1 Week Desert Tour from Tangier

This one-week private tour is our most complete route from Tangier to the Sahara. It suits travellers arriving from Spain or elsewhere in Europe who want the north and the desert in the same trip, with a full day to explore Fes and two nights in Merzouga instead of one.

Chefchaouen, Volubilis and Meknes

Your driver meets you in Tangier — at the port, Ibn Battouta airport, the train station or your hotel — and takes you through the Rif mountains to Chefchaouen for the night. On day two you head south to the Roman ruins of Volubilis, with their mosaics still in place, and the imperial city of Meknes, with its monumental Bab Mansour gate, before arriving in Fes.

A full day in Fes

Fes el-Bali is often described as the largest car-free urban area in the world, and a single afternoon does not do it justice. A licensed local guide spends the day with you in the old city, from the Bou Inania madrasa and the Al-Qarawiyyin mosque to the Chouara tanneries and the workshops of the coppersmiths and weavers.

Two nights in the Sahara

From Fes we cross the Middle Atlas and follow the Ziz Valley to Merzouga, where the first night is spent at a guesthouse at the foot of the dunes. The next day you explore the area by 4x4 — Gnawa music in Khamlia, the market town of Rissani, nomad families and fossil workshops — before a sunset camel trek to our desert camp in Erg Chebbi. Read our Erg Chebbi dunes guide to see what to expect.

The south and Marrakech

The last two days take you west through the Todra Gorge and the Dades Valley, then along the road of a thousand kasbahs to Ouarzazate and Ait Benhaddou, before crossing the Tizi n'Tichka pass to Marrakech. If you would rather finish in the north, we can adapt the route to end in Fes or Tangier, or extend it into our 2-week tour from Tangier via the imperial cities.