Day tour from Ouarzazate - Skoura - Valley of Roses - Dades Gorge - Dades Valley

• Departure from your hotel in Ouarzazate to head through the Dadès Valley, which divides the High Atlas and the Jbel Saghro mountains to the south.
• After about 30 mins we reach the Skoura oasis and visit the restored mud-built Kasbah Amerhdil, dating to the 17th century.

• From Skoura the road continues towards the town of Kelaa M’Gouna in the Dadès Valley.
• This is the centre of the region known as the “Valley of Roses” – perfect conditions for cultivation of the damascus rose.
• Fields of roses line the route from Kelaa M’Gouna to Boumalne du Dadès, and into the valleys that cut into the southern slopes of the Atlas Mountains from Kelaa M’Gouna to Boutharar.

• The area is filled with dried roses, perfumes, garlands, traditional Berber music, celebration, and pageantry.
• Throughout April and May, women from surrounding villages pick around 700 tons of rose petals.
• Rosewater, perfumes, cosmetics, soaps, and essential oils are produced from these petals.

• Take the small road winding high up to Boutharar, with panoramic views over the valley and terraced fields where roses bloom in spring.
• Off-road visit to Ait Atta nomads, living a tough pastoral existence in caves in the rock.
• Stop to share a glass of mint tea with a family and learn about their culture.

• Journey continues on rocky pistes to enter the Dadès Gorge.
• Along the route: kasbahs, adobe villages, palm groves, walnut, almond, fig, citrus, and pomegranate trees.
• Natural rock formations: eroded sandstone cliffs known as “the monkeys’ fingers”.
• Travel as far as the famous switchback bends of the Dadès Gorge route.
• Stop for lunch close to the water’s edge on route.

• Time to stretch the legs before returning directly to Ouarzazate via the Dadès Valley, or “Road of a Thousand Kasbahs”.
• Between Ouarzazate and Tineghrir and south towards Zagora in the Draa Valley, the so-called Route of a Thousand Kasbahs is lined with rust-red adobe fortresses:

1. Some inhabited
2. Some restored
3. Some dissolving into ruin

Return to Ouarzazate by around 6/7pm after an exhilarating and spectacularly beautiful day tour in the Southern Valleys and Oases of Morocco.