| Morocco Atlantic Coast and Mountains Tour | ||||||||||||||||||
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Southern Morocco Coast & Anti-Atlas Tour |
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8 days / 7 nights |
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Cultural Tours Handcrafted in Morocco
Tour summary
On this 8-day tour, you will discover the beauty of Morocco’s Southern Atlantic Coast and Anti-Atlas Mountains from bustling fishing ports to deserted beaches; action-packed resorts to fortified medinas and Berber hilltop villages. Perfect for families and people of all fitness levels, you can adapt this itinerary to be as high energy or relaxing as you wish. Starts in Marrakech, ends in Agadir or Marrakech (or vice versa).
Or call us now on +212 (0)615 647918 (Morocco) or +44 (0)208 123 7969 (UK)
Please note: All our Morocco tours can be customised to allow extra days for shorter daily car journeys, extra activities, relaxation days, exploration days etc. We can also adapt tours to connect with different start/end locations in Morocco. Let us know your wishes and we will build your perfect Morocco tour itinerary.
Price: Contact us for a personalised quotation.
Prices will vary according to number of people travelling in vehicle, number of days, time of year, category of accommodation chosen and activities requested.
NB Our Morocco tours are private tours organised upon request.
Day-to-day tour itinerary
Day 1
Marrakech - Essaouira
Meet & greet at MARRAKECH airport (or at your accommodation) and transfer to ESSAOUIRA on the Atlantic Coast. The road takes about 3 hours and passes through some bustling market towns as well as the start of Morocco’s unique argan forest. Argan trees only grow in this region of Morocco, nowhere else in the world, and the oil derived from the nuts is known for its beauty and culinary properties. Morning departures arrive in Essaouira in time for a fish lunch fresh off the quayside. Later departures will arrive in time to see the beautiful sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.
Stay: Traditional riad or boutique guesthouse
Meal plan: None
Day 2
Essaouira
The day is yours to spend as you wish. You may wish to take an optional half-day guided tour of Essaouira, when you will visit the port, medina, skala (fortified battlements) and the mellah (Jewish quarter) and learn about Essaouira’s heyday as Morocco’s main port, run by the Sultan’s Jewish traders. You might like to have a fish lunch near the port. In the afternoon, we can arrange activities and excursions. You may wish to relax at the beach or browse the shops of the medina. If you are feeling energetic, we can arrange quad biking, camel or horse riding or water sports instruction. A sunset camel, horse or quad bike ride around the Cap Sim promontory and the ruined Sultan’s Palace is not to be missed!
Stay: Riad in medina or guesthouse near beach
Meal plan: Breakfast
Day 3
Essaouira - Agadir - Mirleft
We leave Essaouira and drive 4 hrs south along the rugged Moroccan Atlantic seaboard to AGADIR. On the way, we pass Tamri and Aourir, famous for their banana plantations, Cap Rhir lighthouse and surfers’ hotspot, Taghazout. We will stop for lunch (not included) on the seafront at Morocco’s premier beach resort, AGADIR. Take your pick from fresh seafood and fish, traditional tajines or a range of international cuisines. After lunch, we continue our journey southward past the Souss Massa National Park, home to rare gazelles and migrating birds. We arrive in MIRLEFT in time for dinner. Mirleft is a quiet, seaside town offering dramatic local beaches and a real feeling of getting away from it all (especially if you visit outside the school holidays).
Stay: Boutique guesthouse near beach
Meal plan: Breakfast & dinner
Day 4
Mirleft
You can opt to spend the day at the pool or on the beach, or from Mirleft, we can organise a day excursion of Morocco’s untouched Southern Atlantic coast. With the car, we can make a morning’s excursion south to Sidi Ifni, to visit the town and see the quirky architecture of this former Spanish enclave. We would then return to Mirleft via lunch on the beach of Legzira, with its famous arched rock formations. We can spend the afternoon relaxing on this beach, or one of the other beautiful beaches in the area. It is also possible (with 48 hours notice) to arrange quad biking, horse riding and fishing.
Stay: Boutique guesthouse near beach
Meal plan: Breakfast & dinner
Day 5
Mirleft - Tiznit - Tafraoute
After a leisurely morning, we check out around noon and begin our journey across the Souss Valley and into the Anti Atlas Mountains region. Tiznit (around 1 hour’s drive) is a walled market town and is known as the centre of Morocco’s silversmithing industry. Most handcrafted pieces are made in the homes of artisans, so it is difficult to see production, but it is a good place to pick up locally-made pieces in Berber and Tuareg designs. We stop for lunch here (we suggest Restaurant Le Lieu) and a visit to the silver souk, before continuing our journey to Tafraoute (another 2-3 hours). Our journey passes through the fertile Souss Plains and agri-businesses of almond and olive orchards as well as beside terraced hillsides where family farmers have eked out a living from the land for generations. Our route passes over the spectacular Col du Kerdous, where we can stop for photos. If we are here at the right time, the sound of several mosques transmitting the call to prayer is like no other as the muezzins’ voices echo and reverberate around the valley. We arrive in time for dinner at the hotel.
Stay: Stay in a Kasbah-style auberge with pool
Meal plan: Breakfast & dinner
Day 6
Tafraoute Day Excursion
Today we take the car to explore and walk around the beautiful Tafraoute area and Ammln Valley. First of all we head into the hills overlooking the valley to Oumesnate village, with its unique ‘Maison Traditionnelle’ - a museum dedicated to traditional Anti-Atlas village life. We can drive to the village of Agard Oudad to visit past the Napoleon’s hat rock formation on our way out of town. Heading away from Tafraoute we climb through mountains where we see goat and sheep herders and small Berber villages on scrubby hillsides before descending down into the verdant cool of the canyons of Ait Mansour. We will hike through the canyons and have a picnic lunch on route before looping back to spend another night in Tafraoute. NB The Tafraoute area is well-known for rock climbing and bouldering. Enthusiasts may wish to add an additional 2-3 days, during which we can provided qualified English-speaking climbing guides and all equipment.
Stay: Stay in a Kasbah-style auberge with pool
Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch & dinner
Day 7
Tafraoute - Tardoudant
We leave TAFRAOUTE after breakfast for the journey to TAROUDANT, taking the road via Ait Baha. This is a spectacular drive passing abandoned villages and hilltop kasbahs. This is unforgiving, dry, land and you will see the prickly pear cactus and the spiny argan tree around the hills and valleys. The journey takes around 3-4 hours and we will take lunch on route. Taroudant, a former imperial city, is known as the ‘grandmother of Marrakech’. The rest of the afternoon is free for you to relax. You may wish to take a calèche (horse and carriage) around the city’s impressive walls as the sun sets. Dinner is served at your boutique guesthouse this evening.
Stay: Boutique guesthouse
Meal plan: Breakfast & dinner
Day 8
Taroudant - Marrakech (or Agadir)
Depending on flight departure times, this morning, can take a guided tour of the city, when you will learn about the history of Taroudant and visit the two souks (called the ‘Arab souk’ and the ‘Berber souk’, although both serve both client groups that live in the city!) and the tanneries. Taroudant is a pleasant walled town offering opportunities to see local life in action and to explore the souks. Here, we are on the Souss River, whose fertile flood plains provide fresh produce for the whole region. Many of the crafts you will see practiced in the souks are not providing trinkets for tourists, but rather agricultural implements and tools for local farmers. We suggest lunch in the medina before departure to Agadir (1.5 hours) or Marrakech (4 hours) airport. Early departures will require an additional overnight stay, which we can arrange. You can also choose to continue your holiday in Morocco with us by adding on one of our Suggested Morocco Adventure Tour Itineraries.
Stay: N/A
Meal plan: Breakfast