The Almond Road
6-Day Anti-Atlas Tour: Agadir to Marrakech
Six days in the Anti-Atlas, the range the circuit forgot
- 6 days · 5 nights
- Agadir → Marrakech
- About 20 hours over 6 days, none of it long. driving
The Anti-Atlas sits south of the High Atlas and gets a fraction of the visitors, mostly because it is not on the way to the Sahara. Tafraoute lies in a bowl of pink granite among almond groves; the Ameln valley strings twenty-odd villages along its flank; Tiznit and Taroudant have worked silver and clay for centuries. In February the almonds flower and the whole valley goes white. This is the trip for people who have already done the famous circuit, or who never wanted it, and it is one of the few routes where I can honestly promise you will not meet another tour.
Why I run it this wayOne of only two routes here that nobody else is selling. Pink granite, almond valleys and silver towns, all reachable on tarmac.
The things worth stopping for
- Taroudant's 16th-century ramparts, sometimes called Little Marrakech
- Tafraoute and the Ameln valley beneath the pink granite of Jebel Lekst
- The Painted Rocks, blue boulders set into the granite by a Belgian artist
- Ait Mansour gorge, a palm-filled canyon with rock engravings
- Taliouine, the centre of Moroccan saffron, and a growers' co-operative
- Almond blossom in February, argan harvest in summer
Where this trip takes you
Straight lines between stops, not the exact roads — the driving is the winding version of this.
How the trip goes
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Day 1: Agadir to Taroudant
Driving: About 2 hoursAirport pickup and inland through the Souss valley argan plains to Taroudant's ramparts. The souks are quiet, and known for Berber silver and terracotta.
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Day 2: Taroudant to Tafraoute
Driving: About 4 hoursClimbing through mountain passes lined with wild almond into the Ameln valley, under the granite peaks. Two nights here.
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Day 3: The Painted Rocks and the Ameln villages
Driving: About 1 hour localA full day without repacking. Walks between the stone villages built into the cliffs, and the Painted Rocks at the end of the day when the blue reads properly against the pink.
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Day 4: Tafraoute to Tata via Ait Mansour
Driving: About 4 hoursDown through the palm-filled canyon of Ait Mansour and past ancient rock engravings to the oasis town of Tata.
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Day 5: Tata to Taliouine to Ouarzazate
Driving: About 5 hoursNorth through Taliouine, the saffron capital, with a co-operative visit to see how the stigmas are separated by hand. On to Ouarzazate.
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Day 6: Ouarzazate to Marrakech
Driving: About 4 hoursThe Taourirt kasbah and the film studios if you want them, then Ait Ben Haddou and the Tichka into Marrakech.
I'll email you this itinerary — every day, what's included, what it costs — so you can think it over and share it.
One email with the itinerary. No account, and I don't pass your address to anyone — see the privacy policy.
What's included
Included
- Private van with me driving
- 5 nights in guesthouses, auberges and a riad
- Breakfast daily, 2 dinners
- Ameln valley village walks with a local guide
- Saffron and argan co-operative visits
- Agadir pickup, Marrakech drop-off
Not included
- Flights
- Most meals
- Entry fees
- Tips
Read more about where you'll be
A closer look
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Every route bends: more time somewhere, a different start, a night added. Send your dates and I'll plan it around you.