Everyone lands in Marrakech. The country starts past the ring road.
Whether the Agafay night is worth it when the real dunes are ten hours east. What a day at Ouzoud costs. Which hammam takes walk-ins. Reviews of every tour you can book in Morocco.
Agafay after dark, Ouzoud, the Ourika, and the long road to Merzouga.
The four bookings a first Moroccan trip is usually built around, what each costs and what the people who took them say.
01The first eveningAgafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner ShowStone desert an hour from the Medina: camel at sunset, then dinner under lanterns. The cheapest way to sleep on Marrakech time and still see sand.
02The water dayOuzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat TripA hundred metres of falls in the Middle Atlas, walked down and crossed by rowing boat. The one day trip nobody comes back from disappointed.
03The valley dayAtlas Mountains, Ourika Valley, Waterfall & LunchUp through the Ourika into the High Atlas, lunch beside the river, back before the heat lifts off the city. Book a driver, not a coach.
04The long one3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourTen hours east to Erg Chebbi, a night in a camp under the dunes, back through the Dades gorges. Three days, and the only real Sahara in the country.
Morocco sells two deserts, and they are ten hours apart.
Agafay is stony, forty minutes from the Medina and back by midnight. Erg Chebbi is real sand, most of a day’s driving away, and needs a night. Here is what each costs to board.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show
Agafay, after workCamel at sunset, quad through the stones, dinner under lanterns.
Erg Chebbi, three daysThe drive east through the gorges, a camp under the big dunes.
Zagora and the short runsTwo days to the near desert when three is one too many.
Just the camelAn hour at sunset in the Palmeraie, no overnight attached.
All 354 camel rides in Morocco →
Six Moroccan cities, and the best day out of each.
A red city with a square that changes at dusk, a walled maze older than most countries, two Atlantic ports, the white capital of business, and a strait you can see Spain across.
Marrakech is a base as much as a city.
Ninety minutes gets you into the High Atlas, three hours to the Ouzoud falls, forty into the Agafay. The road out is why so many people stay in the red city and see the rest of the country from it.
Morocco’s most-booked days out.
Every Moroccan tour we have reviewed →The eight tours that move the most travellers in Morocco, and the reason each one keeps selling.
1
Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show
Leave Marrakech by air-conditioned bus for the Agafay Desert, with a 20-minute camel ride, argan oil cooperative visit, Moroccan tea, sunset photos, dinner, Berber music, and a fire show. Guides such as Youssef Koboy, Akoun, and Abdillah are praised for friendly, careful service.
From · $20
Read our review →
2
Ouzoud Waterfalls Guided Hike and Boat Trip
from $17
3
Agafay Desert Quad & Camel Rides with Dinner Show
from $24
4
Agafay Desert Quad Biking Tour with Dinner-Show
from $21
5
Atlas Mountains, Ourika Valley, Waterfall & Lunch
from $16
6
3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour
from $134
7
Berber villages : Atlas Mountains Day Hike from Marrakech
from $15
8
Merzouga 3-Day Desert Safari with Food
from $122
In Marrakech the tagine starts four hours before you sit down.
A cooking class here begins at the market stall, with a spice seller explaining ras el hanout. The street-food walks run after dark, when the Jemaa el-Fnaa food stalls go up and the smoke does the advertising.
What a day out in Morocco actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Most of the country’s best days come in under the price of an airport taxi at home.
Medina walks, waterfall day trips, an hour on a quad in the Palmeraie and most camel rides.
Full days to Ouzoud and the High Atlas, hammam-and-massage afternoons, the two-day desert runs.
Dawn balloon flights, three-day Sahara crossings and a private car with a driver for the week.
Three things Morocco does that nowhere else does.
Dunes, old cities and steam rooms exist all over. An erg you can walk into, a walled city with no cars in it, and a public bath that is still a weekly appointment do not.
The dunes at Merzouga
The erg is a fifty-kilometre field of sand that rises out of flat hammada with no warning, and the tallest crest stands about 150 metres over the village at its foot. It is a long way east, most of a day’s driving from Marrakech and less from Fez, which is why almost everything sold as a Sahara trip is really two nights and a lot of road. The dunes turn copper for about twenty minutes before sunrise and the wind rebuilds the ridge lines while you sleep.
- 13-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 15,308 reviews
- 2Merzouga 3-Day Desert Safari with Food★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 12,232 reviews
- 33 Days Desert Tour From Marrakech To Merzouga Dunes & Camel Trek★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10,125 reviews
The Marrakech souks
The medina is a walled quarter of unnamed lanes, laid out by trade rather than by street. Dyers in one alley, slipper-makers in the next, metalworkers where the noise can do no harm. Nothing has a fixed price and nobody expects the first number to be the last. The reliable trick is to fix the way you came in: a gate, a minaret, the square, because every guide route eventually spits you back out at it.
- 1Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, Souk and Medina Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,974 reviews
- 2Colorful Medina Souks Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,470 reviews
- 3Fez Medina Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,079 reviews
The hammam
A hammam is a neighbourhood steam bath, and for most Moroccans it is a weekly fixture rather than a treat. The sequence does not vary much: heat, black olive soap left to sit, then a scrub with a kessa glove that removes more of you than you expect, and a rinse with buckets. The tourist versions add argan oil and a massage table; the local ones cost a couple of dollars and hand you a bucket.
- 1Spa Massage and Steam Hammam with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,873 reviews
- 22-Hour Traditional Moroccan Hammam Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,653 reviews
- 3Traditional MRC Hammam and Massage with Argan Oil★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,202 reviews
Four Moroccan bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over mint tea the night before. These four run on flight windows, prayer times, basket sizes and distances that no amount of charm shortens.
- 01Hot Air Balloon Flight with Berber BreakfastBaskets take a fixed number and every flight goes up at first light. Winter mornings, the good ones, are gone weeks out.
- 023-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert TourErg Chebbi is the best part of a day’s driving each way. It has to be planned around your flights, not slotted into a spare afternoon.
- 03Casablanca Tour with Hassan II Mosque VisitHassan II is the one great mosque in Morocco that non-Muslims can go inside, and only on a guided visit at set hours between prayers.
- 04Chefchaouen Day Trip with Local GuideThe blue city is four hours from Fez and much further from Marrakech. It only works as a whole day, and the whole day has to be bought in advance.
Marrakech in July is a morning city and an evening city.
Inland summers run past 45°C and the square is unusable from eleven until five. The answer is the same one locals use: be out early, then go somewhere thick-walled. Steam rooms, tiled courtyards, a kitchen, a covered souk with the sun coming through the slats.
By place: coast, cities and the south
By kind of day: sand, summit, souk or steam
Marrakech, the Atlas, the dunes, Fez, the blue city, the coast.
High AtlasThe newest Moroccan tour reviews.
The rest of this week’s reviews →
Agafay Desert Adventure, Culture, and Relaxation, From Marrakech
Read our review →
Marrakech to Atlas Mountains and 4 Valleys Day Trip
Read our review →
Quad excursion to the Agafay desert near Marrakech
Read our review →
Quad Biking & camel ride Agafay desert with Lunch or dinner
Read our review →
Camel Ride & Quad Bike tours in the palm grove of Marrakech
Read our review →
