Honeymoon Tour to Erg Chegaga from Marrakech – 5 days

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Honeymoon Tour to Erg Chegaga Sahara Desert – overview:

This honeymoon trip to Erg Chegaga desert is a perfect destination staying in luxury rural riads, as well as spending two magical and romantic nights in the heart of the Sahara Desert. You will be storing up incredible memories to cherish forever!

On the first night of your honeymoon desert trip,  you will enjoy a private dinner and overnight stay in a rural luxury riad overlooking the Dra’a Valley. In the desert on the second night, you will enjoy a private candlelight dinner and champagne in the magical setting of a star-lit Saharan sky, followed by an evening of Berber music.

Traditional sights will be the finest examples of adobe-building architecture; an insight into the Berber adaptation to climate. You will observe a multitude of similar but less opulent structures than the most well-known Kasbahs.

Our short honeymoon desert tour offers a deep insight into Berber and nomadic life, only visible to those who travel beyond the boundaries of the cities. Further trips can also be customised for Honeymooners with more time at their disposal.

 Your Sahara Desert honeymoon starts here!

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The total cost of this honeymoon trip is 1510 €

Honeymoon desert tour in Morocco – itinerary:

1st day: Marrakech – Agdz

Your morning departure for this majestic honeymoon Erg Chegaga desert trip is at 8.30 from your riad in Marrakech.  At panoramic viewpoints in the High Atlas, many opportunities arise for photos.  After lunch in Ouarzazate, we visit the Kasbah Taourirt in the town centre, taken over and expanded in the 19th century by the powerful Glaoui family, who dominated the entire region  and were the symbol of the feudal period of the lords of the Atlas.

In the afternoon, we drive over the 90 km of the Tizi-n-Tinfifte pass to the head of the Dra’a Valley to your luxury rural riad, where  you can enjoy a romantic private dinner. 

2nd day: Agdez – Erg Chegaga dunes

After breakfast, there is time to visit Kasbah Tamnougalte, the oldest kasbah in the Dra’a Valley. Some of it is still inhabited but the Jewish area has been crumbling since the departure of its Jewish inhabitants to Israel many decades ago

Just before the police checkpoint in Tansikht, the driver can stop and show you the dinosaur footprints right at the side of the road.  Another indication of Morocco’s ancient past is just outside the village of Tinsouline. About  a kilometre or so away are Foum Chenna’s fascinating rock carvings of animals long extinct in Morocco.  It is estimated that these simplistic carvings date back about 4,000 years.

The Dra’a Valley is the date basket of Morocco. There are some 45 different varieties grown in the valley, from green, yellow, brown, and almost black.  Fruit trees and vegetables are the main crops but henna is also a well-known product of the region.  Agriculture is very labour-intensive due to the extreme dry soil.  Seguias (small canals) irrigate the fields from the river.

Zagora, the largest town in the whole area,  will be the venue for lunch. Later we pass through Tamegroute village with a stop for the potteries famous for their green glaze. You may have already seen it in the Marrakech souks.  Here the ancient Quranic library has exquisite hand-written Arabic texts on display, which are well worth a visit.

In the afternoon, we drive further south still, to M’hamid, at the edge of the desert. From here, you continue to the Erg Chegaga dunes crossing about 60 km of desert. As you can imagine, the silence here as well as the extent of the dunes are breath-taking and unique.  You will be greeted in traditional style with a relaxing glass of mint tea, biscuits and peanuts. A camel ride leads to the summit of the dunes to watch the ever spectacular sunset.

Dinner and the night are in a luxury camp where each tent has its own private bathroom, king-sized beds, and lovely traditional Moroccan furniture.

3rd day: Erg Chegaga dunes

After breakfast, you will embark on a full day’s trekking in the magnificent Sahara Desert. You take the camels and, depending on your preferences, you could either ride them, or simply walk behind them. They will carry everything that you need for lunch in the dunes,

You will be accompanied by local guides and camel men who will point out the varying landscapes of the Sahara Desert: hammada (the stony desert), erg (dunes), oases, and give you information about nomadic family life.

Walking time is approximately five hours; two hours and a half in the morning and the same in the afternoon. Of course, the pace and portion of each trek can be dictated by you, allowing you to stop whenever desired or necessary.

Dinner and the night are in your luxury camp, where each tent has its own private bathroom, king-sized beds, and lovely traditional Moroccan furniture.

Weather conditions and temperatures in South Morocco are rarely stable.  Should it become too hot from May through to the end of September, we may have to advise you not to attempt trekking in the dunes.  We can discuss possible alternatives elsewhere.

4th day: Chegaga dunes – Ouarzazate

After breakfast, the road takes us west through another 90km of the desert with varying scenery: Lake Iriqui, where you are likely to experience an expansive mirage due to the heat, the mountains in the distance, and fossils, which you will probably easily locate if you wish to look.

Lunch will be in Foum Zguid, the first village after the desert. “Foum” means “mouth” so the name means the “mouth/source” of the Zguid River.

From here, the drive continues north along paved roads, past amazing rock formations to the small town of Taznakht, famous for its Berber carpets and rugs. Here you can observe women weaving and knotting these traditional works of art having learned the skills from their mothers and grandmothers.

Once back in Ouarzazate, you spend the night in a riad.

5th day: Ouarzazate – Marrakech

After breakfast, we make a morning departure to Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, the backdrop to many Hollywood blockbusters, such as the Kingdom of Heaven and the Gladiator, and now one of Morocco’s nine UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the most famous Kasbah in Morocco and one of the most visited spots in the whole country.

We continue up the Ounila Valley with the green fields and gardens running parallel to the river down below. The crops of olives, almonds, fruit trees, a few vegetables, and wheat are mainstay for many mostly self-sufficient families.

This stunning road leads to Kasbah Telouet set right in the midst of the mountains which was once the seat of the last Pasha of Marrakech, Thami El Glaoui. Two of the three main edifices now lie in ruins, exposed to the elements, as the entire Kasbah was left completely abandoned, following the departure of the French in 1956.

Unfortunately, the whole Kasbah is now closed due to the damage caused by the earthquake that struck Morocco in September 2023. Nevertheless, it is still worth visiting the exterior with a local guide to discover its rich history.

From here the highest pass in Africa, Tizi-n-Tichka was controlled and the whole region dominated. The Glaoui wealth came in part from the salt mines just outside the village. Each addition to the Kasbah building now stands in ruins exposed to the wind and the rain, having been abandoned and plundered after Glaoui’s property was confiscated in 1956 as punishment for his plotting to have the King sent into exile.

At the end of the afternoon, we arrive back in Marrakech which marks the end of your honeymoon itinerary in the Erg Chegaga desert.

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