6-Day Mount Toubkal & Sahara Desert Trek | Summit North Africa's Highest Peak — Then Ride into the Sahara

Day 1: Marrakech → Imlil → Toubkal Refuge (3,206m)

Approx. 5 hours walking

Leaving the city behind, you drive south through the Haouz Plain, climbing past the town of Asni as the craggy peaks of the Toubkal Massif loom into view. At Imlil your mountain guide joins you and the trek begins in earnest, threading along the Mizane Valley past the village of Aremd — a photogenic jumble of terraced fields and goat-blocked lanes where Berber families have farmed corn, potatoes and walnuts for generations.

Continuing east across the flood plain, mule tracks guide you up through high rocky cliffs to the pastoral shrine of Sidi Chamarouch, its waterfall-side village a chaotic, charming tangle of houses. From here the trail climbs steadily, zigzagging through the snowline to the Toubkal Refuge at 3,206m — your base camp for the night.

Day 2: Toubkal Summit (4,165m) → Imlil

Summit day

An early alarm, hot mint tea and then it begins: the ascent of North Africa's highest peak. Your route crosses the stream above the refuge and heads up across the mountain's vast south cirque, picking a path through a seemingly endless carpet of scree and boulders. The altitude makes itself felt, but the unfolding views — ridge after ridge receding into haze — more than justify every laboured step.

Cresting the ridgeline, the summit plateau opens before you, and in a few final strides you're standing on the highest point in North Africa. The views are unrestricted in every direction: the Marrakech plain, the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas and the faintest smudge of the Sahara to the south. Retrace your steps to Imlil, where a comfortable guesthouse (Dar Adrar or similar) awaits.

Day 3: Imlil → Tizi-n-Tichka Pass → Dades Valley

Approx. 7 hours driving | Optional hike or film studio visit

Your driver collects you at 9am for a spectacular crossing of the Atlas via the Tizi-n-Tichka mountain pass (2,260m). The landscape shifts dramatically as you descend into the pre-Saharan south, passing Berber villages, riverside oases and barren hillsides studded with crumbling kasbahs. En route you have the option to visit the famous Ouarzazate Film Studios — responsible for sets used in Game of Thrones, Gladiator and The Mummy — or stretch your legs on a short hike. The evening is spent in Dades Gorge, where the extraordinary sculpted rock formations glow amber in the last of the light.

Day 4: Dades Valley → Todra Gorge → Merzouga Desert Camp

Approx. 6 hours driving | Camel trek at sunset

After breakfast, you head east to the Todra Gorge, where 300-metre walls of rust-red rock rise almost vertically on either side of a crystal-clear river. A walk through the palmery — a lush corridor of soaring date palms — provides a green and peaceful counterpoint to the epic geology. After lunch, the road pulls you deeper into the desert as the great erg of Erg Chebbi reveals itself on the horizon.

At the edge of the dunes, your camel is waiting. Ride out at sunset for an hour and a half through the golden sands to a traditional Berber camp, where a Moroccan feast and an extraordinary sky full of stars await.

Day 5: Merzouga → Ait Benhaddou

Approx. 5–6 hours driving

Wake before dawn to watch the Saharan sunrise ignite the dunes in shades of amber and rose. After returning to the kasbah by camel, you freshen up over breakfast before setting out for Ait Benhaddou — one of the most photographed and dramatic sights in all of Morocco. This UNESCO World Heritage ksar (fortified village) has provided the atmospheric backdrop for dozens of Hollywood productions: Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, The Mummy, Alexander and Game of Thrones among them. Your guide brings the labyrinthine streets and ancient towers to life before you settle in for the night at a hotel close by.

Day 6: Ait Benhaddou → Telouet Kasbah → Marrakech

Approx. 4 hours driving

The final day offers one last piece of living history before Marrakech. Travelling along the beautiful Ounilla Valley, you reach the Telouet Kasbah: a crumbling, atmospheric ruin that was once one of the most important stops on the ancient trans-Saharan trade route. Explore its faded grandeur with your guide — the carved plasterwork ceilings, the tiled courtyard and the slow, dignified collapse of a palace that once commanded an entire mountain kingdom.

After lunch, head back over the Tizi-n-Tichka pass for the descent to Marrakech, where your adventure concludes.