4 Days Fes to Marrakech via Merzouga

Leave Fes in the morning and climb into the Middle Atlas by Ifrane, a town built in the 1930s with pitched roofs, then the cedar forest above Azrou where Barbary macaques live.

Lunch in Midelt, then the road south through the Ziz gorges and the long palm belt of the Ziz Valley. Arrival in Merzouga in the late afternoon; dinner and overnight in a hotel or kasbah at the edge of the dunes.

A day in the country around the erg: the village of Khamlia, settled by descendants of Saharan Gnawa communities, the seasonal lake of Dayet Srji when it holds water, and the market town of Rissani, historic seat of the Alaouite family and a former caravan crossroads.

In the late afternoon a camel ride goes into the dunes for sunset. Dinner and the night in a desert camp.

Sunrise on the dunes, then west through Tinghir to the Todra Gorge, where the road runs between vertical walls with a stream at the bottom.

The afternoon continues to the Dades Valley and its rock formations. Dinner and overnight in a hotel above the valley.

The Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs continues through El Kelaa des Mgouna and the palm oasis of Skoura to Ouarzazate.

A last stop at Ait Ben Haddou before the climb back over the Tizi n'Tichka and the descent to Marrakech, reached in the evening.