6 Days in Morocco: The Atlantic Coast and the Erg Chigaga Dunes

Leave Marrakech in the morning and head west across the Chiadma plains, where argan trees stand alone in dry fields and the air slowly turns to salt. Essaouira arrives in the afternoon: a walled town on the Atlantic with ramparts facing straight into the wind, a working fishing port full of blue boats, and a medina of white walls and blue shutters. The night is spent inside the walls.

The coast road south is one of the emptiest in Morocco. First Sidi Kaouki, a wide wild beach where kite-surfers work the steady Atlantic wind, then a long run above cliffs and dunes to Imsouane, a crescent bay where fishing boats sit in water so calm it looks like a lake. Taghazout comes in the late afternoon, a small surf village strung along the shore, in time to watch the sun drop into the ocean.

The shortest day of the trip, and deliberately so. A slow morning by the water at Taghazout, then a turn inland into the foothills to Paradise Valley, where a palm-lined gorge cuts between high cliffs and natural rock pools sit in the riverbed. The afternoon runs down to Agadir - a long sweeping bay, a modern marina, and the ruined hilltop kasbah with the whole coast laid out below.

The long day, and the one that changes the trip. East through the fertile Souss valley to Taroudant and its ochre ramparts, then up into Taliouine, the heart of the saffron country, where terraced fields climb the valley sides. Over the passes to Taznakht, a weaving town with hard desert light, and on to Foum Zguid - where the asphalt simply stops. From there the 4x4 turns onto open piste for the last run to Erg Chigaga, arriving in time for a camel ride into the dunes at sunset and dinner under the stars.

Wake for sunrise on the dunes, when the sand goes from grey to orange in about ten minutes and there is no sound at all. Breakfast at camp, then the crossing continues east to M Hamid El Ghizlane, the last village before the sand, where the Draa valley finally gives up. The road north follows the Draa through palm groves and kasbah villages to Ouarzazate, the desert gateway that has stood in for a dozen countries on film.

An early start to reach Ait Ben Haddou before the heat. The UNESCO-listed ksar rises above the Ounila valley in stacked earthen towers, and it is worth the climb to the granary at the top for the view back over the river. Then the long climb into the High Atlas and over the Tizi n Tichka pass at 2,260 metres, with the mountains falling away on both sides, before the descent into Marrakech and drop-off.