Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by Marrakech Desert Trips. This review and all opinions expressed are by Marrakech Desert Trips’ and not Feet Do Travel.
When I visited Marrakech last year I heard stories from locals about a village called Merzouga. I was so intrigued, I booked a tour to this Village. In this tour I saw the Mighty Atlas Mountains and spent the night near Sahara Desert which is just a few kilometres from merzouga.
I have seen many deserts before; the Antarctic desert, Arctic desert, Gobi desert etc. which are much larger then Merzouga Desert, but the beauty of this desert is way more attractive than any other desert in the world. The surroundings are magical, it has high dunes, golden color of sand at sunrise and sunset and the sky full of stars sets this desert apart from many desert which I visited in my life. I booked a 3 days desert tour from Marrakech and here are the details of every day which I spent there.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by Marrakech Desert Trips. This review and all opinions expressed are by Marrakech Desert Trips’ and not Feet Do Travel.
On Day 1 my driver Salman came to pick me up early in the morning from my raid and I embarked on my journey towards Merzouga Desert. Salman came to pick me up on the Jeep and there are just two of us in there and in the first part of my trip I really enjoyed. I saw chain of the atlas and I am very amazed to see the changing colors of the mountains. I am very astonished to see this while for Salman it was a regular thing because he is local. I could not help to take hundreds of photos and in this area I saw many Local villages. Local in this area are called berber.
The Highest Part of the trip which I came across is Tizi N’Tichka Pass, which was the highest part of my trip. The views from the highest point with the curvy roads is simply amazing. Around the noon we have arrived at one of the most Striking stop of our Morocco desert tour, the eye catching Ait Ben Haddou which is an old village between the Sahara and Marrakech. It is also declared as a World Heritage by UNESCO and it is served as a shooting place for number of popular movies and serials like Laurence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones.
After the supper we continued our journey to Merzounga Desert. In the road to Merzounga we came on the route named 1000 Kasbahs and surprisingly on that root we did not meet many tourists. Most of the kasbahs here are abandoned and all of these build on the ancient patterns. After some time on the road we the Kasbah Amridil which is marvelous outwork from 17th century. Its picture is printed on the Moroccans 50 dirham bill.
I crossed the palmeral Grove in Skoura. It is just like an oasis surrounded with number of palm trees. Finally I have finished My First day of 3- day Moroccan desert trip in the Dades Gorges. I stayed in Auberge Chez Pierre simple but beautiful hotel with spectacular views.
The Highest Part of the trip which I came across is Tizi N’Tichka Pass, which was the highest part of my trip. The views from the highest point with the curvy roads is simply amazing. Around the noon we have arrived at one of the most Striking stop of our Morocco desert tour, the eye catching Ait Ben Haddou which is an old village between the Sahara and Marrakech. It is also declared as a World Heritage by UNESCO and it is served as a shooting place for number of popular movies and serials like Laurence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones.
After the supper we continued our journey to Merzounga Desert. In the road to Merzounga we came on the route named 1000 Kasbahs and surprisingly on that root we did not meet many tourists. Most of the kasbahs here are abandoned and all of these build on the ancient patterns. After some time on the road we the Kasbah Amridil which is marvelous outwork from 17th century. Its picture is printed on the Moroccans 50 dirham bill.
I crossed the palmeral Grove in Skoura. It is just like an oasis surrounded with number of palm trees. Finally I have finished My First day of 3- day Moroccan desert trip in the Dades Gorges. I stayed in Auberge Chez Pierre simple but beautiful hotel with spectacular views.
On my 2nd day I continued my journey towards the mystical Merzounga desert and we went deep into Dades Gorges. I stopped at various places and took various picture of this fascinating place. This place is famous for its rock formations and the most famous one is “Monkey fingers”. We left the Davis valley and arrived again in the desert area. Here I saw nothing special except a nomad berber who was walking in the desert with his two Camels. He looked very curious and till this date I still remember his face.
As we head towards top we again arrived at another fantastic view point. We looked down on the old city of Tinghir, where we could distinguish the area where initially the Jewish community lived, but their houses were abandoned long time ago.
Our next stop is Todgha Gorges, where I saw a huge rocks walls on the both sides of the river. Literally my driver Salman says “Sir, we look like a tiny ant in front of those rocks” and I smiled and said ‘Yes Indeed”. We hardly said 45 minutes there because many locals were having a picnic with their families over there also I want to reach Merzounga as Soon as possible. So, after having lunch I said to salman that from now on do not stay on every single stops. Just made brief stops because I wanted to see the colorful sand dunes in the Merzouga desert.
Finally at the evening just before the sunset we finally arrived at the Merzouga village. I wanted to go to the desert in a Moroccan style so I decided to go there on a Camel. So, my driver Salman managed a Camel and I just jump on it and embarked to Merzouga Desert. To be honest it is not a comfortable ride at all but soon you will forget these uncomfortableness when you see the beautiful sand dunes.
After the Sunset I managed to arrive at the campsite in the middle of desert. Although my Camp is not luxury but it has large bed with basic necessities like toilet and shower. At night the candles lit up which shows the way to main Camp where dinner is served. For dinner I had the best tajine of not only the desert tour, but of the whole visit to Morocco. I felt very lucky because high season was just gets over and there were just a small group of people on the campsite. At night after dinner I lied down in the sand to gaze the hundreds and thousands of stars on the sky. I will never able to wipe that beautiful scene from my memory.
As we head towards top we again arrived at another fantastic view point. We looked down on the old city of Tinghir, where we could distinguish the area where initially the Jewish community lived, but their houses were abandoned long time ago.
Our next stop is Todgha Gorges, where I saw a huge rocks walls on the both sides of the river. Literally my driver Salman says “Sir, we look like a tiny ant in front of those rocks” and I smiled and said ‘Yes Indeed”. We hardly said 45 minutes there because many locals were having a picnic with their families over there also I want to reach Merzounga as Soon as possible. So, after having lunch I said to salman that from now on do not stay on every single stops. Just made brief stops because I wanted to see the colorful sand dunes in the Merzouga desert.
Finally at the evening just before the sunset we finally arrived at the Merzouga village. I wanted to go to the desert in a Moroccan style so I decided to go there on a Camel. So, my driver Salman managed a Camel and I just jump on it and embarked to Merzouga Desert. To be honest it is not a comfortable ride at all but soon you will forget these uncomfortableness when you see the beautiful sand dunes.
After the Sunset I managed to arrive at the campsite in the middle of desert. Although my Camp is not luxury but it has large bed with basic necessities like toilet and shower. At night the candles lit up which shows the way to main Camp where dinner is served. For dinner I had the best tajine of not only the desert tour, but of the whole visit to Morocco. I felt very lucky because high season was just gets over and there were just a small group of people on the campsite. At night after dinner I lied down in the sand to gaze the hundreds and thousands of stars on the sky. I will never able to wipe that beautiful scene from my memory.
On the 3rd and final day of our trip I just woke up early in the morning to the Sunrise but in that matter I was not that Lucky because Sun hid behind the clouds, anyway the intense golden color of the desert is still very enjoyable.
I went back to my camp and had a breakfast and after packing climbed up to my dromedaries and started my journey back to Merzouga. I said the final good bye to the dunes of Erg Chebbi and I promised myself that I will soon come back to that majestic place for more days. After reaching Merzounga I jumped on the jeep of my driver Salman and continued my journey towards Fes. Kudos to my driver Mr Salman who knew his job very well. He covered a lot of kilometers in very less time but still managed to see beautiful places.
To be very honest I did not expect that I will get to see that much in Morocco. The main highlight of my trip according to me was the Kasbahs and Colorful sand dunes.
If you want to have Marrakech to Merzouga desert tour I recommend to book an excursion specialists who knew the place very well. If you hire locals then It will further help you because locals know every nitty gritty of the place and can guide you very well.
I went back to my camp and had a breakfast and after packing climbed up to my dromedaries and started my journey back to Merzouga. I said the final good bye to the dunes of Erg Chebbi and I promised myself that I will soon come back to that majestic place for more days. After reaching Merzounga I jumped on the jeep of my driver Salman and continued my journey towards Fes. Kudos to my driver Mr Salman who knew his job very well. He covered a lot of kilometers in very less time but still managed to see beautiful places.
To be very honest I did not expect that I will get to see that much in Morocco. The main highlight of my trip according to me was the Kasbahs and Colorful sand dunes.
If you want to have Marrakech to Merzouga desert tour I recommend to book an excursion specialists who knew the place very well. If you hire locals then It will further help you because locals know every nitty gritty of the place and can guide you very well.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by Marrakech Desert Trips. This review and all opinions expressed are by Marrakech Desert Trips’ and not Feet Do Travel.
