Moroccan Coast to Desert Tour

• Marrakech, Essaouira, Taghazout/Agadir, Sidi Ifni, Sahara Desert, Atlas Mountains

From the Atlantic shores to Saharan dunes, this seven to ten day journey will take you through towns both fascinating and forlorn, a kaleidoscope of centuries-old souks, dusty colonial-era outposts, and livestock markets.

You may spend your evenings in luxury restaurants, enchanting riads or guesthouses, luxurious desert camps or opt for a simpler experience, in charming guesthouses, auberges and the classic tents of the local Berbers who will serve you a traditional steaming tagine.

You will commence your Moroccan experience in Marrakech, taking in the intoxicating sights and sounds of this exciting city. You will next journey from the interior, across the rolling landscape to the coast, arriving in the charming beach town of Essaouira.  Meaning ‘beautiful picture,’ it’s a city known for art, inspiration, music, and history.

Next you will head south along the Atlantic coastline, which offers great views of the ocean, along with the ‘real’ Morocco.  Pass through villages lined with roadside stalls selling fruit, vegetables, terracotta tagines and the famous goats in trees. You will also pass through the village of Taghazout known as Morocco’s surf mecca, with wave-riders from Australia, Europe and the USA.  You can choose to stay in Agadir known as “The Copacabana of Morocco” with its huge sandy beach and promenade filled with tourist stores and busy restaurants serving global cuisines, or press further south to Sidi Ifni.

The locals in Sidi Ifni, an old Spanish colonial town, have painted the town blue and white, and continue the color scheme in their turbans and robes. They support Spanish football teams, take siestas and are more likely to greet travelers with hola than bonjour. From the Southern coast head inland across the sparse mountain and canyon landscapes of the Berbers, the fair-skinned inhabitants of North Africa who predate the seventh-century Arab invaders and still compose most of southern Morocco’s population; a region of less human density and vaster perspectives.

Find yourself in the famous silence of the Sahara. You will likely arrive at sunset time; the desert landscape is always at its best in the half-light of dawn or dusk. Later in the night, lose yourself in the jagged stars blazing overhead like a Van Gogh painting. On your trek back to Marrakech, beyond the sand dunes of the Sahara, the landscape becomes a world of stone, sand and scrub with the jagged summits of the Atlas Mountains in the distance.

As you make your way back, you will pass through several villages and towns which may peak your interest. You may opt to stop in Tamegroute to visit the famous library containing an impressive collection of old manuscripts, books and documents dating from the 12th century, underground Kasbah and famous ceramics (green). Perhaps you prefer to have lunch in Chez Dmitri in Ouarzazate, where film crews and actors are rumored to lunch when not filming on set at the nearby Atlas Studios. The town, built by the French colonists in the 1920s as a garrison town, the city of Ouarzazate radiates an orderly European feel. Only the city’s sprawling old fortress, a Babel-like jumble of towers and battlements called Kasbah Taourirt, breaks the modern aura.

After Ouarzazate, you will certainly want to stop at the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. It is the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and has been the set of many movies and TV series, including Game of Thrones. The Kasbah is now a UNESCO protected monument. Your journey after continues through the stunning High Atlas Mountains, up and over the spectacular Tiz-n-Tichka pass until you once again spy the rising minaret of Koutoubia Mosque, in Marrakech, the only edifice towering over a distinctive skyline.