La route de Skoura

The Tizi n'Tichka crosses the High Atlas at 2,260 meters, and the country on the far side is a different Morocco: rammed earth instead of brick, ochre instead of rose, distances that open out. You drive it in the morning and are in Skoura by late afternoon.

Two nights at Dar Ahlam, an earthen kasbah set inside the palmeraie. There is no menu and no fixed schedule. Meals appear wherever the staff have set the table that evening, and the middle day is yours: the Valley of Roses, the granaries of Kasbah Amridil, or nothing at all.

On the way back you stop at Ait Ben Haddou and walk up through the ksar to the agadir at the top, then recross the pass into Marrakech. This suits travelers with three days and an appetite for driving, and it is the shortest honest way to reach the pre-Sahara.