Marrakech to Erg Lihoudi: 2-Day Desert Tour via the Draa Valley

Departure at 7:00 AM from your Marrakech hotel or riad — it's an early start, but every hour of this drive earns its place. First, the High Atlas: we climb the Tizi n'Tichka pass at 2,206 metres, the highest road pass in North Africa, with photo stops over Berber villages stacked into the mountainsides.

Our descent brings us to Aït Ben Haddou, the UNESCO World Heritage kasbah you already know from the movies. We have lunch at a local restaurant, then join our guide for a walk through the ksar's earthen alleys — one of the best-preserved fortified villages in Morocco.

From there we continue through Agdz and into the Draa Valley, following the palm groves south with a short break in Zagora. At M'hamid El Ghizlane — the last village before the open Sahara — your camels are waiting. The one-hour trek into the Erg Lihoudi dunes is timed for sunset, and dinner is served by the campfire at your Berber camp. Overnight in a proper nomad-style tent among the dunes.

Sunrise over the Erg Lihoudi dunes is the quiet highlight of the trip — if you climb one dune this weekend, make it this one. Breakfast is served at camp right after, then we mount the camels for the trek back to M'hamid, with the option of a hot shower at a hotel before the drive.

The return route runs back through Zagora, Agdz and the Draa Valley with a lunch break en route, plus an optional guided visit to the film studios of Ouarzazate — Morocco's own Hollywood, where Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and dozens of desert epics were filmed. We arrive back in Marrakech at around 6:00 PM.