6 Day Mini Mountain & Desert | Guided Off-road Motorcycle Tour in Morocco
Spectacular Motorcycle Tour Morocco
Embark on a superb riding experience, nearly 90% off-road. The spectacular tracks combine with dramatic mountain landscapes and awesome desert views. Beautiful winding trails, gorges, rocky climbs, and some big wash-outs await you! Climb to 2500 meters high mountain passes which open up to sweeping panoramas, and discover isolated mountain villages. Traverse river crossings, sandy rivers, and vast dry desert lake beds, and on the night in the bivouac, enjoy a soulful moment and a beer on the top of the dunes as the sun goes down. Later a campfire with local musicians, good food, and refreshing drinks.
Key information
- Bike: rental (KTM 450 EXC bikes)
- Terrain: mix of nearly 90% off-road and 10% asphalt
- Mileage: 840 kilometers / 522 miles
- Daily rides: 170 to 250 kilometers / 106 to 155 miles
- Riding gear: not included: body, knee, and elbow protections
- Meals: all meals included
Meet the instructors
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Highlights
- Desert bivouac
- Tour starts and ends in Ouarzazate
- Ascend 2,500-meter mountain passes
- Daily tasty breakfast, picnic lunch, and dinner
- Bike on old Dakar trails and ride the dunes
- KTM 450 EXC motorcycles included
- Ouarzazate airport transfers
- 5 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Accommodation
During this motorcycle tour, you will stay at twin-share rooms in excellent accommodations and a desert bivouac. Moto Aventures uses a selection of three and four-star hotels, most styled on the old kasbahs or fortified houses. On at least one night, the accommodation will be in an original kasbah that has been totally renovated and conditioned to be a hotel.
Most of the hotels have swimming pools but they are normally cold! A highlight of the off-road adventure is the night in the desert bivouac, 90 kilometers from the tarmac. After a good meal, you will sit around the campfire and listen to some local musicians.
You will stay in Ouarzazate on nights one and five.
Relax in N'Kob on night two.
Unwind in Ouzina on night three.
Have a well-earned rest in Dades on night four.
Program
Day 1: Arrival day in Ouarzazate
You will arrive at Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ) and have a short transfer to a three-star hotel in town.
Day 2: Ouarzazate to N'Kob (approximately 230 kilometers / 143 miles)
A very pleasant day’s biking will give you time to get accustomed to your bike and the terrain. After breakfast and about six kilometers on the road, you will head first in a north-easterly direction on sweeping trails across the local military range. Leaving the plateau we go down into the dry riverbeds and gorges on the fringe of the High Atlas.
The road is predominantly hard packed soil interspersed with some short rocky sections, river crossings, and small villages. There are some long sections of undulating trail, twisting through the hills with not a rock in sight. After 100 kilometers, you will turn south-eastwards after a picnic lunch which is taken somewhere on the trail.
You will wind your way down through the Anti-Atlas Mountains, to the town of Agdz. A quick refueling and coffee stop, then the trip will take you to 30 kilometers off-road again through palmeraie hugging the River Draa before you hit the asphalt. There, you will head due east for 22 kilometers on the road. You will take a stop at the night’s accommodation in the village of N’Kob. In the evening, you will be staying in a 200-year-old converted kasbah.
Day 3: N'Kob to Ouzina desert bivouac (approximately 250 kilometers / 155 miles)
After breakfast, you will head south from the hotel toward your destination for the night, the desert jaima. Super-fast twisting tracks and riverbeds will eventually lead you onto the enormous dry lakebed of Lake Maider and to a small auberge where you will stop for a drink.
From there, you will bike through fesh-fesh, or bulldust, and wind your way through sandy and dry riverbeds to where you refill in Remlia. You will travel a final 20 kilometers through dunes to the night’s stop at the desert bivouac with hot showers. It is situated close to a large area of middle-sized dunes.
In the late afternoon or early evening, once the sand has cooled down, you will all grab a beer and bike to the top of the dunes to watch the sunset. Dinner will be in the jaima. Then, you will all sit around a campfire with local musicians playing for you.
Day 4: Ouzina desert bivouac to Dades (approximately 170 kilometers / 106 miles)
You will leave the bivouac after breakfast, traversing back through the dunes to Remlia where you will refuel. Turning north, you will pass through another section of fesh-fesh, stop for a drink at a local desert auberge in a gorge, and then continue on to very fast tracks, across a never-ending dry lake bed and along winding sandy trails and riverbeds.
You will refuel from the four-by-four somewhere out there and then head on to the village of Al Nif where you will have lunch in a local cafe and refuel again. By then, you will have left the desert. Continuing on the northerly route, you will cross the Jbel Saghro Mountains on twisting trails with dramatic rock formations and amazing scenery.
You will drive through long drop-offs down into the rocky valleys until you come out onto the plateau. That will lead you to the next night’s accommodation in a four-star hotel with a very unique design, a cold pool with a hot Jacuzzi on the roof, and an excellent buffet meal. On arrival, you can arrange to have a massage, sauna, or hammam to remove any aches caused by the day’s long ride.
Day 5: Dades to Ouarzazate (approximately 190 kilometers / 118 miles)
After breakfast, you will refuel and head up the Dades Gorge, off in an easterly direction following the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. You will ride through undulating and fast sections interspersed with rocky trails through major washouts and gullies. You will then be brought out onto a plateau. Picnic lunch will be served somewhere up on the plateau.
You will experience several river crossings followed by trails winding their way down into beautiful river gorges before the final 20 kilometers of fast tracks across a flat plateau, bringing you back to Ouarzazate. You will drop the bikes at the garage and the mechanic, Hussein, will check them over together for damages. Thereafter, you will hit the bar, have a well-deserved drink, and remember all the adventures you have had.
Day 6: Departure day
You will be transferred back to Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ) on day six.
Skill level required:
Intermediate
- can ride for three to four hours
- average riding experience
- little assistance required
- comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- average experience with unsurfaced roads
- steep ascents and descents
Advanced
- can ride for five to six hours
- extensive riding experience
- assistance on demand (if required)
- experienced with riding a variety of motorcycles
- comfortable with any terrain and weather conditions
Instructors
John Griffiths "Johnnymaroc"
JohnnyMaroc as he is known in the bike world, was born in Tanzania. He worked for the 16 years prior to Moto Aventures in the oil-related diving business before biking solo from London to Cape Town. He has hyperbaric medical training and experience from his years working offshore as well as his Wilderness Medical Certificate, and safety on our tours is one of his main concerns. John is also responsible for track finding and checking, plotting the routes for the GPS and together with Su, setting up the logistics for our tours. He is a very experienced off-road rider.
Su Downham
Su has lived in Andorra for over 30 years and speaks English, Spanish, Catalan, and French fluently. She with John are co-owners of the company and she has considerable experience in tourism and PR, as well as having run her own estate agency and building company in Andorra before Moto Aventures began. Responsible for the admin and legal side of the company, finding and booking tour accommodations, etc., and generally making sure that all aspects of our tours run smoothly and efficiently. She organizes all the logistics and drives support for all our BMW adventure biking tours.
Martine Goldenbeld
Having been brought up on a charter sailing ship in the Netherlands, means tourism, hospitality and adventure are in her bones. After working as a hospitality manager, safari camp manager and lodge manager in several African countries she started working for MotoAventures in 2020. With her offshore Medical First Aid and Medical Care certificate she is good to go! She is responsible for driving the assistance vehicle on most off-road tours, for the ‘on ground’ smooth running of the off-road tours and the well-being of our guests. She has also added Dutch and German to our team’s languages.
Location
This motorcycle tour will take place in Ouarzazate, the Atlas Mountains, N'Kob, Ouzina, and Dades Gorge in Morocco. The tour will start and end in Ouarzazate.
Food
During this motorcycle tour, breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided daily. Half-board meals will be served at your accommodations as well as picnic or cafe lunches when you are on the go. Drinking water during the day’s biking will be carried in the four-by-four.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
- Other dietary requirements on request
Things to do (optional)
You can pamper yourself with a massage, sauna, or hammam.
What's included
- KTM 450 EXC bikes
- 5 nights accommodation
- Third party insurance
- All fuel
- GPS (with each day’s route installed)
- MX shirt and trousers
- Transfers from and to Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ)
- Daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Drinking water during the day’s biking
- Support vehicle equipped with a fridge, compressor, large first aid box, medical equipment, satellite phone, and GPS
- Services of a driver and mechanic
What's not included
- Return flights
- Medical insurance with repatriation (obligatory)
- Riding gear
- 700€ returnable deposit against the bike and/or GPS damage
- Personal expenses
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Ouarzazate Airport
2 km
Transfer included
Arrival by airplane
Most of our riders choose to go via Marrakech airport and we then organise a road transfer over the High Atlas to Ouarzazate. The transfer bus normally leaves the airport around 14.00 on the first tour date and on the last day if you are flying, don't book a flight before 15.30 to allow transfer and check-in time. Cost of this is dependent on how many join the transfer. Alternatively you can book your flight to arrive at Ouarzazate Airport (OZZ). Transfer from and to this airport is included.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 30% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 60 days before arrival.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through Tripaneer.com. All major credit cards supported.