Marrakech - Merzouga - Fes circuit

On the map, the circuit draws a long diagonal from south-west to north-east: 1,135 kilometres climbing to the Tichka pass, dropping onto Ouarzazate, running kasbah to kasbah down the Dadès, up the Todra fault, running aground in the Erg Chebbi dunes, then back north via Errachidia, Midelt and the Middle Atlas to Fes. The landscape changes worlds at every stage - mountain, kasbah, gorge, dune, cedar, medina - through to the third evening, when you fall into the alleys of Morocco’s oldest imperial city. Three days is little, but that is what gives the trip its density: the format only holds because arrival and departure sit on two different airports. A multi-city flight ticket to book in the right direction - against 550 kilometres of road and one hotel night saved on a round trip that would go back through the same valleys.

Two variants of the same circuit

The above itinerary runs equally from Fes to Marrakech - the reverse direction is offered by two of the six panel offers, one of which with Fes airport pick-up, useful to string straight from the plane. The experience stays equivalent, save for the order: Marrakech at trip’s end rather than start, with the long stage (Fes → Merzouga) placed on D1 instead of D3.

For those set on returning to their starting point, a five-day loop variant exists: Marrakech → Merzouga on the classic route, then back via Beni Mellal and the Ouzoud waterfalls, which adds around 160 kilometres and a full driving day on D4. This format does not run through GetYourGuide - it books through a direct Moroccan operator or the bespoke circuit described at the end of the listing. Consistent if you want to combine desert and waterfalls without going through the same valleys twice, but you pay an extra day of road for a site (Ouzoud) that earns its day without necessarily justifying stretching a desert circuit.

The bespoke version: 8-day private 4×4 circuit with Desert-Maroc.com

Another format, apart from the GetYourGuide panel: the eight-day, seven-night circuit stretches the format in both directions. It is offered on Desert-Maroc.com, a site published by our group. The itinerary opens with two days of free time in Marrakech, closes with two days in Fes, and sets five days of road at an eased pace in the middle: a real rest day at Merzouga around a guesthouse with a pool, a stop at the Gnawa village of Khamlia, and two stages rarely included by group circuits - the Kasbah of Télouet, the former Glaoui stronghold on the Tichka road, and the Lezzarine Sources museum at Tinejdad, which documents qanats and traditional southern irrigation.

The format is 100% private: 4x4 with a bilingual driver-guide throughout, riads in the Marrakech and Fes medinas at start and end, bivouac camp at the Erg Chebbi, guesthouse with a pool at Merzouga. The rate steps with the group: £955/person for two, £710 for four, £618 for six. The quote goes through direct contact - bespoke, not a catalogue rate to book online.

For whom? A couple, a family or a small group of two to six people who want the full Morocco week in a single package, with the two medinas, the desert, two less-visited sites, a rest day in the middle, and no shared minibus. For whom not? The independent traveller who plans their own stages and slots three desert days into an independent stay: the six GetYourGuide group offers (air-conditioned van, £52 to £139 for three days) suit better, at seven to twelve times less per day. Two reservations to state honestly: no public verified-reviews platform on Desert-Maroc.com, and the Fes return flight logistics stay for the traveller to arrange.