Moroccan Road Trip

After our Sahara Desert adventure, our 2-night, 3-day tour continued on through the ever-changing landscapes of Morocco. We exited the desert and traveled through the Atlas Mountains once again.

We followed the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs, stopping at a few along the way. A kasbah in Arabic is the “central part of a town or citadel”, and in Morocco they are generally rich in history. We got a walking tour through a small town that ended at a rug shop with some famous Berber carpets. We then wound our way to Todra Gorge, a beautiful canyon known for some of the best rock climbing.

We passed through Dadès Valley which had equally astounding views and some traditional buildings.

We stopped many times for some photo ops – the views were spectacular everywhere we went.

We then entered the Hollywood of Morocco. We stayed overnight in the town of Ouarzazate, an area not far from several movie studios, the biggest being Atlast Studios. Our hotel was included in our trip – Hotel les Jardins De Ouarzazate. It wasn’t luxurious lodging but it was perfectly fine for a night after sleeping in a desert, and offered a delicious tagine dinner for our group. What we weren’t prepared for was that the water and electric were shut off at night – a bit of a shock when I woke up early to take a shower the next morning and had to wait for the water to be turned back on!

The following day we got to tour Atlas Studios and the leftover sets from Gladiator, The Mummy, and Jewel of the Nile. By acreage, Atlas is the largest studio in the world.

We then had a short ride to Ait-Ben-Haddou, a famous kasbah declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked through the famous ksar (a group of earthen buildings surrounded by high walls) and climbed upwards to the top of the hill where epic views awaited.

Traveling through the town as we climb to the top

Eventually we made it to the top and could see the whole ksar from above.

It was a very cool views, but I was excited to visit Ait-Ben-Haddou for a very different reason – it’s the filming location of Yunkai from Game of Thrones.

I was just waiting for Dany and her dragons to pop out at any second.

I also found this guy at the edge of the town, and he kindly posed for a picture for me.

Finally, at the end of our travels we reached our destination: Marrakech. This was the final stop on our trip through Morocco and I couldn’t wait to explore the famous city.