Running the desert route from Fes to Marrakech rather than out-and-back from one city is the single best planning decision most travellers make. Here is the route, the stops and how long it takes.
Most people book the Sahara as a round trip from Marrakech, drive 560 km east and then drive the same 560 km back. Doing it one-way between Fes and Marrakech instead — in either direction — costs roughly the same number of hours behind the wheel but covers a loop rather than a line. You see the Middle Atlas cedar forests, the Ziz Valley, the Erg Chebbi dunes, Todra Gorge, the Dades Valley and Ait Ben Haddou, and you finish in a different city from the one you started in.
Fes to Merzouga is about 470 km and seven to eight hours of driving. Merzouga to Marrakech is about 560 km and nine to ten hours. Together that is the same road time as an out-and-back from Marrakech, with none of it repeated. The practical catch is your flights: you need to arrive in one city and leave from the other. Both Fes–Saïss and Marrakech Menara have good European connections, and domestic flights and the train link them if you need to reposition.
About 7–8 hours driving. This day surprises people. You leave Fes and climb into the Middle Atlas, and within an hour the landscape looks Alpine rather than North African.
You reach Merzouga in the late afternoon, in time for the camel trek into Erg Chebbi and a night at a desert camp.
About 5 hours driving. Sunrise over the dunes, then back to Merzouga for breakfast and a shower before heading west.
Depending on the itinerary, the morning may include the Khamlia village of Gnaoua musicians, descendants of Sub-Saharan communities whose music is a genuinely distinct tradition, and the Rissani market if the day lines up (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday).
The afternoon brings the two best gorges in Morocco. Todra Gorge near Tinghir has limestone walls several hundred metres high that narrow to roughly ten metres, with a flat walking path along the river. Dades Gorge follows: red rock, kasbahs, the eroded formations known as “monkey fingers”, and the switchback road above Ait Oudinar. You overnight in the Dades.
About 6–7 hours driving. West along the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs to Ouarzazate, with its Taourirt Kasbah and film studios, then to Ait Ben Haddou, the UNESCO-listed rammed-earth ksar. Give it an hour and a half and climb to the granary at the top.
The last leg crosses the High Atlas at the Tizi n’Tichka pass, around 2,260 m, and drops into Marrakech in the evening.
Three days works and is the standard. Four is noticeably better: it usually adds a night in the Skoura or Dades area, a slower morning in the dunes, and time for Khamlia or the Fint Oasis. If you are travelling with children, over 65, or simply dislike long car days, take the four-day version. Our 3-day luxury desert adventure from Fes to Marrakech covers the route above; longer options appear under multi-day Morocco tours.
Both work, and the deciding factor is usually flights. Two small points in favour of starting in Fes: the longest driving day comes first, when you are freshest, and finishing in Marrakech gives you a livelier city for your last nights. Starting in Marrakech, on the other hand, means you finish in Fes, whose medina rewards an unhurried final day.
We run this in both directions with private vehicles and local driver–guides, and we can adjust which nights fall where to suit your flights. Send us your arrival and departure cities and we will build the route around them.
Three days and two nights is the standard, with roughly 18 to 20 hours of driving spread across them: about 7 to 8 hours on day one, 5 hours on day two and 6 to 7 hours on day three. A four-day version spreads the same route more comfortably.
Either works and flights usually decide. Starting in Fes puts the longest driving day first while you are freshest and ends you in Marrakech; starting in Marrakech ends you in Fes, whose medina is worth an unhurried final day.
It is a canyon on the Fes side of the route filled with hundreds of thousands of date palms, seen from a viewpoint above the road after the Tunnel du Legionnaire. It costs nothing, takes ten minutes, and is one of the best views in Morocco.
Yes, and desert days in winter are pleasant. The one thing to know is that the Middle Atlas around Ifrane and Azrou can get snow, which occasionally closes a high pass. A local operator reroutes when that happens rather than cancelling.
Not if you plan your flights around the route: arrive in one city and depart from the other. If you do need to reposition, there are domestic flights and a direct train between the two cities.
