ESCAPADE TO THE DESERT

Day 1: Casablanca – Marrakech

On arrival at Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca, you will be welcomed by your driver and transferred by chauffeur driven air conditioned car to your hotel in Marrakech.

Day 2: – Marrakech – Ouarzazate

After breakfast, you will be transferred by car to Ouarzazate. You will cross the Atlas through the pass of Tizi Tichka, the highest passage of Morocco and, indeed, of all of North Africa. The route offers wonderful photo opportunities including the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Aït Benhaddou, where movies such as Gladiator and Jesus of Nazareth were filmed.

Day 3: – Ouarzazate – M’Hamid

You will drive through the Draa Valley, passing Agdz and Zagora, witnessing landscapes of volcanic rock, plantations of palmary and ksours and its thousand and one thousand kasbah, skirting a grove of over 200 km.
Continue to M’hamid, the last Draa palm grove; beyond, there’s only desert. On the road stop at Tramgroute. There you will visit the famous Moorish Koranic Library that once held 40,000 volumes, and its theological college dating from the 11th century. The library contains a collection of illuminated Korans, the oldest of which are written on gazelle skins.
In the middle of nowhere, and amongst desert landscapes punctuated by verdant oasis and mud fortresses, a special picnic lunch in style will be arranged for you.

Continue your way by 4×4 WD to the high dunes of Erg Chegaga. Less touristy than the ones in Merzouga, and as beautiful and impressive as them, these dunes still keep that feeling of ‘absolute solitude’ which so much impressed writer Paul Bowles when he visited more than fifty years ago. Ride your own camel and engage in a discovery of the desert, with the opportunity to dress as a nomad in specially-made Tuareg costumes.
On top of the dunes you’ll discover, furnished with carpets, cushions and lanterns, a perfect place to watch the sun set and the changing colors of the landscape. A little further away, hidden by a dune-crest, your specially built exclusive encampment awaits you.

An evening of magical celebration and traditional feasts under the stars, with a wonderful dinner served by candle light, has been arranged. Nomadic musicians and dancers will perform for you the old legends of the region around the fire. A traditional Berber astrologer will also be at hand to enlighten you under the desert stars.