Dunes and Kasbahs of Morocco (9 days)

Tour the Dunes, Mountains and Kasbahs of Morocco
A 9-day tour

Vishal and Tina on their Honeymoon on a
Travel In Style Custom Tailored Honeymoon Vacation

Explore the historic kasbahs (fortresses) and natural alpine beauty of southern Morocco’s mighty High Atlas Mountains on this 8 day tour to Marrakech, Ouarzazate, Tamegroute, Zagora, Erfoud, Tinerhir, and Berber villages at the edge of the Sahara Desert. To add Merzouga, please click here.

Day 1 – MARRAKECH – Choose Your Own Dates – Start Any Day – Year Round
Welcome to Morocco! Morning arrival at Marrakech Airport. We escort you to your hotel. A welcome mint tea & fruit basket awaits you at your hotel. Remainder of the day at leisure. Prefer to start in Casablanca? please click here.

Day 2 – MARRAKECH (BL)
A horse drain carriage panoramic tour of the medinah, and a walking tour of the souk (market), we see some of the age-old guild artisans at work. Finally, we end up in famous Djemaa el-Fna square with its medieval circus atmosphere of itinerant dancers, jugglers, acrobats, storytellers, soothsayers, snake charmers, medicine men and public scribes. Lunch at a local restaurant. Remainder of the day at leisure.

Morocco Marrakesh city tour. Video by noodzaak.

DAY 3 – MARRAKECH TREKKING (BLD)
After breakfast in you hotel, leave for Amizmiz, 54 kilometers from Marrakech. On the way you will see the Oumnast Kasbah then the Lalla Takerkoust Dam built between 1929 and 1935 with it man-made lake. It will take you about an hour to reach Amizmiz, a typical Berber village, where we will tour the Kasbah and the “Mellah” (Jewish quarter). Every Tuesday an important country market is held where all the villagers from the area come for their weekly shopping and gossiping. There you can buy interesting Regragra potteries. Your guide will welcome you in his home for a traditional Berber breakfast then you will start your hiking first through Sidi Hossein valley to reach Tizi Oughourane. On the way you will see picturesque landscapes of the Atlas mountains, Berber villages with their houses built in stone and earth. After a typical lunch accompanied by mint tea, you will come back to Amizimiz by a different itinerary and be transferred back to busy Marrakech by late afternoon. Remainder of the day at leisure. In the evening enjoy a delicious dinner and music at a Moroccan restaurant.

DAY 4 – OUARZAZATE (BD)
This morning we take a closer look at Marrakech’s most important historic and architectural wonders: the Koutoubia Mosque, the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia Palace. In the afternoon we hit the road, climbing through striking alpine scenery into the High Atlas Mountains, crossing to the southeastern side of the range via the Tizi N’Tichka Pass (7415 feet). We descend to the Draa Valley, dotted with ancient kasbahs (fortified palaces), to the caravan-town of Ouarzazate at the edge of the mighty Sahara Desert, dinner at the hotel in Ourzazate.

DAY 5 – ZAGORA & TAMEGROUTE (BD)
Starting bright and early, we traverse the Draa Valley with its six palm forests forming grand ribbons of greenery across the flat valley floor. Thanks to the proximity of the river, cereals, henna, vegetables, fruit and date palms are cultivated, either on the floor of the valley or on stepped terraces. We arrive in Zagora around noontime. After lunch (on own), we embark on an excursion to Tamegroute to view the illuminated Korans, with holy verses inscribed on gazelle-skin parchment, the oldest dating from the 13th century. We’ll also visit the Potters’ Yard and huge Tinfou Dune watch and enjoy the sunset before returning to Zagora and your hotel.

DAY 6 – ERFOUD (BD)
Morning departure to Erfoud through the pre saharan landscape of “regs” (rocky tables), and scattered Berber village, Afternoon arrival at Rissani, tour the Ouled El Hadim Kasbah. Dinner and overnight at the Hotel in Erfoud.

DAY 7 – TINERHIR, TODRA GORGE – OUARZAZATE (BD)
We start the day with a drive through the beautiful Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs to Tinerhir. A former military outpost built on terraces above a magnificent palm grove, Tinerhir stands at the entrance to the Todra Gorge, framed by awesome thousand-foot-high cliffs that make you think you’re “at the ends of the Earth.” From Tinerhir we proceed past a series of great kasbahs to Boumalne du Dades, a large town at the foot of the gorge to Skoura. Beyond Skoura, the desert palms give way to orchards and irrigated gardens. Roses are the specialty of El Kelaa des Mgouna. The rose oil is sent to Paris to be made into perfume by Yves Saint-Laurent. Do some “rose” shopping here–rose water, body milk, dried rose petals before returning to our hotel in Ouarzazate for the evening, dinner at the hotel.

DAY 8 – MARRAKECH (BLD)
We drive back to Marrakech over the High Atlas, admiring the majesty of towering Djebel Toubkal (13,665 feet). In the afternoon, drive to the ancient Kasbah complex of Ait Ben Haddou, an impressive 11th century site that has been declared as a historical treasure by the UNESCO. A photographer’s wonderland, Ait Ben Haddou remains home to five families. Lunch is included enroute. In Marrakech the afternoon is at leisure, dinner at the hotel.

Day 9 – DEPARTURE (B)
We escort you to the airport for your homeward flight. Bon Voyage. To add Merzouga, please click here.

Your tour includes:

• Hotel accommodation as shown in the table “Our Hotels;” all rooms with private bath.
• ALL Meals as indicated in the itinerary: Continental (cB) or full breakfast (B) daily; set-menu lunch (L); set-menu dinner (D)
• Transportation throughout by deluxe air-conditioned Mercedes Benz, or coach.
• Escorted guided sightseeing tours by air conditioned private motor coach as indicated in the itinerary, including all entry fees
• Services of a fully-licensed English-speaking guide throughout

 Not Included:

• Tips.
• International air fare from/to your home country.
• Travel Insurance
• Personal expenses and gratuities
• Beverages

For Christmas/New Year’s: Please add: %10 to the rates.

Please note that in Zagora regardless of the category you choose, hotel Ksar Tinsouline or similar will be the the only hotels available in Zagora.

Tina and Vishal – On our honeymoon in Egypt & Morocco

Hi Omar,

I wanted to post about my experience with Travel in Style.com. The company based in San Fran planned the most amazing trip for me and my new husband for our honeymoon. It was a trip that combined Morocco and Egypt into a 11 day trip. We signed up for a private tour and the only people with us during the trip were our guides and drivers (which was great for a initimate honeymoon vs. a tour bus with 20 plus people all waiting for each other to go places, etc).

First, we got to Morocco and already had a driver through the agency there to greet us to take us to Marrekesh (from the Casablanca airport). The drive was nice and the car clean. Our driver was really nice and was very professional. We got dropped off and brought to the cutest hotel named Riad Chergui (more like a bed and breakfast which was much more initimate and fun!) and shown to our rooms after we were greeted with tea and cookies from the staff there. They were just absolutely helpful in helping us get anything we needed throughout our stay there (i.e. dress ironed, a bag to carry home souveniers, cigarettes, etc.). The hotel itself was clean and charming, and we had a very nice room with windows that opened to the courtyard below. The pool and chairs were spotless everyday and the breakfast was always tasty and served to us when we came to downstairs to eat. I absolutely recommend this place to everyone.

While in Marrekesh, we went to do activities pre-planned by Travel in Style and everything worked out exactly as described in our itinerary. We always had a guide and driver on time when we were going around the city and our guide even came with us to help us bargain with the stores to get the best souveniers at the best prices. It was a relief to us, who were a little hesitant to visit some of these countries at first, to have a very knowledgeable guide and to have someone around when we wanted him and not around when we wanted to do our own discoveries. The trip was set up so that some days we only had plans in the morning and after our planned lunch, we would have the rest of the day to do our own things (perfectly planned in this way!). Our lunches and dinners planned in our itineraries were at beautifully decorated restaurants with the best service, and we really had a chance to experience Moroccan food. It was great.

While in Marrekesh we had a camel ride and a cooking class scheduled, which were great since we wanted to do some different types of activities while we were there. The camel ride was so fun and we got some great pictures. The cooking class was hands-on and we learned how to make a Moroccan meal with the receipe so we could take that home with us and be able to have a Moroccan dinner. We just loved it!

We continued on for the second half of the trip to Egypt which was planned just as nicely. We ate at teh best restaurants and really got the feel for the country. Here we did a lot more site seeing of course, and we always had our guide and driver there to take us around and show us the sites. They took us to a pyramid that was the first successful one created and when we went, we were the only tourists there (of course we also went to see the ones in Giza) so we really got to enjoy the scenery and pictures without a ton of other tourists around. Also, while in Egypt, we had a planned dinner with an actual Egyptian family who opened up their home to us. It was great to see the country from that perspective and really get to know what the people are like.

In summary, these are just a few great things I could say about the Morrocco/Egypt tour we took through Travel in Style and I HIGHLY recommend them for anyone looking to experience these countries without all the hassles of planning it all in detail (since they do this for you) and of trying to figure out how to get around while there (that is where the private drivers really came in). They really took out all our worry and we had an amazing experience.
THANKS!!

Tina and Vishal (NYC,NY)
Posted on Frommer.com