Marrakech to Erg Chegaga Desert Tour 3 days
The 3-Day Sahara Desert Tour from Marrakech To Erg Chigaga is the most exciting tour for travelers with only three days available who want a unique and comprehensive desert experience. On this trip, you are far away in the dunes, far from any impression of civilization.
Your Marrakech To Erg Chigaga starts by being picked up from your hotel or Riad in Marrakech at 8:00 am to head south for the magnificent High Atlas Mountains. You cross the Tizin-Tichka pass, (2660m) the highest pass in North Africa. You will be amazed by the panoramas and will want to take memorable photos. Simply tell your driver where you want to stop.
Along the way, you will visit the former presidential palace, Kasbah Telouet, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou. These are the two most famous kasbahs in Morocco and are an essential part of any desert tour. Before arriving in Ouarzazate, you can visit the Atlas Film Studios and see the sets of many Hollywood films still in place here.
That night, you will have the thrill of spending the night in a traditional rural riad or an authentic guesthouse in Agdez, a small town just at the head of the Dra’a valley, which descends towards the desert. From there, you get the distinct impression that you are on your way to a different world—new, exciting, and oriental. With a local guide to explain the history, you have the option of visiting the largest of the hundreds of Kasbahs in the valley, namely Kasbah Tamnougalt.
From there, the thrill increases as you pull off the road through the Draa Valley, past ancient kasbahs and lush green oases. This is part of the old route of the caravans that carried goods from Mali and Niger after crossing the Sahara for days.
After reaching the largest city before the Sahara, Zagora, you will have the opportunity to visit the cooperative of the famous nationwide green pottery and the Koranic library with its magnificent manuscripts, have this cutting edge experience to ride a camel in the dunes of Erg Chigaga.
At night under the astonishing array of stars, you will sleep in a comfortable luxury camp in the desert at the foot of the largest dunes of the Sahara in Morocco. The next day, the wonder continues as you drive off-road in the Sahara Desert, hunt for fossils in the dry lake of Iriqui, and learn about Berber carpet-making techniques in Taznakht.
Eplore the majesty and wonder of our very unique range of Marrakech Desert Tours. Discover the tour itinerary below. Your journey begins here!
Marrakech to Erg Chegaga Desert Tour 3 days Highlights
Marrakech to Erg Chigaga Desert Tour Itineraray
DAY 1 : MARRAKECH, ATLAS MOUNTAINS, KASBAH AIT BEN HADDOU, OUARZAZATE
Your early departure for Marrakech To Erg Chigaga desert tour is 8 hours from your hotel or riad in Marrakech to cross the High Atlas Mountains. After the Tichka pass, you leave the main road and take a secondary road to the Kasbah of Telouet, which belonged to the lords of the Atlas, the Glaoui family. Each addition to the building is today in ruins, exposed to the wind and rain, having been abandoned and looted after the fled of the last pasha of the country. Wait to be pleasantly surprised by the traditional interior decoration as you reach the far end of the Kasbah. From there, you drive along the beautiful and awe-inspiring Ounila Valley, full of bends in the roads, surprised by the hues of the rock and soil, Berber villages and gardens, as well as smaller Kasbahs. Almost at the end of the road, you reach Aït Ben Haddou, where you stop for a delicious lunch. It is Morocco’s most famous Kasbah, one of Morocco’s seven UNESCO World Heritage sites. The architectural style is well preserved, and the earthen constructions are perfectly adapted to the climatic conditions and in harmony with the natural and social environment. Probably dating from the 17th century, it is also famous as the backdrop for many Hollywood blockbusters. In the afternoon, You will be transferred to your Guesthouse for pool, dinner and breakfast
DAY 2 : OUARZAZATE, AGDZ, M’HAMID, ERG CHIGAGA
After breakfast, it’s time to visit Kasbah Tamnougalte, the oldest Kasbah in the Draa Valley. Apart is still inhabited, but the Jewish quarter has collapsed since the departure of its inhabitants for Israel; the last woman left in 1963. From there, we take for a short time the old caravan route between the river and the mountains, which was used to transport goods from sub-Saharan Africa and Morocco and passes between the mountains and the river, passing through many villages and gardens. This route allows you to get a better idea of the Berber way of life in the invigorating oases. Just before Tansikht Police Station, the driver can stop and show you the dinosaur footprints right by the roadside. We then arrive in the village of Tinsouline, from where you can travel about a kilometer off-road to the fascinating rock carvings of long-extinct animals in Morocco at Foum Chenna, which is around 4000 years old. Zagora is everyone’s biggest city and region, and here we will stop for lunch. Later, we pass through Tamgroute, where we stop at the famous pottery for the green glaze, which you may have seen in Marrakech before. You can also visit the ancient Koranic library with exquisite handwritten Arabic texts. In the afternoon, we drive further south to M’hamid, the very gate of the desert and the end of the asphalt road. In the dunes of Erg Lihoudi, we stopped for lunch. Alternatively, lunch will be at Ksar Bounou. You continue to the dunes of Erg Chegaga (300 m) with 60 km of off-road driving. This route passes different features of the desert: ‘Erg’ (dunes), ‘hammada’ (stony desert), and an oasis. These dunes are far from civilization, in the desert itself. …. and the silence and the expanse of the sand are overwhelming. Once there, you can take a camel ride for about an hour and a half. You dine and spend the night in a camp with a private bathroom, king-size beds, beautiful Moroccan furniture, and lamps. tastefully arranged to enhance your enjoyment of the silence and the beauty of the dunes.
DAY 3 :ERG CHIGAGA-FOUM ZGUID-TAZNAKHT-MARRAKECH
After breakfast, our Marrakech to Erg Chigaga desert trip takes us west through 90 km of the desert with varied landscapes, including Lake Iriqui, where you may discover a large mirage in the heat, mountains, and fossils. Lunch will be in Foum Zguid, the first village after the desert. “Foum” means “mouth”, so the name is the “mouth/source” of the Zguid River. From there, the road heads north along cobbled roads and past amazing rock formations to the small town of Taznakht, famous for its Berber rugs and carpets. From there, we cross the High Atlas again to reach Marrakech in the late afternoon after having
