Day Trip to Ait Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate

We leave Marrakech early and climb the High Atlas by the Tizi n Tichka pass, stopping at the viewpoints and in the Berber villages on the slope, where argan oil and minerals are sold at the roadside.

Coming down the southern side we turn off to Ait Ben Haddou. The ksar is a cluster of earthen houses on a hill above the Ounila river, listed by UNESCO in 1987 and used as a film location for decades. We cross the river and climb to the granary at the top, with the whole valley below. Lunch in the village.

In the afternoon we continue to Ouarzazate, where you can see the Taourirt kasbah, which belonged to the Glaoui family, or the film studios that made the town the desert set for half of Hollywood.

We take the Tichka back north in the late afternoon light and reach Marrakech in the evening.