.

We will stay the night at Riad Zahra again.

Early in the morning we’ll head out from Essaouira and drive to Imi Oughlad.

There we’ll meet our team, which includes guides, mules, muleteers and a cook.

Today we will be starting out with an acclimatization trek that will get us to Imsker (a Berber village) where will spend the night.

The terrain here is gentler with copper green soil and juniper trees.

Approximately 4-5 hrs walking time.

Today, we will head from Imsker to Ouanskra, and then on to Tachdirth.

From Imsker , we’ll set out along a piste for 3 hours hike and on towards the east. Eventually, we will climb up to the valley and on through fields of barley and orchards of walnuts , apple and cherry trees until we reach the village of Tamaterte.

After Tamaterte, we’ll carry on along the upper valley slopes for another hour or so to the village of Ouanskra and then to Amagdoul, which is set amidst terraced plots of land carved from the hard slopes. We will stop here for a picnic on the plateau (which is sometimes used in summer, as a bivouac site).

After lunch, our afternoon will be spent hiking for some 2 hours up through the valley along the mule trails until we reach the pretty (and oldest!) Berber village in the Toubkal massif, Tachdirth (2291m).

Tachdirth feels ancient and looks picturesque: it is set amongst terraced plots dug from the surrounding stony slopes.

We will stay the night here in a local gite.

After an early breakfast, we start our 6 hours hike south-eastwards to the terraced village of Timichi (1850m), a western offshoot at the head of Ourika valley.

For 2.5 hours we hike slowly up to Tizi n Tachdirth (3200m), which affords us a stunning panoramic view of Jbel Aksoual (3842m) and Bouignouane (3882m) on one side and Angour on the other.

With the luscious, verdant valley stretching out way below us we shall traverse the pass and continue on down through the rocky slopes and head north-eastwards for a further 2 hours until we reach the Berber village of Iaabbassen (2030m), where we will stop for our welcome field picnic next to a spring just outside of the village.

After lunch we’ll enjoy another 2 hour hike up to the northeast and then down the valley to the old village of Timichi, a charming terraced piste and conglomeration of homes set amongst ancient nut trees , where we will have our dinner.

We will stay overnight in a Berber family home.

After breakfast we will set out for a 4 to 5 hour hike eastwards down along the valley. Our route will be full of cornfields and walnuts groves, with many streams flowing down from the upper slopes. We pass through the villages of Anfli and Tadrart to arrive at the end of beautiful Ourika valley proper and the renowned Berber village of Setti Fadma ,with its ancient nut trees and waterfalls.

We shall stop for our picnic just outside of the village, before heading to our gite in Setti Fadma for the night.

You will be picked up from your accommodation in Ourika at 9.00am.

From there we will head out over the Atlas mountains and across the Tizi-n-Tichka pass. Leaving the pass, we will continue toward the World Heritage Site of Ait Benhaddou, a spectacular fortified village (also known as a Ksar).

We will stay the night in Ait Benhaddou.

Today, we will have the option to visit the Atlas Film Studios in Ouarzazate. The list of famous films and TV shows filmed in this area is huge – see if you recognise anything as you travel through!

We can then continue to the Dades Gorge via Skoura and Rose Valley (Kelaa Mgouna) where, in spring, Berber children line the route selling garlands of fragrant roses. We’ll leave the main route at Boumalne Dades to drive past ruined hilltop kasbahs, valley-floor gardens and the strange rock formations of the Tamnalt Hills.

We’ll spend the night in the Rose Valley.

In the morning, we’ll transfer to Merzouga via the Todra Gorge, the highest gorge in Morocco. The gorge is just 20m wide and over 200m high.

We’ll arrive at the edge of the dunes with the option of an overnight stay at a hotel or to take the chance to go camel trekking in Erg Chebbi, with a desert guide, and sleep in a nomad tent at a desert camp. You will eat and sleep under the desert stars.

After an early sunrise, we’ll ride our camels back into Merzouga. After we have had a shower and a wash, we’ll start the final leg of our tour by heading out to Fes.

We can stop on the road to enjoy some tea with a nomadic family before passing through the High Atlas mountains again. We’ll stop by a town called Midelt where we’ll have lunch. This town is a very impressive mountain town at 1488m of altitude and well situated lower down the Jbel Ayachi (3737m).

In the afternoon we’ll continue to the legendary Imperial City of Fes. Our arrival in Fes will herald the ed of our trip.

Around 7 hours of driving.