I was back in Morocco in November, having cut my trip short in September due to the Morocco earthquake. I rescheduled the tour I had planned through the country with Much Better Adventures and met my new group in mid-November in Casablanca.
From Casablanca, we drove north to Chefchaouen, the jewel of Morocco and the world famous blue city, for two nights. From there, it was onto Fez, home to the world’s oldest Medina. Fez is the second largest city in all of Morocco, and the furthest north we would venture on our country tour.
After Fez, it was time to head into the Moroccan Sahara Desert for a night in the sand under the stars. Not to be confused with the Western Sahara, south of Morocco, rather, the Sahara Desert in the east of the country, near the border with Algeria.
How to Get to Morocco's Sahara Desert
We traveled from Fez in our van as part of the group tour I was traveling Morocco with. We stopped in Ifran for an early breakfast before spending the whole day driving west. Somewhere along the way was a spot where Moroccan monkeys tend to hang out with - but please do not buy any of the food they try to sell you as these monkeys are wild and should not be human-fed.
From there, we stopped for a picnic lunch near Khenifra which, with its red rocks, felt much like Mars and we lazed about in the hot Moroccan sun while we snacked on watermelon and olives.
Finally, it was on to Merzouga, ten hours later, the gateway to Morocco's Sahara.
