An adventurous four-day alternative that opens with a night at the little-visited Fint Oasis — a hidden palm grove just outside Ouarzazate — before settling in for two full nights at the Oasis Tilogui near Zagora. From here, the road turns to piste for the crossing to Erg Chegaga, where 300-metre dunes rise from the ‘sea of sand’ and a desert bivouac awaits under a blanket of stars.
The return follows the historic Paris-Dakar route across the dry bed of Lake Iriqui to Taznakht, the country of Berber carpets, before the climb back over the High Atlas to Marrakech — desert, kasbahs and off-road piste in one complete loop.
Cross the Tizi-n-Tichka pass to visit the Kasbah of Aït Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate — with its Kasbah Taourirt and Atlas Film Studios — then follow the Drâa Valley to a cooperative visit before reaching the hidden Fint Oasis, 20km from Ouarzazate.
Follow the Drâa Valley's palm groves and kasbahs — Agdz and Tamnougalt — in the morning, then visit Zagora's library and souk before settling in at the Oasis Tilogui for two nights, with the afternoon free beside the pool among the palms.
Visit Tamegroute in the morning for its green pottery and Quranic library, then drive on to M'Hamid and by 4x4 into the ‘sea of sand’ of Erg Chegaga, with dunes rising 300 metres. Take a sunset camel trek before dinner beneath the stars.
Watch the sunrise over the dunes, then follow the old Paris-Dakar piste across dry Lake Iriqui and through Foum Zguid. Continue to Taznakht — the ‘country of Berber carpets’ — for a cooperative visit and lunch, before returning to Marrakech via the Tizi-n-Tichka pass.