Itinerary
Our Moroccan journey begins in Marrakesh, a city of layered histories and living traditions. We settle into our intimate riad within the Medina, designed around a tranquil courtyard that offers calm amid the city’s animated streets. If time allows, wander nearby lanes or ascend to the rooftop terrace as evening settles in. From above, the call to prayer ripples across rooftops, briefly stilling the city. Tonight, we gather with our Expedition Leader for a relaxed welcome dinner featuring classic Moroccan flavors—slow-cooked tagines, fresh bread and sweet mint tea—an introduction to the customs that shape everyday life here.
After breakfast, we travel south over the High Atlas via the Tizi n’Tichka Pass, following a dramatic road that winds through switchbacks, high valleys and terraced slopes still worked by hand in Amazigh mountain communities, stitched with walnut trees. The mountains form a natural divide between Morocco’s Atlantic-facing plains and the arid south, and as we crest the pass the scenery subtly shifts—green folds give way to stonier ridgelines and a sharper desert light.
We pause in Ouarzazate to explore Taourirt Kasbah, a fortified residence complex associated with the Glaoui family and a hallmark of southern Morocco’s earthen architecture. Walk its narrow corridors and shaded courtyards, where thick adobe walls and carved details reflect both defensive needs and refined craftsmanship shaped by daily life within these walls. Continue into the Drâa Valley, where a long ribbon of date palms shelters villages built from sun-dried mud brick. This oasis corridor once guided trans-Saharan caravans and continues to shape settlement today—a green artery set against an austere landscape. Arrive by late afternoon in Zagora, a desert-edge town long tied to trade and travel. Settling into our lodge, we take in the evening calm among the palms before dinner beneath a widening sky.
This morning, explore the cultural heart of the lower Drâa Valley. In Tamegroute, watch local potters fire their distinctive green-glazed ceramics in palm-frond-fueled kilns, continuing a craft passed down through generations of families. Working in small workshops still tied to daily production, these potters welcome us into a rhythm shaped by necessity rather than display. Visit the ancient Koranic library, where rare manuscripts and time-softened pages hint at the region’s enduring scholarly tradition.
Nearby, we wander the narrow lanes of Amezrou, once home to renowned silversmiths who transformed caravan wealth into intricate jewelry. Share mint tea with local hosts and gain insight into how craftsmanship, trade and hospitality remain central to daily life along this historic corridor. These moments unfold through personal introductions and conversation, shaped by access rarely available to larger or faster-moving tours.
For generations, the Draa Valley marked the final cultivated corridor before the Sahara proper. Its palm groves and canals supported villages that depended on shared water and long-established routes. Beyond the last stands of green, movement followed different rules—guided by wind, terrain and experience rather than roads or boundaries.
We begin the transition from oasis to open desert, traveling by 4x4 beyond the last paved roads into the southern Sahara. As the track fades, the landscape opens steadily outward—stony reg gives way to low dune fields, scrub thins, and horizons stretch until there is little to interrupt the view in any direction. An optional camel walk offers a chance to settle into the pace of desert travel, walking alongside local people as they go about their daily movement across these sands. Travel here follows lived patterns, shaped by terrain, weather and long familiarity with the land. By late afternoon, arrive at Erg Chigaga, among the most remote dune systems in Morocco, where vast sweeps of sand roll away toward an empty horizon.
From camp, the Sahara stretches outward with no sign of settlement—only dunes and sky. As evening settles, the desert grows quieter, and attention shifts from movement to stillness. Gather for dinner beneath the stars, then share an evening with nomadic musicians whose songs carry memories of long journeys, family ties and a way of life closely tied to this landscape.
We spend a full day exploring the Sahara’s subtleties. Walk a stretch of the historic Salt Road with a small caravan, learning to read the landscape through wind patterns on the dunes, beetle tracks, and the resilient shrubs that anchor life here—signs long understood by those who live and travel in the desert. Time in the desert sharpens attention to texture, distance, and quiet. We pause for a picnic and learn how abadir is prepared, sampling this savory bread baked in hot sand—a practical tradition that reflects how desert travelers have long adapted to the realities of life on the move. Later, venture by 4x4 to the dry pans of Lake Iriki, scanning for fossils and signs of an older Sahara, and share tea with nomadic families—an invitation rooted in hospitality, offered through trust and longstanding connection. We return to camp as the day cools, when the dunes soften in the last light and the night sky feels brilliantly clear.
Rising early, we watch sunrise spill across the dunes, then depart the Sahara, following the Drâa’s palm belt northward. Pass through villages and kasbahs whose fortified towers speak to centuries of trade and defense, while the surrounding canals and palm groves reveal how careful water conservation has long sustained life here. Continue along the famed Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, where the desert slowly loosens its hold as greenery returns to the landscape. We arrive in Skoura, a lush palm oasis cooled by shade and running water, and feel the shift from open desert to enclosed, cultivated calm. We settle into our lodge, a peaceful refuge where birdsong and rustling palms replace the Sahara’s stillness, before enjoying a candlelit dinner as the valley eases into night.
With our Expedition Leader, walk through Skoura’s palm groves, learning how families here have sustained oasis agriculture for generations through khettaras—ancient underground channels that still carry life-giving water. In the shade of the palms, notice the elegant logic of layered cultivation: dates high above, fruit trees below, and vegetables nearer the ground where cooler air lingers. Later, meet one of Skoura’s last traditional potters. Watch as utilitarian vessels are shaped on a foot-powered wheel, the practiced, steady motions connecting craft to daily life across generations. Those who wish may try the wheel, gaining a tactile understanding of the patience behind even the simplest form.
This morning, we enjoy a relaxed cooking class with local hosts, beginning with a short walk or tuk-tuk ride into the palm grove. Working together in a family kitchen, learn to balance spices by scent and taste, prepare classic dishes, and tend traditional clay ovens as meals slowly take shape. When the cooking is done, gather to share the food we’ve helped create, savoring both the flavors and the conversations around the table. In the afternoon, continue exploring Skoura. Join our Expedition Leader for a guided visit to Kasbah Amridil, where earthen walls, grain stores and family quarters offer insight into generations of life supported by agriculture, water management and trade. Those who wish may return to the pottery workshop to collect a finished piece, or spend unhurried time at the lodge—journaling, resting, or simply absorbing the quiet patterns of the palm grove as the day unfolds. This open time allows subtler details of place to surface.
We travel west to Ait Ben Haddou, the UNESCO-listed fortified village rising above a shallow riverbed. Wandering its narrow passageways and earthen towers, stacked adobe forms and defensive walls reveal centuries of communal life organized around cooperation, trade, and shared protection. From higher vantage points, views stretch across the valley, a reminder of the site’s long strategic importance. Our group visits a small museum celebrating Amazigh cultural traditions, where music, art and storytelling preserve cultural memory passed down through generations. Later, cross back over the High Atlas, descending into greener folds and cooler air as we reach the Ourika Valley and the mountains beyond.
This morning, we set out on a guided walk in Toubkal National Park, following a network of well-worn footpaths that link fields, homes and mountain pastures. Routes follow everyday paths rather than formal trails, offering insight into daily life in the High Atlas as it unfolds among terraced slopes and stone hamlets. These are working paths—used to reach fields, homes and pastures. By midday, we pause in an Amazigh village for a simple, home-cooked lunch shared with local families. Fresh bread and seasonal salads arrive with warm conversation, and the quiet, purposeful pace of village life becomes part of the experience. The afternoon continues unhurried, with time to wander and observe the small details of the landscape—local birds, stone walls, cultivated terraces and the subtle ways people and place remain intertwined.
We begin the morning with a simple ritual that reflects everyday life in the High Atlas, rooted in Amazigh hospitality. Accompanied by our hosts, we stroll through the hotel’s mint garden to gather fresh mint and herbs, then learn the steps of traditional Amazigh tea-making—a centuries-old practice shaped by patience, care, and generosity. Prepared slowly and shared together, the tea offers a quiet start to the day. The afternoon is ours to shape. Those who wish may enjoy a traditional hammam, emerging refreshed and restored, while others join the Expedition Leader for a relaxed walk along mountain paths, following everyday routes used by local families and shepherds. Both options reflect the natural rhythm of life in the High Atlas, allowing space to engage with the mountain setting in a personal way. As evening settles, gather for a farewell dinner to reflect on the deserts, oases, villages, and mountains that have defined our journey, and to toast new friendships formed along the way.
After breakfast, we depart the High Atlas and travel back toward Marrakesh, descending from the mountain valleys into the plains below. Arrive at the airport in time for onward flights, bringing our journey through Morocco’s deserts, oases and mountains to a close.
