(Aug. 9-13, 2024)
We wanted to visit the famous Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains, so we have looked for a local travel agency called “Berber Magic Tours” on Trip Advisor, and asked them to customize the following private tour for us.
Day 1: Pick up from Fes, to Merzouga Desert, Camel riding at sunset, staying at a luxury camp (Palais Des Dunes) in desert
Day 2: Riding camel at sunrise, visit Gorges of Todra, Valley of roses, stay at a luxury hotel (Ksar Ben Youssef) in Ourzazate
Day 3: Visit Ouarzazate Hollywood Studio, Ait Benhdou, Ounila Valley, stay at a guesthouse (Armed Family Lodge) in Berber village of Imlil Valley
Day 4: Hike to Toubkal National Park with a mule, guide and cook, stay at Armed Family Lodge
Day 5: Visit the waterfalls and gardens in Imlil Valley with a mule, guide and cook, drop off to Marrakech
Although it is easy to book group tour to Merzouga Desert and Atlas Valley from travel agencies in Fez or Marrakech, we were not sure how it would fit our schedules. Finally, we decided to travel to the cities by trains, but travel to the desert and mountains by private tour, booked online in advance. I think we made the right decision. The tour was very satisfying, one of the best memories of this trip.
Berber Magic Tour is just a local travel agency from berber village, but they took really good care of us. We enjoyed the best hotels and meals during this tour, also we visited many good sights and even got to experience the rural life in berber village.
Riding camel on the beautiful Sahara desert (Merzouga is the most famous part of Sahara desert in Morocco) was like a dream came true. I totally fell in love with the camels. They were so quiet and gentle. They were also very intelligent animals who could lead our way, and they would turn around to wait for the others.
Sleeping in the tent was too hot, but luckily we could take cold water shower to cool down. Also, I finally slept outside the tent on the coach. The coach was actually very comfortable to sleep on. I could feel the wind and see the stars on the night sky, and there were no mosquitos at all.
We enjoyed the camel ride so much that next morning we decided to take camel again, instead of 4×4 truck back to town. The camel ride in the morning was even better than sunset, because morning was cooler, and with the sunlight, we could see clear shadows of the dunes and ourselves. We took some of the best photos there.
After the desert, we continued our long car ride towards Ouarzazate. However, the car ride was not boring at all. The landscape of Morocco was very special, full of natural unique-looking rocks, and sand-colored traditional buildings. The northern land were dry and lack of plants, but gradually started to see green trees, endless plantation of olive trees. All these sceneries were very different from where we live. It was almost like watching movies or natural geographic TV programs.
We were surprised at the extremely winding and narrow sleep roads led to the berber villages. Our guesthouse was on on top of the village, which have big balcony and spacious terrace to oversee the whole valley.
In the Atlas mountains, we were always accompanied by a local guide, private cook and mule to carry our foods, or even us. We had never seen mules before. They are mix of donkey and horse, tall like horses but strong like donkeys, can carry over 100kg of loads up to 2000m or 3000m of altitude. They could even walk to mountainous roads faster than people. I was very impressive, but at the same time feel sorry for their tough life.
We met many women and children in the berber villages. They all seem so happy and relaxed, laughing and chatting on roadside. Children were happily freely outside or around the rivers. It all seems so nice, so different from our life in the cities. I couldn’t help admire their lifestyle. Also, our cook was the best. He cooked the best traditional Moroccan cuisines, and we even enjoyed the best homemade donuts.
On the last day, the mule carried a lot of foods to the valley, and we had a picnic in the woods. Our cook actually cooked the tajine and made our salad and tea in the woods. It was such a joyful experience. Certainly not something that group tour from the cities would have offered. We felt so close to the nature with all these animals (mules, sheeps, horse, cow, chickens, rabbits…) around us, and we were touched by the kindness of berber people.
