Morocco Travel Experience
Morocco travel experience: 10 days road trip around Morocco driving through the South and Sahara desert!
This blog about travelling in Morocco has the best plan for a car trip in South Morocco. Morocco is a beautiful country with a lot to offer. The beautiful royal towns bring in a lot of people every year. Most tourists haven’t found the south of Morocco yet, so it’s still peaceful and quiet. We took a 10 days road trip around Morocco travel experience in June, which was one of the hottest months. We drove from Taghazout to Merzouga and then up to Marrakech. I’ll tell you more about this trip through Morocco in this blog.
Plan for a10 days road trip around Morocco travel experience in the south of Morocco and surfing!
Morocco is a big country that you can’t possibly see in just 12 days. We had to decide on a lot of things as we planned this trip. We finally decided to see what the South has to offer and take a 12-day car trip through the South. But if you only have 10 days in Morocco, cut two days out of Taghazout and you’ll have the right plan.
Agadir–› Taghazout —› Tamnougalt–› Merzouga–› Gorge du Dades–› Ait Ben Haddou–› and Marrakech.
From Taghazout to Merzouga by car
The first part of our 10 days road trip around Morocco, from Taghazout to Merzouga, was hard to find out about. It looks like this is not a typical trip for guests. This made us even more interested in what we would find and see. In the end, we were glad we went to this part of Morocco that not many people know about. The beautiful slopes of the Atlas Mountains and the long, twisting roads we drove on, where all we saw was stone and grass.
From Merzougha to Marrakech by car
The car trip and journey plan from Merzouga to Marrakech is much more well-known. Here, we saw a lot of interesting things. This part of Morocco is also interesting to see, but it shows a very different side of the country.
During our 10 days road trip around Morocco, we went many kilometers and sometimes drove for more than 7 hours. But it was fine, and it was all part of the journey!
Itinerary for our 10 days road trip around Morocco travel experience
If you are planning a trip through Morocco and want to find nice hotels and kasbahs. In this guide to hotels in Morocco, we talk about the places we like best.
Itinerary for the first four days in Morocco: surfing in Taghazout
We get to Agadir, a city in the southwest of Morocco, around 7:00 PM. Here, we get our rental car from Days Morocco Tours and drive for an hour to Taghazout, a small surfer town north of Agadir. We swim, read, and eat for the next three days.
Taghazout is very small, and you can see everything there in three days. Do you want to learn how to surf? If so, a surf camp that lasts more than one day might be for you. We also went to Paradise Valley, which was nice but not as great as people said it was.
Tip: Are you going to Paradise Valley? try to get on the road very early in the morning (at sunrise). You get there before most of the tourists, so you can leave when it starts to get crowded.
Want to know what you can do in Taghazout? Here is where you can find all the information about surfing in Taghazoute.
Morocco travel experience days 5 and 6 Taghazout, Taroudant, and Tamnougalt
On day five, we want to leave at 6 am. because we’ll be driving for seven hours. My food poisoning throws a wrench in the works, though. Lastly, we leave at 8:00 AM and get to the town of Taroudant at 10:00 AM. We stop here so Ries can get something to eat. The plan was to stay here for a few hours. It’s a beautiful, old city with almost no tourists. We get back in the car after half an hour to make up for some of the time we lost this morning.
We drive through a variety of scenery for the rest of the morning and afternoon. First, along fields of corn. The land slowly changes, becoming more hilly, wild, and dry. We don’t run into many cars on our way. First, we take the N10, and then we take the R108. We get to Tamnougalt, a small town in the middle of a small valley, around 3 p.m. It’s lovely. We’re so happy here in the end that we decided to stay an extra day.
Tip You should stop in Taroudant. Walk through the winding streets and across the marble areas. At one of the many market stalls, you can buy fresh food. It’s really worth going to the city.
Itinerary for Morocco Day 7: Tamnougalt, Merzouga, and Sahara
After a good night’s sleep at Ecolodge Bab El Oued, we leave around noon for Merzouga. Merzouga is the last place in Morocco before you reach the Erg Chebbi Sahara. It is in the southeast of the country. We can get here in five hours by car by taking the N9, the R108, the N12, and then the N9. We feel like we are already in the desert because of where we are.
When we suddenly see green and mountains, we understand that the desert is very different from the dusty road we’ve been driving on for the last few hours. We made plans with a guide we met at the post office in Merzouga. During the day, the temperature is 40 degrees, but by the time we’re sitting on a camel at 7 p.m., it’s already down to 38 degrees. Still warm, but the Berber clothes do a good job of keeping the sun off of us.
read about the best time to visit Morocco
Our camel ride and stay in the Sahara are amazing, and you won’t forget them. Here, you can find out more about what we did in the Merzouga Sahara and how we booked our stay.
Tip Don’t wait until you get to Merzouga to get in touch with one of the many companies that offer desert trips. We didn’t like being attacked and pushed around in Merzouga, but we were glad we had already taken care of everything. We made plans for our trip through Ali DMT.
Day 8 of the Morocco travel experience in the desert: Gorges du Dades and Ait Ben Haddou
Around 9 AM, we were back at our car in Merzouga after seeing a beautiful sunrise in the Sahara. We have a long day of driving ahead of us again today, but we take it easy because we have plenty of time.
First, we drive from Merzouga to Tinghir using the N13, N12, and R113. Actually, we would stay here at Todra, but because we stayed an extra day at Ouarzazate, we only stopped here for lunch. The Gorges du Todra, a huge canyon between the mountains, is close to Tinghir. We drive here and stop to walk in the cool water that flows for miles through this valley. This used to be a wild river, but now it’s a peaceful brook with families camping all around it in the summer.
Ait Ben Haddou is where many movies were shot.
After hanging out by the water for a few hours, we get back in the car and drive 2.5 hours to Ouarzazate on the N10. This city is known as a “film city” because it has two big, well-known studios where shows like “Game of Thrones” are made. We don’t stay here, though. Instead, we drive to Ait Ben Haddou, where we’ll spend the night. At the end of the day, we walk towards the famous Kasbah, which has been used in many movies. The old town from the Middle Ages is built on a hill where a river runs. There are a lot of people trying to sell you things inside the town, but keep going to the top of the town. There, you can see a beautiful view!
Tip See the sunrise at the Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou. Almost no one is around, so you can walk through the small streets without anyone bothering you.
Day 9: Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, the Atlas Mountains, and Marrakech.
The next morning, we drive to Ouarzazate and go to the CLA film studios. Tourists don’t seem to be going to the studios as much as they used to, because we are the only ones there. When we walked in, a tour guide came up to us and offered to show us around. The price is only a few dirhams, and we are more than happy to pay it because we wouldn’t know what we are seeing here in the workshops otherwise. After the film sets, which we don’t think are all that interesting because they’re a bit run down, the guide takes us to a big house that was built just for movies. This is a lot more amazing and should be seen.
The Tizi n’Tichka Pass is part of a travel experience through Morocco.
Around noon, we started driving to Marrakech. This trip goes straight through the Atlas Mountains and over the Tizi n’ Tichka pass, which is one of the most dangerous roads in the world. When we drive by an accident that happened just a few minutes before we did, we see that this danger is real. We have to drive for five hours and go around at least 100 sharp turns. Still, this road is beautiful, and at every turn, there is a great view.
When we get to Marrakech in the evening, we turn in the car:
Tip: If you have a little more time and a car that can handle dirt roads, you can drive from Ouarzazate to Fint Oasis, a beautiful oasis in the middle of a dry mountain scenery, in an hour.
Morocco CLA studio Ouarzazate
Marrakech: Day 10-12 of a Morocco travel experience:
We spend our last three days in Marrakech, which is also known as Marrakesh. Here, we mostly just relax and rest. Since this was the last place you were going to visit in Morocco! We stayed at a great hotel called Riad la Parenthèse, which was a quiet place in the middle of this busy city. People know Marrakech for its busy Medina and beautiful buildings. The city is very photogenic because it is so pretty.
We can see everything we want to see in Marrakech in three days, without having to rush. A great way to end this trip through Morocco is by car.
A guide to getting around Marrakech Here are all of our suggestions for Marrakech.
Morocco: Buildings in Marrakech
Which places should be added to this plan for Morocco?
If you are ready to walk a lot, you can see a lot of the country in 10 to 12 days. This varied trip was just the right mix of relaxing and exciting things for us. On the road, there are so many beautiful places to see that once the traffic dies down, it’s just one big scenic tour.
But we wouldn’t mind at all if we could do this trip in two or two and a half weeks. We’d have more time to stop at places along the way. Add Essaouira, Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, and Chefchaouen (the blue city) to this Morocco schedule to make it a full program for the whole country.
Advice for a trip through Morocco by car!
The first tip for a road trip: rent a car from someone you can trust!
Many car rental places in Morocco have a bad reputation. you won’t get your cash back, the car won’t run well, or they’ll try to sell you extra or double insurance. A bad way to start (or end) your trip. Before we bought the car, we took our own movies, and pictures, and looked at the damage notes. And we hired through DMT, which is known for being a friendly company that takes care of any damage or trouble for you.
Tip 2 for a car trip: bad roads
We had heard bad things about the roads in Morocco before we went there. But most of the roads were in great shape, except for a few in the Atlas Mountains. But you should plan for extra journey time, delays, and the chance that your car will break down.
Third road trip tip: Don’t drive at night
You can’t drive before dawn or after dark. Morocco doesn’t have street lights, so it’s dangerous to drive at night.
Tip 4 for a road trip: Watch out for police checks!
Police checks are very important. If you see a bunch of stop signs close together, it’s likely that the cops are doing a check, so drive as slowly as you can. We were checked a lot, and once we got a ticket for stopping just after the stop line. Don’t drive too fast anywhere, and really follow the rules of the road. If you don’t, your vacation could cost a lot. Most fines cost between +/- 45 euros.
5th road trip tip: You must have air cooling!
Set up a good air-conditioned car for all your 10 days road trip around Morocco. In the middle of Morocco, it can get very hot and if you can afford it you better book it with a driver guide from a good travel agency.