Getting there

getting to the sahara

Morocco Retreat - Getting There

Transport options:

Morocco Retreat provides land cruisers with professional tour and desert drivers, internal Moroccan flights or a combination of both.

The journey down to the desert is amazing and constantly changing in front of your eyes.  People worry about the length of the drive until they do it and realise how spectacular it is.  The journey down to the desert is an integral part of the experience with its amazing changing landscape.  From Marrakech it is 9 hours.

If you have time, the best itinerary is to stop on the way down or way back at Ait Ben Haddou and explore the amazing ksar with it’s kasbahs.  You can also break the journey on the way back. We recommend Agdz or continuing further to Irocha which is a magical guesthouse. Ideally you would spend 3 nights in the camp, giving you time to explore and enjoy the vibe.

From Marrakech we recommend leaving at 9am if you are stopping on the way for the night otherwise around 8am is better.  You may want to drive yourself but I recommend you take a driver from the Morocco Retreat team, they know the roads well and the route to the camp through the desert.  They are also experienced drivers of the sand, not an easy task. The drivers give you information on the journey and you can relax and enjoy the scenery.  If you want to drive yourself we will organise a transfer in and out of the camp from Mhamid where you can securely leave your car. However if you have your Moroccan Retreat driver with you it means you can go off exploring the area whenever you like.  Drivers cost €120 euros per day and need to be booked for the duration of the tour. Transfers to and from the camp are €60 euros each way.

What’s worth seeing on the way?  Some of the highlights:

Aït Benhaddou is just before Ouarzazate, it is pretty spectacular and a UNESCO Heritage Site. It is about 1500 years old and the background for many movies including Game of Thrones.  It is a Ksar which means a group of kasbahs like a small village.

 A number of guest have really enjoyed visiting the film studios at Ourzazate, a base for many famous films.

Telouet Kasbah is along the former route of the caravans from the Sahara over the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech (some Sahara caravans had 9000 people in them!

The kasbah was the seat of the El Glaoui family and is sometimes also called the Glaoui Palace, it was built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sadly it is slowly collapsing.  In 2010, work was underway to restore the property. The Kasbah is near the village of Telouet. The wealth of the Pashas came from its location being near the salt mines and easy connection to the major cities 

The Draa Valley is spectacular, the river is 1100km long and flows down to Tagonite and eventually to the Atlantic around Tan Tan, the 2 rivers that converge are the 

 Dadès River and Imini River, the river from Tagonite is dry for most of the year.  This water irigates the millions of date palms you will see on the drive down. The people of this area are called the Drawi.

Tamgrout just 20 minutes south of Zagora is famous for its Sufi (Islamic mystecism) Zaouia (centre) for religion and learning.  It was one of the biggest Sufi orders. There is also a library here with thousands of original manuscripts. Tam grout is also famous for its stunning green pottery, the glaze is made from minerals of the area that produce an amazing emerald green glaze.

Zagora the town is names after the Zagora mountain.  Each year a sufi celebration still happens in the name of Abdul Qadir Gilani a Persian Sufi saint.  Zagora is the last town before the desert and a good place also if you need an ATM.

Flights within Morocco:

Flying to or from Ouarzazate reduces the time on the road to 4 hours. However the Royal Air Maroc flight arrives at around 7pm getting you to the camp just before midnight.

As Casablanca is an international airport this is more useful for long haul flyers arriving in Casablanca.

Flights are also available from Fez to Marrakech with Air Arabia, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, where you can then meet the driver and continue your journey.  

Flights are available from Marrakech to Zagora with Air Arabia, starting 7 November and leaving Marrakech Wednesday lunch time and Friday night, which is then only 1.5 hours from Camp Adounia.  

So there are many options for planning your itinerary depending on how much time you have and what you would like to see.

By helicopter or small aircraft

Some people choose to hire helicopters or a small aircraft.  They can land at Zagora airport 1.5 hours from the camp.

There are 4 helicopters and they can take a maximum of 5 people in each.  They cannot fly at night and only in good weather.

There are a number of sized aircraft to hire but the smaller ones like the helicopters can only fly in good weather, the bigger ones have much less of a problem weatherise.

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