Merzouga is the Sahara most people picture: orange dunes rising 150 m out of flat stony desert, camel trains at sunset, silence at night. It is also nine hours from Marrakech and eight from Fes, which is the fact that shapes every itinerary built around it.
That distance is the single most common planning error European visitors make. Flights are cheap and short enough that people book four days in Marrakech and then discover the desert is two days away in each direction. It cannot be squeezed into a long weekend - and anybody selling you a one-day round trip is proposing eighteen hours in a vehicle.
Done properly it is the best part of a Moroccan trip. The standard pattern is two days each way with an overnight in Dades or Ouarzazate, which turns the transfer itself into the journey: Tizi n Tichka at 2,260 m, the kasbah at Ait Ben Haddou, the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs, the Todra Gorge. Every booking is private and the price is fixed before you travel.
Why hire a driver here
- Nine hours off Marrakech, eight off Fes, which makes two days each way
- This will not fit into a long weekend, whatever anyone tells you
- Rising to 2,260 m, the Tizi n Tichka shuts briefly on some winter days
- Long stretches with no fuel, no services and no phone signal
- Asphalt finishes at the sand; from there it is camel or 4x4 to camp
Included in every booking
- Every litre of fuel, every toll and the driver for the whole journey
- Whatever the driver spends on his own room and food along the way
- Collection at Marrakech, Fes, Ouarzazate or any point on the route
- Proper time at Ait Ben Haddou, the Todra Gorge and the Draa oases
- Cold water and charging points on board
