Your journey begins in Marrakech.  You will depart the Red City and drive through the High Atlas Mountains.  Along the way there are plenty of vistas at which to stop for photographs.  You will cross the famous Tichka Pass (2,260 m / 7,414 ft), the highest paved pass in North Africa.  Here you will leave the main road and visit Kasbah Telouet, situated among the almond groves in the village of Telouet.  As you explore the kasbah, you’ll find that you are easily lost among the labyrinth of locked doors and connecting passages.

After leaving the kasbah, you will enter the Ounila Valley.  This well-known valley was part of the main caravan trade route to Marrakech from sub-Saharan Africa.  You’ll notice right away that the Ounila Valley is peppered with crumbling kasbahs and and that it’s hemmed in by imposing sandstone cliffs.  The remains of cave dwellings still dot the sides of the cliffs.  Shepherds graze their sheep and goats on the barren, but beautiful hillsides. Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, an UNESCO World Heritage site, is just a short drive away. You’ll have lunch near the ancient kasbah and then there will be time to leisurely explore the famous kasbah.   Dinner and your first night will be spent in the village of Tamdaght.

After a delicious breakfast you depart Tamdaght and begin the day’s journey that will take you to the Dades Gorges.  Shortly after leaving the village of Tamdaght, you’ll enter the city of Ouarzazate, known as the Moroccan Hollywood for the numerous movies filmed in the city.  In a short time, you will drive through Skoura, a fertile oasis lined with palm groves, olive trees, and the ruins of kasbahs that date back to the 12th century.  It is here in Skoura Valley that you can visit the 17th century Kasbah of Amridil.  Upon leaving Kasbah Amridil, you’ll continue onto the Rose Valley.  If it happens to be the first weekend of May, you will encounter the annual Rose Festival.  From here, you’ll drive off road to the High Atlas Mountains and into the Dades Valley where you’ll see some of the most spectacular scenery of the south.  You’ll continue on foot about an hour to the caves where you’ll have dinner and spend the night with a Berber nomad family.

Following breakfast, you’ll walk nearly three hours to a small hotel where you will relax for the afternoon.  You’ll spend the night here.

In the morning, you make your way into the town of Boumalne, that marks the southern entrance to the Dades Gorge.  You’ll find that the central market square is a good vantage point to observe the local life.  From there you’ll drive through Tinghir, back to High Atlas Mountains, and into Todgha Valley and Gorges where you’ll have the opportunity for a stroll through the gorges in the morning.  Afterwards, you will drive back through the Todra valley, through the small towns of Tinghir and Tinjdad and into Erfoud.  Erfoud is the International Capital of Fossils as well as a filming site for the movies The Mummy and King of Persia.  Each year in October the city hosts the national Date Festival.  After spending some time in the city known as the “Gate to the Sahara Desert,” you will continue your journey off-road to the impressive Erg Chebbi Sand Dunes.  In a short time, you will arrive at the camp in time to board camels for a leisurely jaunt to the dunes where you will watch the sun sink below the horizon.  Your night will be spent under the stars in a nomad tent.

If you like, you can watch as the sun wakes the day from over the dunes.  After a relaxing breakfast, the journey continues back through the hammada, or rocky desert, past more than 300 ksours to Rissani, home to the Zawiya Moulay Ali ash-Cherif Mausoleum, the founder of the Alawi family dynasty, from which the current king of Morocco has descended. Rissani is also famous for the 3-day weekly market complete with donkey parking for the visiting villagers.  If you visit on a market day, you’ll find yourself surrounded by bustling activity.  Other days are rather easy going and leisurely.

Before the sun climbs too high in the sky, you’ll find yourself back in the 4×4 and driving toward Alnif, one of Morocco’s richest seams of fossils.  Soon after you’ll find yourself entering one of Morocco’s best-kept secrets, N’Kob.  Here you’ll have lunch and relax beside the pool.  In the late afternoon, you’ll reach the Draa Valley, a fertile oasis with date palms and ksours and arrive in the small village of Tamnogualt.      The ksar is home to mostly abandoned kasbahs built of pisé.  Tamnougalte served as the 16th century central meeting point for caravans entering and leaving the desert.  Here you will have the opportunity to visit the  Tamnougalte Kasbah, that served as the regional government seat as well as the aristocratic residence of the Caïd.  Atop the Kasbah, you’ll have an unobstructed view of ruins, date palms, and the Draa River Valley.   You may be introduced to a descendant of the former village Cäid when you tour the kasbah.  The night will be spent in Tamnogault.

After breakfast, you leave the Draa Valley behind as you cross over the Tizi n’Tinififft Pass (1,660 m / 5,446 ft).  As you twist and turn around basalt cliffs you will be inundated by a myriad of colors everywhere you look.   After approximately 70 kilometers (45 miles), you will enter Ouarzazate, known as the Moroccan Hollywood for the numerous movies filmed in the city.   You’ll return to Marrakech by late afternoon.