Epic 7 Day Morocco Itinerary: Ait-Benhaddou, Zagora and Todra Gorge
If you’ve done some of the popular tourist destinations in Morocco already, this 7 day Morocco itinerary around central Morocco is perfect for you.
In fact, even if you haven’t visited Marrakech, Chefchaouen or Essaouira, we would highly recommend visiting central Morocco.
We have visited Morocco many times and thought we had seen the best of it. But this 7 day central Morocco itinerary offered something completely different.
Our 7 days in Morocco included ancient kasbahs, lush palmeraies, stunning gorge hikes, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Hollywood film sets!
This Moroccan road trip was nothing short of spectacular. And amazingly it cost just under £1000 for a family of 4.
Morocco is a fascinating country. We love that it offers a strikingly different cultural experience and yet is just a short hop from Europe. It is one of our favourite destinations for a family holiday.
If you’ve never visited Morocco before, read all our tips for families visiting Morocco.
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First a quick note on getting to central Morocco.
Our starting point of our 1 week Morocco itinerary was Ouarzazate. We flew there directly with Ryanair from London Stansted. If you can’t get this flight, you can also fly to Marrakech and connect on Royal Air Maroc to Ouarzazate.
Alternatively, Marrakech is about a 3 hour drive from Ouarzazate. If you are staying in Marrakech but want to make a quick visit to this area, you can do so on this guided day trip.
We hired a car at Ouarzazate airport with Air Car through Rentalcars and had a reliable Dacia Duster with higher clearance. It isn’t really necessary to have a high clearance car because most of the roads in Morocco are excellent but there are some gravel roads.
Our experience of renting through AirCar was excellent and they were cheaper than the larger companies. They are a smaller local company and there were no queues at the rental desk, unlike the Hertz or Avis desks.
We took out annual excess insurance through icarhireinsurance which works out a lot cheaper than taking it out with the car rental company.
We highly recommend getting a copy of this Morocco Lonely Planet as it is packed full of detail on central Morocco.
Our 7 day Morocco itinerary looked like this…
Day 1 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
We arrived in Ouarzazate and after picking up the car we headed to Ait-Benhaddou.
On the way we took a short detour to Fint Oasis which is about 30 minutes south of Ouarzazate.
The road to Fint Oasis from the main road is gravel but you don’t need a 4×4. This is where a higher clearance vehicle can come in handy though.
We had a quick lunch stop at La Terasse des Delices in Fint Oasis. It is also a hotel if you want to have a longer stop here.
They have a lovely pool and the panaramic views from the pool and restaurant are stunning.
You can use the pool if you are just stopping for lunch. Make sure to leave time for a paddle in the river to further soak up the views.
Ouarzazate Hollywood’s ‘Door to the Desert’. Lots of blockbuster Hollywood films are filmed in and around Ouarzazate. You can even visit film studios – see here for more info. This day trip from Marrakech includes a visit to the film studios.
After lunch we stopped at the creepy The Hills Have Eyes abandoned film set which is packed with American props. Walking around you will really feel like you’re in the US. There is no entry fee.
We arrived at Ait-Ben-Haddou in the late afternoon.
Ait-Ben-Haddou is a fascinating place. The town itself is very small but tourists flock here for the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou.
It is a stunning example of the architecture of southern Morocco and has been used as a filming location for numerous blockbuster films such as Ben Hur and Gladiator.
We stayed at Dar Mouna La Source guest house which is simple but has a large pool and the food is delicious. Best of all was the incredible views of the Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou.
This was the view from our room.
Day 2 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
We woke early and visited the kasbah before the tourist buses arrived.
We highly recommend staying in Ait-Ben-Haddou at least one night so you can avoid the tourist crowds.
We were in at 7.30 am. You may be asked to buy a ticket to get into the museum (which is basically a few steps up a tower) but you don’t need to get a ticket to enter the Ksar.
You can wander around the streets at your leisure. Most street vendors won’t be open this early but there will be one or two opening up shop.
If you are visiting early, remember that people live in the village and may still be asleep at this time.
We visited Mustafa at the top of the village. He showed us his painting technique using Saffron and sugared tea and caramelising the image by heating the paper over a flame.
It was fascinating – as was his history lesson on the Berbers and his stories of Hollywood stars who have filmed in the area. Make sure you pay him a visit.
We went back for breakfast at the guest house and then set off for Zagora on the fringes of the Sahara desert.
This journey took about 3.5 hours.
We stayed at Riad Dar Sofian which is an absolutely beautiful riad on the outskirts of Zagora. We spent the afternoon by their lovely pool and in their amazing garden and went for a walk in the palmeraie at sunset.
The candlelit dinner by the pool at the guesthouse was amazing.
Day 3 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
We went for an early morning walk up Jebel Zagora before breakfast. It’s good to get these walks out of the way early before the heat of the day becomes too much.
We parked near Zagora Desert Camp and the walk up and down took about 90 minutes. There are really stunning views from the top and you’ll work up an appetite for a huge breakfast back at Riad Dar Sofian.
After breakfast we chilled by the pool and then had lunch in Zagora. After all of the tagines we had eaten, a pizza at Café Restaurant Tomour Pizzeria Omar was perfect for the kids.
In the evening we headed to Tinfou Desert Camp for a Berber evening.
On the way we stopped in Tamegroute for some pottery. The pottery co-operative has a huge selection of pottery. The local pottery is green but you can find all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes.
They have a fixed price list and say that they won’t negotiate but honestly, you need to haggle.
We arrived at Tinfou Desert Camp and the boys were given snowboards and told they could use them as long as they wanted.
Tinfou is a great place to try Sandboarding in Morocco.
We went up and down the dunes a few times. The dunes at Tinfou are nothing like Erg Chebbi but they are big enough. Bear in mind walking back up the dune is hard work!
As the sun went down, we went back to camp and our Berber meal was served.
After the meal we listened to the Berbers playing drums and singing around the fire and then it was time to leave. It was such a fun evening.
If you want to stay in a desert camp but think that Tinfou Desert Camp is a bit too basic, Zagora Luxury Desert Camp is a good alternative.
Note that Tinfou Desert Camp is cash only.
Day 4 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
From Zagora we drove to Todra Gorge. The aim here was to do some hiking in the breathtaking scenery.
We stayed at Palmeraie Guest House in Tinerhir which is just a few miles from Tinghir.
We chose it because they have a back door opening out onto the palmeraie and as they are set down in the valley, you don’t get the noise from the main road to Todra Gorge.
They also have a pet donkey called Jack that you can feed carrots to and take for walks in the palmeraie.
Note that they only accept cash.
We had one of the best meals we’ve had in Morocco at this Guesthouse. If you do stay there, make sure you also have dinner there.
The rooms are very simple but perfectly comfortable and the owner and staff are very friendly.
In the late afternoon we took a walk across the palmeraie to visit the ruined Ait Ismene Kasbah. The palmeraie is beautiful and lush and at the time of our visit in early June, was filled with ripe apricots and pomegranates.
The kasbah, however, is completely crumbling like a lost city in Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones.
We have to warn you that there is no health and safety. Explore at your own risk. The views are just incredible though and it was a highlight for the kids.
Day 5 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
We left the guest house quite early and drove to Todra Gorge for our morning hike. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the gorge from the Palmeraie Guest House.
When you arrive at the gorge, you need to drive through the narrowest part of the gorge and park in the car park at the end (it’s free to park).
From the car park you’ll see steps which mark the start of the walk.
We started at around 8.30am. The walk is described as easy to medium but with kids I would say it is medium to hard.
The first half of the walk is all uphill and the path isn’t always easy to follow. Just stop and look around if you feel you’ve gone off course and you’ll soon pick up the track again.
The advice we received was to keep taking the left path. This worked most of the time!
About half way (at the top) is a Berber family. They will offer you tea. They can also point you in the right direction to complete the second half of the hike back to the car park.
The walk back down is a bit easier because there are some stone tower markers along this part of the walk.
When you reach the bottom, you can walk through the palmeraie to the entrance of the Gorge. Walk through the Gorge and you will come out back at the car park.
The walk should take about 3-4 hours. We did it in 4 hours with a few stops.
If you have time and are looking for another walk, you can also walk from Tinerhir to Todra Gorge through the palmeraie which is meant to be beautiful.
Back at the guest house we relaxed for a bit then went into Tinghir and visited the souk in the Jewish Quarter. Some of the shops were just opening up at about 5pm and you could see in the main town square near the post office that things were going to get more lively in the evening.
We picked up a couple of cheap Moroccan football kits for the boys. Our boys love football so they wore them straight away. We found that they got a lot of friendly smiles when people saw them.
Day 6 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
The drive from Tinghir (Todra Gorge) to Dades Gorge is around 70km and takes around 90 minutes.
Dades Gorge is another area of central Morocco that is perfect for hiking but we chose to have a more leisurely day.
We drove up through the Gorge from Boumaln du Dades and stopped for some swimming in the river at the Monkey Fingers.
Our reason for coming to Dades was to see one of the most dangerous roads in the world, with tight hairpin bends.
The drive itself is fine but you can see where people have come unstuck previously!
We stopped at the Café Restaurant Timzillite at the top of the winding road for an awesome panoramic view and a lovely fresh orange juice.
We chose La Perle du Dades for our next stay because we didn’t want a long drive.
They had a large family suite and lots of outdoor games for the kids including an oversized chess set, petanque and table tennis. There was also a large pool but it was really cold.
Dinner was OK but nothing to write home about. Breakfast was also just OK. There’s nothing else really in the area though so if you stay here, you will need to eat here.
It was often hard to find members of staff. It seemed like the guests were a bit of an afterthought.
In hindsight, we would have skipped La Perle du Dades and carried on to Skoura and to the beautiful L’ma Lodge (see below).
Day 7 – 7 day Morocco itinerary
After breakfast and some time by the pool, we headed to Skoura (75km / 1 hour). Skoura was then only 30 minutes from Ouarzazate airport.
Our aim was to visit the UNESCO protected palmeraie of Skoura but the riad we had chosen was just too special so we decided to just take it easy and enjoy their hospitality.
The gardens at L’ma Lodge are incredible with lots of little rest areas. There are also play areas for the kids, badminton, petanque and a tent filled with toys.
It is a beautiful oasis and the pool area is just perfect.
Dinner was made using ingredients picked from the garden that morning. The kids were well catered for with pizza and pasta (in case they didn’t want tagine).
The staff were so incredibly friendly. It was the perfect end to our 7 day Morocco itinerary.
We only wished that we had booked 2 nights there.
We hope you found this 7 day Morocco itinerary inspiring. Please drop us a line if you have any specific questions about travelling in this area.
