Morocco Tours
North African Adventures
Morocco has so much to offer that it's difficult to appreciate in a single trip so we now offer two tours of the kingdom.
More than any other North African country, Morocco offers a rich diversity of landscapes and culture. The north of the country is Mediterranean in feel with rolling green hills and vast fertile plains. The mighty Atlas mountains provide a natural barrier from the arid south. However, even in the desert, the scenery varies, with rocky plains, salt flats and, of course, the vast sand dunes of the Sahara.
Our Morocco tours offer the opportunity for fantastic off-road driving with miles and miles of tracks through spectacular landscapes. In the Sahara there are endless horizons with tracks crossing empty plains and rocky pistes over the corrugated hamada, You will be able to practice your sand driving skills and recovery techniques in the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi.
For both tours we meet in southern Spain, catching the ferry from Algeciras. As the ferry passes Gibraltar, North Africa comes into view and the feeling of adventure really begins.
Our Classic Tour will interest first time visitors to this magnificent country and showcases the diverse attractions such as the Atlas Mountains, Dades Gorge, the bustle of the ancient medina in Fes and of course the boundless Sahara.
Our Grand Tour is aimed at returning visitors and to those who want to get further off the beaten track, spending more time in remote areas of the desert.
Morocco Classic Tour
Our first stop at Fes offers you the opportunity to sample Moroccan life at first hand. We take you on a guided tour of the old medina to stroll through the bustling souks, sampling exotic produce or haggling over finely crafted silverware or textiles. The famous tanneries and the ceramics workshops are a highlight of the visit.
From Fes we make our way southwest through the mighty Cedar Forests towards the Middle and High Atlas Mountains and the opportunity to drive some of the best mountain tracks you are likely to experience. We then head south towards Dades Gorge with its 300 foot red sandstone cliffs soaring upwards from a narrow base.
From here it's south across the Jebel Sahro mountain range on one of the finest and most remote high altitude routes in North Africa to Zagora. Here we'll be restocking with food, water and fuel and preparing our vehicles for our desert adventure. Every type of desert driving will be experienced as we make our way, from soft sand and impressive dunes to stony black hamada and flat expanses of emptiness. Along the way we will encounter tiny desert villages and experience the genuine southern Moroccan hospitality. Wild camping along the way under the desert skies will allow you to absorb the silence and magic of the Sahara.
Our route through the desert ends at the mighty dunes of Erg Chebbi and a well-earned two night stay at a desert auberge. Half-board accommodation is included with the opportunity for more delicious Moroccan cuisine. After time to relax in the dunes, our route north will take in more of the Atlas Mountains and we will spend time enjoying some more of the countryside as we finally head back to Europe.
Morocco Grand Tour
First on this tour is the charming town of Chefchaouen nestling in the Rif mountains. We'll take a stroll through the blue painted streets of the medina to get our first impressions of street life in Morocco.
From here we head away from the tourist areas and deep into the remote eastern region of the country. Sparsely populated but ruggedly beautiful, this seldom visited region boasts endless plains and breath-taking vistas.
We travel to the extreme south east of Morocco to the town of Figuig, once a busy border post with nearby Algeria. We'll be exploring ancient trading routes that wind across the desert and onto the vast Rekkam Plateau and another night wild camping under Saharan skies.
Our route from here heads due west broadly following the course of the Paris-Dakar Rally to the famed dunes of Erg Chebbi where we'll take a rest at our favourite auberge. Well-fed and refreshed it's back to the desert and the rally piste which will take us to the friendly town of Zagora. By now, our vehicles will have been working hard so a check-up courtesy of Aziz at Garage Iriki is a good idea and a far more interesting experience than your normal main dealer.
From Zagora it's south to the desert on a rocky piste to the Chegaga dunes and a continuation of the Paris-Dakar piste across Lake Iriki towards Tata. If the lake is dry we'll be picking up the pace and be able to spread out. However, rain and flash floods can soon turn the piste to treacherous quicksand so we'll be keeping an eye on the weather.
We end our tour by turning north through the foothills of the Anti Atlas mountains and then picking up the coast road and the ferry back to Europe.
