Day 1: Marrakesh - Telouet - Aït Benhaddou

Your driver-guide will pick you up with his 4x4 after breakfast at your riad. Drive via through the High Atlas Mountains over the highest main road pass in Morocco at 2260 meters above sea level. Pass through traditional Berber villages to Telouet to visit the Glaoui Kasbah. You’ll then continue through the Ounilla Valley to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aït Benhaddou. 

Aït Benhaddou is an ancient ksar, or fortified village, along the traditional trade route, and has been the set for many international films, including Gladiator and Game of Thrones. You’ll have the chance to explore this living museum as you climb to the top of the imposing hill for a commanding view of the countryside. 

Afterwards you will drive through the lush Draa Valley, watered by the longest river in Morocco. The Draa Valley features glorious palm oases and kasbahs all the way to Zagora and M’hamid el Ghizlane, where the paved road ends. You’ll continue to drive for two hours off-road via desert terrain to reach the camp.

Wake up early to watch a magical desert sunrise and have a delicious breakfast, then depart from Erg Chigaga for a three-hour off-road drive to Foum Zguid, where you will join the paved road. Along the way, you will pass through Iriqui Lake National Park, a salty dried lakebed that occasionally becomes a wetland attracting migratory birds when there is enough rainfall. Stop to look for the fossils found everywhere in the lakebed.  Continue to Taznakht, where we can stop at a traditional Berber carpet village and cooperative, then continue through the High Atlas Mountains pass of Tizi n'Tichka.  Expect to reach Marrakesh in the early evening.