Morocco Nov 2025

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

Thanks for the trip report! I would love to get to Morocco one of these days and I look forward to reading the rest of it!

Part 2, sorry for the delay, first time poster problems :)

Along the drive to Tinghir, we saw khettaras, ancient water wells.

One of the downsides of travelling independently is sometimes we have no idea what we’re seeing and read about it afterwards. That’s one of these times. As soon as we parked on the side of the road to investigate, 3-4 people ran up to our car, all talking at once, to try to sell us stuff (trinkets, tours to the underground wells, bottled water).

The hike in the Todra Gorge was indeed medium difficulty, good to better fitness level definitely required. The hike is not required to experience the beauty of the gorge. The valley is striking, sheer cliffs with a narrow road running through it with a river (with water still flowing).

Hiking in the Dades Gorge to see the Monkey Fingers is doable in various ways (easy to hard difficulties, short to long hikes, independent and guided); we did easy and short and independent because of timing, and felt completely satisfied with the small amount that we were able to see.

It is here we drove through one of the most famous Moroccan mountains passes, Tizi n’Test pass. Completely knuckle gripped and worth it! It is likely this switchback that you have seen a photo of, it’s in all the guidebooks. The cafe at the top is a perfect stop for selfies and a bathroom break.

Next stop: Desert camping in Erg Chebbi

We drove to Merzouga, met our accommodation pickup, then spent 2 nights in the desert amongst incredible dunes. It rained! Once a year apparently.

The tents were very solid; metal framed, laminate flooring, ensuite bathroom, 2 metal framed windows. It was inclusive of breakfast and dinner, we also requested lunch while there which was an extra 12€ pp.

Evenings at the camp had camp fires, music, looking at the stars. The Milky Way was completely visible! The staff were excellent and completely accommodating.

Sara and Ali Desert Camp - recommended on this forum.

The only organized “tour” we did on the trip with a guide, a 2-hour sunrise dune buggy tour (in a side by side 4x4) complete with helmets. Highly recommend! There are also many options for camel tours (just not our thing).

Next stop: Agdz towards Taroudant through the Tizi-n-Tinififft pass and the Drâa-Tafilalet region

This was one of our longest driving days, approximately 500 km. Many switchbacks and high mountain views! It was awesome!

We stayed at Dar Jnane in Agdz for one night which is quite literally in the palmarais, and the simplest of our stays.

The walk in the palmarais was interesting and lovely, but the sun was already starting to go down so most of the farmers had packed up for the day. The Riad was clean and comfortable, the dinner at the Riad was good albeit a little more creative than we’d experienced up until that point (chicken tagine with angel hair) but still tasty, and the breakfast was primarily breads and jams.

Part 3:

Next stop: Taroudant
Another one night stop. We stayed at Riad Palais Oumensour, beautiful Riad, excellent breakfast, terrible staff.

We had supper at Riad Myriam, which was excellent with very traditional Moroccan decor, and many courses for dinner!

We didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town except for a quick walk through the Medina, it didn’t seem very touristy, and an evening walk through the souks that was fun.

We explored the both the Arab souks and the Berber souks, and they were both lovely.

Towards Taroudant, we stopped at a Women’s Rug Cooperative in Taznakht, Association Iklane, where we got a tour and met some of the women artists, which was lovely, and bought 3 rugs.

Final destination: Essouaira

We drove along the Atlantic coast through Agadir to Essaouira, stayed at Riad Chbanate, the best of our stay.

We visited the Medina and ramparts, watched the sunset right into Atlantic Ocean, enjoyed the beach, the very relaxed atmosphere of the souks, went to Diabat walked on the big sand dunes, explored the ancient ruined castle there, people and camel watched. Essaouira is a very relaxed place.

General travel observations:

• The scenery was breathtaking. That doesn’t even describe it. Each section of the trip provided a completely different landscape from just a few hundred kilometres previously. As Canadians, we have driven through our country (and a lot of the US) and know that scenery can be the same for miles. Not here. Arid, every colour shape size of rock, and palmarais with heavy-laden date palms never far away.
• One new to me thing was how much business is done through WhatsApp. And I’m not even old! 😂
• Driving is chaotic but everyone seems to know what’s going on. And everyone seems to use their horn as a language.
• Driving speed limits are enforced. Motorcycles, scooters, bicycles drive mostly on the shoulders but can be pretty much anywhere on the roadway in any direction. Same goes for pedestrians. That includes on the highways.
• Nearly everyone wants to sell you something. A simple no thank you/non merci works perfectly fine.
• Hitchhiking is very common. As is flagging down cars to sell. Including on the highway/Route Nationale.
• Car parks are almost always monitored by a guy (always a guy). Even if it’s free, in the middle of nowhere. A coin or two is sufficient.
• Usually any kind of “official” ID card on a lanyard worn by a guy (almost always certainly a guy) is fake. A simple no thank you/parking is free/waving off/walking off did the trick.
• There are police everywhere. There are police checkpoint roadstops everywhere. Especially at roundabouts coming into towns. They stop some cars, they wave others through. Apparently there is a lot of unregistered cars, hence the checkpoints.

Thanks for reading!

Thank you! I'm headed over in April, so I'm bookmarking this report :)