Desert Nomads will be your guides on this ultimate escape into a land of myth and legend. From desert dunes to mountain passes, magical Marrakech to medieval kasbahs. The Sahara To Marrakech, the perfect vacation for the explorer at heart.
Your Itinerary
Day 1:
Your trip begins at New York's JFK airport were you board the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc, for your flight to Casablanca.
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Day 2:
You land in Casablanca and transfer to a flight to Marrakech. Upon your arrival in Marrakech you'll be transferred from the airport to the 4-star Hotel Atlas Marrakech
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Day 3:
Breakfast at the hotel and an official guide will meet you for your escorted tour of the city. Your guide will show you around through the hustle and bustle, pointing out sites of interest and help you get the feel for the place. You're on your own for lunch, which in Marrakech is exciting, varied and easy to find. The rest of your stay in Marrakech is yours to do with as you please. If you want to escape the rush, the Garden Menara with its basin and olive groves set against the Atlas Mountains is about a 20 minute walk (or $2.00 cab ride) from the Djemaa el-Fna square. For the truly adventurous, go to the tanneries at the north gates of the city for an olfactory experience. You'll be on your own for dinner. While the hotel will offer fine meals, we highly recomend a trip into the excitement of the Djemaa el-Fna (gem alf-NA), a square filled with musicians, story tellers, snake charmers, dancers, and almost every variety of food to be found in Morocco at a cost lower than you can imagine.
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Day 4:
After breakfast at the hotel, you'll be taken south on an 8 hour drive to the Sahara. Your journey will take you up the High Atlas mountains and through the dramatic Tizi-n-Tichka Pass. You arrive in Ouarzazate for lunch, 4 hours after departing Marrakech. After lunch you embark on the 4 hour drive the the Sahara, you'll pass through the Tizi-n-Tinifft Pass and down the Draa Valley with its palmeraies, Kasbahs, and small towns.
Upon your arrival at the Hotel Sahara (a former French Foreign Legion Barracks) in M'Hamid, you will be given an opportunity to relax, refresh and repack for the desert trek before dinner. After dinner at the hotel, you will be taken by Land Rover to a camp on the edge of the desert where you will spend the evening and night. You can sleep in a nomad tent or on the dunes if you so chose.
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Day 5:
Early in the morning the camels that you will be taking into the desert will arrive. After breakfast you and your guide will start the journey. If you want to try something new, ask your guide for instruction on how to drive your own camel. If you don't feel up to it yet, you can leave the driving to your guide. You'll be given opportunities to stop and relax on the way. At lunch, you'll enjoy a fresh meal and a well deserved rest before continuing on. As the sun begins to set, your guide will make camp and prepare dinner. Your night will be spent sleeping under the expansive desert sky with only the sound of an occasional jackal in the distance and a scarab shuffling across the sand.
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Day 6:
You'll awake and have breakfast before the camels are loaded and your journey into the desert continues. After a half day of camel riding, you'll stop for lunch and be picked up by the Land Rover that will take you deeper into the desert. The drive will take you over desert pistes (almost invisible tracks in the sand), past nomadic tents, wild camels and into a sea of sand and tall dunes. Dinner will be prepared fresh while you explore the over 300' tall dunes. Your night will be spent sleeping under the stars.
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Day 7:
After breakfast, you'll begin your trek back to M'Hamid with a stop at a lush oasis on the way. A babbling spring of crystal clear (but not potable to us) water gushes out of the ground to support desert men, beasts and frogs. You'll arrive back at the Hotel Sahara in M'Hamid in time for lunch. After a break to refresh, a guide will take you into the Kasbah for a rare look inside a disappearing way of life. We ask that you leave your cameras at the hotel when venturing into the Kasbah. The inhabitants much prefer that you "create memories rather than pictures." After your tour of the desert and Kasbah, your driver will take you north to Ouarzazate where you'll spend the night in the 4-star Hotel Belere.
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Day 8:
You are transferred to the Ouarzazate airport early in the morning for your flight departing Ouarzazate and arriving Casablanca. In Casablanca you'll board a trans-Atlantic flight (bound for Montreal /New York on the status boards) and land in New York in the early afternoon.
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Notes:
Airfare is included in the tour price.
4 departures every week, all year round
January 6 - March 21, September 15 - December 14: $1376
March 22 - May 31, September 1 - September 14, December 15 - January 5: $1451
June 1- August 31: $1614
Also see tour packages in:
Africa
Morocco
Desert Expeditions
Camel Riding
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