Eight departures leave Marrakech for the Erg Chebbi dunes, and every one of them crosses the High Atlas at Tizi n’Tichka and stops at Ait Ben Haddou on the way. What separates them is how many nights you spend in the sand, how many travellers are in the vehicle, and whether you come back to Marrakech or carry on to Fes. If you are starting from the other end, every Fes to Merzouga desert tour is set out separately.
The most-reviewed departure on this road. Hotel pickup, the Tichka pass, Ait Ben Haddou, a hotel night at Tinghir, and one camel each into the erg at sunset. Round trip back to Marrakech.
From $118 per person
Thirteen hours at the dunes with the camp night inside them, plus two hours at Ait Ben Haddou and an hour in Todra Gorge. Strollers and infant seats are both listed on this one.
From $130 per person
Eighteen travellers is the cap, which on this road is genuinely small. Transport, driver, fuel, both nights of accommodation and the camel are covered; lunch, drinks and tips are not.
From $114 per person
Sixteen hours at Merzouga Desert with an individual camel each way, two hours at the Todra river and two at Ait Ben Haddou. Air-conditioned minibus, eighteen travellers.
From $146 per person
The cheapest three-day departure here. Fourteen hours at the dunes, a hotel night in Tinghir, sandboarding, and infant seats available. Lunch and drinks on the road are yours.
From $106 per person
Two dinners and two breakfasts, a camel per person and a private tent, capped at seventeen with step-free transport listed. Note the refund window: four days, not twenty-four hours.
From $112 per person
Two nights in a luxury camp and a jeep day out to Khamlia and the deep dunes. Three dinners and three breakfasts, eighteen travellers, and a straight 5.0 across sixty-two reviews.
From $319 per person
Two desert nights with a middle day spent visiting nomad families rather than driving. Fifteen travellers, three dinners and three breakfasts, and the return broken across two days.
From $235 per person
Merzouga Desert Tours lists every departure on this road, including the ones that start at the dunes themselves.
A pickup from your hotel or from Jemaa el-Fnaa between about seven and eight in the morning, then 560 kilometres east over two days. Day one climbs the N9 to 2,260 m at Tizi n’Tichka, drops past Ait Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate, and ends at a hotel around Tinghir. Day two runs Todra Gorge and Erfoud and puts you on a camel at the edge of the erg in the late afternoon.
You sleep in a camp inside the dunes, ride back before dawn, and then either drive home to Marrakech or continue north to Fes. That is the whole shape, and every Marrakech departure follows it. The route guide goes through it stop by stop.
Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is on this corridor and not on the northern one. So are Ouarzazate, the Valley of the Roses and the Dades. The Fes road has its own scenery and it has nothing of that order.
Eight departures leave here against three from Fes, which means real variation in group cap, tent tier and price. You can pay $106 or $320 and both are a Marrakech departure.
Marrakech is the arrival airport for the great majority of visitors to Morocco, and these trips collect from the medina and the square. Nothing needs arranging in advance beyond the booking itself.
Six of the eight return to Marrakech, which matters if you have a flight out of it or a hotel holding your luggage. The Fes corridor is mostly one-way.
Both roads reach the same dunes. They do not show you the same country, and the distances are not the same.
| From Marrakech | From Fes | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance | about 560 km | about 470 km |
| Driving | 9–10 hours | 7–8 hours |
| The pass | Tizi n’Tichka at 2,260 m | no high pass |
| On the way | Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, the Dades, Todra | Ifrane, the Azrou cedars, Midelt, the Ziz Valley |
| Shortest trip | three days | two days |
| Departures here | eight | three |
| Usual shape | round trip | one-way crossing to Marrakech |
| Snow risk | the pass, November to March | much lower ground |
Check availability on the Marrakech round trip
Every Marrakech fare covers the vehicle and driver-guide, the fuel, one or two hotel nights on the road, the desert camp, the camel trek, and dinner and breakfast on each night away. Most also cover sandboarding and hotel pickup.
None covers lunches or drinks. Most exclude tips. All exclude the local guide inside Ait Ben Haddou, which two operators price at two euros a head. Carry cash for all four — travel tips has the figures, and the last reliable ATM is at Rissani.
Three kinds of traveller are better served elsewhere, and it is worth saying so before you book rather than after.