5-Day Marrakech Entertainment & Sahara Escape

The five-day version adds a full Marrakech city day to our popular 4-day desert circuit, ensuring you experience both the legendary city and the legendary dunes without compromise. Day 1 is devoted entirely to Marrakech’s most celebrated medina highlights, guided by a licensed local expert. The following four days trace the classic southern circuit to the Sahara and back, with every stop fully detailed and every day thoughtfully paced.

What’s Included

• Private air-conditioned 4WD or minivan (fuel included)
• Marrakech hotel pickup and drop-off
• Licensed local guide in Marrakech
• Licensed heritage guide at Aït Ben Haddou
• 3 nights hotel/riad (breakfast & dinner)
• 1 night Berber desert camp (dinner & breakfast)
• Camel trek at Erg Chebbi
• Mineral water throughout

Not Included

• Flights tickets
• Entrance fees to
• Monuments of any
• Lunches and drinks
• Anything not mentioned in the itinerary

Day 1 — Marrakech City: Full Guided Tour

Begin with the Koutoubia Mosque — the 12th-century minaret that gave Spain’s Giralda its proportions, surrounded by orange trees and rose gardens. Your licensed local guide leads you through the medina’s most celebrated monuments: the Bahia Palace, an enormous 19th-century grand vizier’s residence whose 160 rooms are adorned with cedar ceilings, zellij floors, and courtyard gardens of bitter orange and bougainvillea; the Saadian Tombs, a royal necropolis sealed by an Alaouite sultan in 1672 and rediscovered only in 1917, its three chambers housing 66 royal tombs in a forest of marble columns and gilded stucco. Afternoon: navigate the famous souk quarters — the Babouche Souk for hand-stitched leather slippers in every colour, the Chouari open-air woodworkers’ market, the El-Attarine perfume and spice souk, and the Cherratine leather tannery quarter. End at the Majorelle Garden — a Cubist masterpiece of electric-blue walls, yellow pots, and rare cacti created by painter Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s, restored by Yves Saint Laurent in 1980, now home to a superb Berber Culture Museum. Evening free in the legendary Jemaa el-Fna square as the city’s greatest performance begins: orange juice carts, henna artists, acrobats, storytellers, open-air kitchens with smoking grills, and Gnawa musicians in their colourful robes. Overnight in riad.

Day 2 — Marrakech › Tizi n’Tichka › Aït Ben Haddou › Ouarzazate › Skoura › Boumalne Dadès

Pickup at 8:15 am. High Atlas crossing via Tizi n’Tichka (2,260 m) with panoramic mountain photo stops. Visit to the Ksar of Aït Ben Haddou (UNESCO) with heritage guide — earthen towers, cobbled streets, hilltop granary view. Lunch in Ouarzazate; brief stop at Atlas Studios and Kasbah Taourirt. Afternoon through Skoura palm grove and Rose Valley to Boumalne Dadès. Dinner and overnight with valley views.

Day 3 — Dadès Gorge › Todgha Gorge › Erfoud › Merzouga: Camel Trek › Desert Camp

Morning drive into the Dadès Gorge for the monkey-paw rock formations. Back to the main road via Tinghir oasis and a walk through the Todgha Gorge (300-metre walls, cold river, extraordinary natural scale). Continue through Erfoud fossil workshops to Merzouga. Sandboarding. Sunset camel caravan to Berber camp. Tagine dinner, drumming, stargazing. Overnight luxury tent.

Day 4 — Desert Sunrise › Khamlia Gnawa Village › Nomad Visit › Rose Valley › Ouarzazate

Pre-dawn dune climb for the Saharan sunrise. After breakfast: 4×4 tour to Khamlia Gnawa music village (live performance), nomadic family camp visit (traditional lifestyle, camel herds, handwoven textiles). Return to Merzouga. Afternoon drive west through the Rose Valley and Kalaat M’Gouna rose cooperative distilleries. Ouarzazate overnight.

Day 5 — Aït Ben Haddou › Kasbah Telouet (optional) › Tizi n’Tichka › Marrakech

Morning at Aït Ben Haddou (different angle and lighting from Day 2). Optional detour via the spectacular Kasbah Telouet — the atmospheric, partially ruined Glaoui mountain fortress at 1,800 m, approached through the breathtaking Ounila Valley. Cross Tizi n’Tichka back north to Marrakech, arriving by late afternoon with hotel or airport drop-off.